Please keep in mind as you check out our new website that it is brand new and we are working on getting it complete as soon as possible. Please visit us often, to see our updates!

February 15, 2006

Kids Creating Comfort started as a homeschooled project for five kids. Josephine-13, Logan-12, Ben-10, Ryanne-7 and Anastasia 4. The idea was we were to create a company that kids alone could run. We had to build a business plan, figure out where to get the start up cost from and how to market our business. We decided making fleece blankets that needed no sewing would be fun and "easy". We have a local arts and craft fair called Market Days, this was the day we would sell our blankets. However, shortly before Market Days Hurricane Katrina struck in the gulf area leaving many families without homes.

We decided since we had experienced our own hurricane a few years before we knew how the kids in the gulf area were feeling. We wanted to show them we understood what they were going through. It was decided that instead of using the profits from Kids Creating Comfort to buy fun things for ourselves, we would collect donations and make blankets for the kids down south. Everything we needed to do to complete the school project could still be completed, but it would be lots more work.

In our first "business" meeting we set goals and laid out marketing plans. Then we dove right in, in a big way. With the goal set at 1200 blankets we knew that we would have to go big in order to reach this. One of the first ideas was to get someone famous to buy a blanket from us so we could use that name and say they bought a blanket, won't you? Well, Oprah was the target! What we didn't plan on was getting a story in her magazine. It was the biggest help we could ever ask for. The story ran in her February issue of "O" and the response has been incredible. We have had so many groups ask if they could help. Because of this we have redesigned our website and made it larger to showcase everything we are doing.

The second big idea was a website. This paid off for us because we were able to reach lots of friends and family right away. When our friends started to hear of the project they forwarded our website to other friends. Lucky for us we got to meet lots of really kind, generous, loving people who supported our project right from the get go. One of our biggest supporters from day one was Mrs. Dorian. She is a teacher in San Francisco who teaches really neat kids. Mrs. Dorian's class pledge to make 150 blankets for us and they did:) They asked a few of the other kids at the school to help out and with the first four and about 12 others they made all 150 blankets for us. Be sure to check out Kids Creating Comfort San Francisco to see cool pictures and hear how they are helping our project now. 

So far they have delivered 400 blankets to Baton Rouge and are well on their way to having the next 400 ready to go. We have had some people who have sent us addresses for kids who were part of the gulf area and now we are working on getting these blankets out. This is the really neat part of the project because we get to write special notes to the kids.

In March we will be featured in the Weekly Reader for 5th and 6th graders. We have a few more "big" projects in the works that as they come together we will be posting here. Please feel free to check out the whole site and drop us a line letting us know what you think of our project.

Love,

Kids Creating Comfort
Josephine, Logan, Ben, Ryanne and Anastasia