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collsbaby
	Age: 31 Country: USA Province/region: So Cal City: Partner: My wonderful husband, Todd Children: Yes, 1 Pregnant: Yes Due date: 08 Oct ,2010 Occupation: Pilates Instructor/Writer/SAHM
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11-9-2008 - Sept. 11th, Oprah, The Pajama Program and needy children

My mood while writing this blog:
Ok

First off, I have to say, I never send things out like this because I hate getting stuff like this, but I think this is an important subject...especially for today, September 11th. What better way to honor New York, especially their needy children.

If you watch Oprah as religiously as I do, you have probably seen the episode about the Pajama Program. The lady who lives in New York and started a non-profit of donating pajamas to needy children in orphanages and foster homes in New York. Her program grew and she now has facilities all around the world. Well, right now is their "Danger Season" because it's so cold in NY and so many homeless and parentless children in orphanages and shelters have no warm pajamas to wear at night, so most of them wear the clothes that had on that day, making them very cold at night, unable to sleep. On the show, they did a fun "pay-it-forward" type of thing to see just how many pairs of pj's they could bring in. Well, it brought in over 35, 000 pairs of pajamas! She said it took months to deliver everything, but every last pair went to a needy child...but sadly, they still needed more!

This program donates pajamas and books to these children. The lady who started the program is Genevieve Piturro. I met her and her husband in Hawaii. I made a donation to the program after seeing it on the Oprah Show last year and I wrote a note along with my donation. She answered me back saying that her and her husband were coming to Hawaii and could we meet for dinner? I was very excited because I had never met anyone who had been on Oprah before! (She said it was very surreal, as you can imagine!)

I talked to Genevieve at length about the program. Unfortunately, in this world I have become hesitant to donate to such causes. I am strongly opposed to organizations like "Team in Training", because through personal experience I have learned that a very, very small fraction of the donations actually go to the cause. But of course, they make you think otherwise. Pajama Program is totally different. Genevieve herself delivers the brand new pajamas and books that have been donated, to the actual children who need them. (The program has grown so huge now that she has people who help!) But everything goes to the children. When people donate money, it is spent on books and pajamas needed. When people donate (Brand new only) pajamas and books, they are taken to the appropriate child in need. The child gets a pair of brand new jammies (probably the only pair they have ever had in their life), and they get a brand new book to keep and it is size and age appropriate. So a kid who is 11 doesn't get a book about Bob The Builder and Nemo jammies. He actually gets to CHOOSE what he wants! They also have children who are well into their teens (who grow up in foster care) who need bigger, adult sizes, so these are bought for them. A 17 year old girl doesn't want to been seen in Princess Jammies even if they are free! This is all taken into consideration when the donation is made.

Anyway, I feel very strongly about it, especially after meeting Gen and her husband Demo last June. They are awesome people and I feel very good about their cause. I know it's going to the right place. And that is the important part.

Below is a link to the site. If you decide to make a donation, please tell her that I sent you. I told her that I was going to send out an e mail to my friends and family as well as post a thing about it here. I'd love to see how many people we can get to help!

http://pajamaprogram.org

Tell her (Todd &) Colleen C. from Kauai (Hawaii) sent you!
Thank you!!
And please take a moment of silence to remember September 11th. A lot of children lost their parents that day.

Thank you for reading this!
~*Collsbaby

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