Rainbow Comfort Pack happiness!

I went to Eltham this morning to give out some Rainbow Comfort Packs to some under 2's!
It was my first time seeing the delightful faces of little ones (and their mums) when they opened their very own pack of goodies..... so heart warming, that I had to take a couple of photos to show you how you've touched so many in this thoughtful way!

A mum from Kinglake, who lost everything in the recent fires, took it upon herself to organise this meeting with her own mother's group. There were 10 packs in total (8 for 16 to 19 month old toddlers and 2 for 5 week old babies).
There are 8 families in the group. 5 lost their homes and 3 were fortunate to have theirs spared (but think how it would be to live amongst what was left and the clean up afterwards too, it would be very hard). Most have found somewhere else to live for the moment and contemplate future plans.
I found I knew 1 of the families in this group, but have not had contact with them since early on and through this family, had met some of the other mums too! Plus a couple of mums were customers of bpab! How special is that!

My little ones also got to see who got some of these 'mysterious' bags of fun! I took the opportunity to tell Chai (4) that these are some of the kids that have no toys because of the fire..... I've been telling her about it for so long (every time another donation package gets opened and we inspect the goods inside). I think she gets it....

Anyway, this mum's group want to say THANK YOU to you for bringing some magic into their children's lives at this time. It really does mean a lot.

First lot of Rainbow Comfort Packs head to Kinglake!

Yesterday afternoon I got a call from the Dept. of Planning and Community Development (we're on their database) asking us to organise packs for the children in the Kinglake area.
There are a couple of portables that have been set up in the town and they need some things for the children there.
Sooooo, 102 Rainbow Comfort Packs are on their way to Kinglake!

We packed up a selection for each age group and gender, ranging from baby to teens.
Here are the packs, in age groups and gender, in giant brown paper bags.........
(sorry I forgot to take shots of the actual bags until after they were all packed up!! Next time!)

That's only half of them.... I think it's the boys on the couch and the girls were on the floor!

We were told it was still a no go zone in the Kinglake area, so I drove the packs to the Box Hill Dept. of Human Services, where two lovely ladies from DPCD (Rebecca and Suzette) are overseeing operations in this area using a small office based here. The packs will be off tomorrow morning to Kinglake.


No people in these photos, because if we were to get everyone involved in this amazing experience, we wouldn't be able to fit you all into the frame! Or we'd have dozens upon dozens of shots to upload and I'm not too sure blogger would cope!!

This is just the start. There is still so many more bags to get out in the coming months, so if you think you would love to contribute but have missed the boat - YOU HAVEN'T. Actually there is no boat.... so please keep sewing and crafting and donating.
You made this happen.