Cradles to Crayons

This morning, I had the awesome opportunity to volunteer at a site located right here in Horsham called Cradles to Crayons.  It is literally within walking distance of my home (seriously, I know because I walked there!), and I didn't even know it existed!  A fellow Shippensburg alumni suggested this as a project for the alumni association and organized a group to participate and help out there.  The mission involves collecting donated items (clothing, toys, school supplies, materials, etc), sorting them, and distributing them to children in the 5 county area (Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Delaware) who live below the poverty line for free.  The work stations are organized in such a way that it makes it very easy to help.  During the course of the morning, I checked clothing for quality (no holes, stains, etc) and sorted it according to age group.  With my fold down experience from the GAP, and my penchant for organization on the shelves, this was an ideal task for me.  Then, on to the toy area where you get to test out toys (make sure they work), clean them, check for missing parts, and sort them into appropriate age groups.  I took on the job of counting 1000 piece puzzle pieces and I actually counted one puzzle that was not missing pieces, but had magically acquired more - it had 1027 pieces.  I look forward to (hopefully) encouraging others to try this out through group trips in the future as well as stopping by during the volunteer hours that fall on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month.  If you're interested in more information on this worthwhile volunteer opportunity, check out the link above.