50 States Challenge, and Items Needed for September 20

Happy September everyone! It’s our anniversary month, and we have a lot going on! Here’s our monthly traffic light shopping guide, but first we have a few announcements & updates.

The 50 States Challenge is still going strong! We’ll be collecting donations from all over the U.S. & happily coloring in our map until the end of the month. Spread the word! Call your out-of-state BFF! Share our Facebook & Twitter posts – tag your friends & family!
So far, we’ve gotten donations from seven states! Thank you so much! If you’ve sent in a donation, but don’t see your state colored in, please let us know.
If you’d like to donate & have your state colored in, check out our Amazon wish list. They’ll ship your donation directly to us.

**IMPORTANT** If you send us an order from Amazon please add what state you are from in the “Gift Message” section when you check out.  Amazon does NOT show us any of your information (even if your donation isn’t anonymous), so if you don’t add your state, we won’t know which state to color in!  If you are unable to add a gift message for some reason, please email our donations coordinator at atxahhdonations@gmail.com.  Please let her know which state to color in and what’s in your order (for our internal tracking purposes).

Speaking of our 6th anniversary, the ATXAHH Beyond the Basics group is making surprise goodie bags for this month’s giveaway! We put all kinds of things inside – candy, gum, crossword or word search puzzles (and a pen!), playing cards, crackers & peanut butter. Then we decorate them with stickers, uplifting sayings, jokes, and sometimes we get our kiddos to draw pictures! We would love to have enough bags for everyone – if you can make some, please drop them off at the giveaway or email atxahhdonations@gmail.com to schedule a pick up.

Do you like to knit or crochet? Would you like to learn? The ATXAHH Gettin’ Knotty group is collecting hats & scarves for the cold weather months! Last year, the handmade cold weather gear went like hotcakes at our giveaways – let’s get ahead while it’s still warm! If you’d like to make some hats, scarves, or washcloths, come by our GK group meetup! We’ll be meeting on Thursday, September 17, in the cafe area of the Barnes & Noble in the Arboretum. We craft & chat from 7 PM to 10 PM – come when you can, leave when you must! If you can’t make the meetup but still want to donate some handmade love, drop them off at our giveaway, or email us to schedule a pick up.

To our volunteers (new & well-seasoned!): The sign-in table worked well last month, so we are asking that volunteers please sign in at the giveaways. We’re trying to keep track of who’s new & who’s not, and send updates via email to our regular crew. We respect your privacy – we will not share your info with anyone.

Feminine Hygiene Products – Pads & tampons (all kinds), pantyliners, feminine wipes

Chapstick

Soap/Body wash

Nail clippers

Lotion

Combs/brushes

Toilet paper

Men’s socks

Conditioner

Razors

Notepads & pens

Hair elastics

Kleenex

Emergency blankets
Hand sanitizer
Men’s underwear

Deodorant

Cotton balls & q-tips

Sunscreen  

Bug wipes/spray

Dental products – toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss/floss picks – we especially need toothbrushes & toothpaste!

Shampoo

Women’s socks 

Women’s underwear

First aid kits

Body wipes

We still need bunches of plastic bags! We go through a lot of them at the giveaway, but we’d also like some extras to make plarn. Plarn is plastic yarn that can be made out of strips of plastic bags. The ATXAHH Gettin’ Knotty group is planning to crochet the plarn into sleeping mats that are soft, durable, & water resistant, which is especially important for the people who sleep outdoors/on the ground.

We ask that the bags not have a lot of holes in the sides, since that is the part that’s used for the plarn. Holes in the bottoms of the bags are OK, since they are not used. Thank you!