When we decided to start this charity to help other families & create awareness we knew we would need to come up with fundraisers to raise money. We know times are tough so we decided instead of asking people for cash we would ask a few of our friends to save their cans & bottles for a month & we would collect them & take them out to the redemption center in Stuart each Friday.
We mentioned it to a couple people & they mentioned it to a couple people & before we knew it we had over a truck load in less than a week! Seeing that it was taking off way more than we expected, we talked to a couple businesses to have as drop off locations & printed up some flyers. We set it up with the West Central Redemption Center in Stuart where people could just drop cans & bottles off & tell them it was for John’s Charity & they keep a running total for us! Shelene’s Daycare (which is also John’s grandma) was another drop off location in Stuart. We also had two locations in Adel; Marc-Stephens Salon & Wells Fargo Bank.
We would collect cans on Thursday. Then on Thursday after work Steve & I would set up in the garage & take all the tabs off the cans. We are saving the tabs to donate to the Ronald McDonald House!
We promoted this fundraiser through the month of February & first 2 weeks in March. We are no longer promoting, since things always slow down & we want to make this an annual event! If people keep saving their cans we are still collecting them & taking them out as we get a truck load!
We were hoping to raise at least $100 with this fundraiser. I am excited to announce that we have raised over $450 with this Can Drive!
Thank you to all our friends, family & even strangers who participated in our can drive! We feel it is a very successful start to John’s Charity!
John’s dad, Steve is a heavy equipment operator. He can operate anything, but primarily operates a CAT finish blade/road maintainer. The day we decided to start planning a family Steve started keeping an eye out for an infant CAT outfit.
Whether we had a boy or a girl, they were coming home in one! When we found out we were having a boy there was no question…he would be leaving the hospital wearing something that had a CAT logo on it!
About two months before John was due, Steve was starting to get anxious about finding an outfit. We were not finding what he wanted. So I went online to the Caterpillar website & started to search for a newborn outfits. The smallest I could find was a 6 month, white onesie with the CAT logo in the middle. I was fine with ordering it but kept putting it off.
I wasn’t worried about getting it before he was born because of the size. I didn’t think John would wear it for a few months. I finally ordered it; after Steve asked everyday for two weeks. I ordered it 6 weeks before he was due & it was going to take 6 weeks to arrive! It was delivered 1 week before he was born. (Thank goodness he was overdue!)
His dad was determined he would wear it home! So we packed it in the diaper bag and took it to the hospital with us!
At 8-days-old, 9 lb. 3 oz. & 21 ½ inches long, John was being released from the hospital. Dad got the 6 month CAT onesie out & put it on him. It was obviously too big but dad didn’t care! He was SO proud to see John wearing it!
Nina Cecila, the professional photographer who comes around the hospital to take pictures before newborns leave came in & suggested that John be only in a diaper for them. So for a couple he was, but he of course had to have most of them taken in the CAT outfit!
Though John is not here for his dad to physically show him how to operate equipment there is no doubt in my mind he is watching his dad all the time & he will know exactly what to do with heavy equipment!!
Holding free will donation bake sale & selling $1 & $2 March of Dimes candy bars to raise money for March for Babies walk
First State Bank – Stuart, IA