April McCrumb and the crew at Catching Fireflies are ushering in the sunny days of May by spreading a little sunshine and a taste of home to our hardworking military troops overseas.
May is National Military Appreciation Month, so April thought it was the perfect time to support our troops by working with the anysoldier.com website.
"I've sent out a few personal packages through this organization a couple years ago and found it to be very rewarding," wrote April, answering a few questions I emailed her about her latest community service project.
April says that anyone could send packages through the anysoldier.com website, but she hopes that organizing a collection as a group project encourages more participation by making it easy to contribute and see the items sent to the soldiers.
April plans to "adopt" a number troops by teaming up with customers at her Berkley and Rochester stores in metro Detroit to collect non-perishable snacks, hygiene items, and fun items like magazines and DVDs to send to troops in hopes of making their lives just a little more comfortable.
As always with April's projects, there is a creative component with this latest community service effort. Regular Midwest Guest readers may remember her successful Valentine's Day project this year where Catching Fireflies' customers created handmade cards to send to area seniors living in assisted living facilities. April again encourages crafty types to create handmade cards to include with donated supplies going to the troops, and she created a special downloadable patriotic coloring sheet so kids can create a colorful "Thank You" to send along with the packages as well.
"We'll be accepting donations the whole month of May. I'd like to help out a dozen or more troops if we can," says April, who intends to post updates about the project and the troops receiving the packages on the Catching Fireflies blog.
This project is the latest in a string of community service projects organized by April and her Catching Fireflies team. They recently raised over $400 to benefit the Rainbow Connection (a Michigan organization working to grant wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses) and plan to collect school supplies later this summer for the Judson Center (a Royal Oak, Michigan, non-profit human and family service agency).
Catching Fireflies specializes in unique gifts, the work of independent artists, and promoting eco values like creative reuse and recycling, so April's recent partnership with Cass Community Social Services to sell mud mats created from discarded tires found in Detroit is a natural fit with those values. April will offer the mats, created by Detroiters in need of employment, at her stores with 100 percent of those sales returning to CCSS to help fund their food, homeless, medical, mental health, vocational, and youth services.
"It's our goal to be involved in at least one large charitable cause a quarter," says April.
Visit Catching Fireflies in Berkley (3117 W. 12 Mile) or downtown Rochester (203 East University).
Note: "Where I live" posts are part of a series of periodic stories about special events and people in, and around, metro Detroit. "Where I live" posts are stories I'll post in addition to my regular schedule of
stories about attractions around the larger Midwestern region. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.
© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved
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