donations

I believe in Christmas Miracles

by Stacy on December 22, 2009

Benson_Claire

Benson and Claire were born with a rare genetic disease which effects their liver and causes their body to destroy itself. Claire, the youngest sibling, has had kidney failure since she was 2 months old and been on almost constant {up to 15 hrs a day} dialysis since she was 3 months old. Their parents started a blog chronicling their journey and raising money for the transplants BOTH of their children will eventually need. Claire has been on the waiting list for a combined kidney/liver transplant and I have been following her story:

Give Hope to Benson and Claire

It’s only been a few weeks since I first found their website, but I was deeply touched by the strength of these parents and amazing children impressed me to the point I felt I had to do something, anything to make their life a little easier.

I try to keep up with their story but since I had family coming to town, I missed a few days of blogging. Imagine my surprise when I visited their site this weekend and found out Claire has had major surgery ~ a double transplant (kidney & liver). She’s still recovering, but doing quite well. Talk about a Christmas Miracle. God Bless this family, I wish them Peace and Joy and a wonderful Christmas with both of their children.

Now, here’s the part where I tell you what we can do to help this amazing family. I was shocked to hear an organ transplant can cost over $500,000 {and this family needs two of them}!! Thankfully, they have friends who organize auctions raising money for their cause – I’ll start announcing each of these auctions on KSW from now on so we can contribute and score some awesome goodies for ourselves {The next auction will be held from 4 -15 Jan, if you would like to donate an item to be auctioned, contact Shannon from Shannon Makes Stuff at stakeresensations@gmail.com} but you can also make a monetary donation by visiting Benson & Claire’s online donation site.

READ ALL ABOUT THEM HERE AND FOLLOW THEIR STORY HERE

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Item #2- A time for HOPE

by Stacy on August 28, 2008

Our second item up for bids is a darling necklace handmade by Jennifer of The Vintage Chain.

Peace necklace

The actual piece necklace up for bids is similar to this one, only will have the word HOPE stamped in place of the PEACE as shown here. The winning bidder can choose a red or a blue accent as they wish. Red is shown above, blue is shown here.

Blue Stone

We designed this piece especially for Nie Nie and again, we feel she would really enjoy it.

Just to review, the bidder is bidding on a teardrop silver pendant with the word HOPE stamped on it, they may choose a red or a blue accent piece.

Bidding starts at $5, each bid shows our love and support to the Nielson Family.
Official Rules Here

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Nie Nie Day!

by Stacy on August 24, 2008

It’s Official, August 29th is Nie Nie Day. How stoked will Steph be when she finds out she has her very own day of the year?

The fabulous Gabriel over at DesignMom has decided to organize an evolutionary web event for the Nielson Family. We were so inspired we’ve decided to jump on board and do everything we can to help. If it wasn’t for the NieNie Dialogues, we never would have made our physical leap into the blogging world.

Here’s the excerpt taken from her site explaining what you can do to help:

1) Host a silent auction* on your own blog. For sure you have something awesome hanging around your house — in your gift closet, under the bed, in the pantry. Auction it off already. And relieve your house of clutter at the same time. Or. You could contact your buddy who’s an etsy seller and see if she’ll donate one of her fabulous creations. Just think how fun it will be if there are a whole bunch of auctions happening in honor of Stephanie and Christian at the same time!

2) Not up for hosting an auction? Then how about writing a special post on Nie Nie Day. You could include a link to your favorite article on Stephanie’s blog in celebration.

3) Spread the word via twitter or blog or email or facebook about Nie Nie Day so that more people can get involved. You can use the cute banner above — designed for Stephanie’s blog by the talented Lyndsay of Banners by Lyndsay.

4) Send a card to Stephanie and Christian. There’s just something about putting pen to paper.

Send cards, pictures, etc. to:

c/o Stephanie and Christian Nielson
Maricopa County Hospital
2601 East Roosevelt Street
Phoenix, AZ 85008

5) Get spendy. And have fun bidding on some silent auctions.

How will anyone know you’re participating? That you’re hosting a super-cool auction? Problem solved: on Thursday Gabrielle will write a post about Nie Nie Day. She’ll include a list of anybody that’s celebrating. Just send her a link to your post or auction (or mention on your facebook page or tweet or whatever) and she’ll add your link to her Nie Nie Day post at Design Mom. The best part, we can all visit each other’s sites and share the love. How’s that sound?

It’s like the internet was born for stuff like this.

~ Taken straight from the Design Mom post

So what are we going to do? Well, first we’re going to find something super awesome to feature on the Kids Stuff World silent auction. Then, we’re going to feature some of NieNie’s amazing posts (something we always wanted to do anyway) and cultivate as much traffic as we can for the event. Lastly, Kids Stuff World will send its very own donation (separate from the silent auction) to the Nie Nie paypal fund.