As you can probably tell, things have been delightfully hectic here in Starfish-land. We cannot wait to update you about everything, but right now we'll stick to the gift bags. Thank you to: Crystal Teamer, the family of CPD Sgt M.B. Smith 5280, Jonathan Chamberlain, Katherine Urquhart, Lisa Penzenstadler, Sheri Race, Secret Santa :), Stephanie and Chris Smith, and Stephanie Reffitt for your donations from our Amazon Wish List. We didn't unpack everything, but it all arrived safe and sound and you will see photos of your items in action tomorrow, because tomorrow is the gift bag stuffing event! We're so excited!
The officers and staff of the Columbus Division of Police Professional Standards Bureau have very kindly supported Starfish in a number of ways on a few projects, and we had to smile at how precisely they labelled the boxes they dropped off for the gift bags. Don't you love it? Thank you all for your generosity. You've been amazing, and we really appreciate you!
Two different donors are giving us brand new Build-A-Bears for the officers to hand out to kids. We'll have about 28 of those! We'll get pictures tomorrow.
Dr. Anthony Lordo DDS donated a bunch of toothbrushes and toothpaste for our bags and used the opportunity to have his patient (and our beloved board member) Ofc Pete Casuccio (5 Pct, South Linden) get his check up. Way to go, Doc! Thank you!
Last night we took inventory of everything we had and used the gift cards that Target Columbus NW (Dublin, OH) donated to us to help fill in gaps that we identified and to get things like extra tissue paper and big gift bags for the Build-A-Bears. Thank you, Target!
The FOP Capital City Lodge #9 gave us a generous donation that we'll use towards first aid kits that didn't arrive on time, the cost of the ducks for the kids bags, and flashlights for the adults.
We used your donations to cover things like socks for the homeless (we somehow miscalculated by 52 pairs!). We also found really soft and warm microfiber hoods at Kohl's that were originally $18, but were just $7 each after discounts. We bought 20 of those for the officers to hand out to the homeless.
We really hope this project is warming your hearts as much as it is ours. It's so beautiful to see so many people come together on a project like this. 💙
