Kiernan's Kindness - 1st Annual Frog Race to Christmas

Project leaders of Kiernan's Kindness, Julie and Danielle, have been wanting to start an annual fundraiser for their local project of Project Sweet Peas for some time now, and they are excited to share the great idea they have come up with:

"Kiernan's Kindness ~ 1st Annual Frog Race to Christmas"

The event begins today, August 20th, which just so happens to be Kiernan's birthday, and will run through October 1st.

Kiernan's Kindess will be collecting frogs as well as donations to fill bags to be delivered on December 1st for the holiday babies. Frogs are the official symbol of Kiernan's Kindness so frogs in the form of stuffed animals or on fabric or even clothes would be wonderful!

Any donations will be accepted. There is also a PayPal account set up to help make donating easier. Remember to include an address in a message if using PayPal.

Please email julie@projectsweetpeas.com or danielle@projectsweetpeas.com for further information and to get the address or PayPal name to send your frogs or donations to.

Let's hop to it and bring some holiday spirit and joy to the families spending Christmas in the NICU!

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100 "Sweet Dreams" for Project Sweet Peas

Operation Sweet Dreams is a fellow Pepsi grant recipient. The goal of this organization, headed by Cynthia Delgadillo, is to provide new pajamas, toothbrushes, and books to local needy children and ultimately make a difference in the community.

Recently, Operation Sweet Dreams generously decided to help Project Sweet Peas by using a portion of their Pepsi grant winnings to donate 100 baby jammies to us! These pajamas, adorably packaged as cupcakes, will be included in our PSP bags that will be delivered to families and babies in need.

To learn more about this amazing project visit their website.

You can read more about them on the Pepsi Refresh Project website. To see the picture and brief write up about their awesome donation to PSP click here.

From all of us at Project Sweet Peas,
THANK YOU OPERATION SWEET DREAMS!!
Your thoughtful donation means so much to us and is greatly appreciate!

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Visit Our Online Shops!

Do you love to shop? Would you like to be able to shop and support Project Sweet Peas at the same time?

Well you can! Project Sweet Peas has an online store where you can buy items with the PSP logo like t-shirts, hoodies, ornaments, journals, coffee mugs, water bottles, and more. Check out our store here today! All proceeds support the general Project Sweet Peas fund.

Did you also know that several local projects make and sell their own items online?

Currently we have 3 local project stores. All local project stores are run separatly by individual project leaders. All proceeds from these stores go directly to the local gift bag project.

Gabriel's Gift (New England) has an online store that sells handmade flannel burp clothes and more. You can visit this project's store here.


Hailey's Hope (Alabama) has an online store that sells flower headbands for babies called Blossoms of Blessings. You can visit the website here.


MJ's Memories (Kansas/Missouri) has an online store that sells beautiful handmade bracelets called MJ's Awareness. You view the items here.

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Item Drive for Shannon's Star

Calling Pittsburgh Members:

Kate is holding an item drive from now until August 24th!

Donate item(s) to her local Project Sweet Peas project, Shannon's Star, and you will be entered to win some really neat Project Sweet Peas prizes! Winner will be announced on August 28th!

This round of deliveries will be in honor of her two NICU survivor's 2nd birthday!

To donate contact Kate@projectsweetpeas.com

Items you can donate:
Gift cards (gas, food, etc...)
Travel size toiletries (toothbrush, deodorant, comb, shaving kit, shampoo, conditioner, etc...)
Blanket
Disposable Camera
Birth Record Pillow
Lip Balm
Hand Sanitizer
Pens
Caps
Booties
Eye Covers
Scratch Mittens
Tissue Packs
Children's Book
Puzzle Books
Stuffed Animal
Picture Frames
Hand/Foot Molds
Baby brush/comb

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Fundraisers for Nimkee Blessings

Melissa, project leader of Nimkee Blessings, also had a yard sale fundraiser this past month. All items sold were donated by others and all proceeds are benefiting Nimkee Blessings.

This yard sale was sort of an impromptu fundraiser that fell into Melissa's lap. She says, "I decided to just allow people to make donations as they felt compelled to and didn't put prices on anything. It isn't my stuff to price, and I felt that as long as they knew it was for charity, they could be as generous as they wanted to be!"

Like Theresa, of Donny's Shining Light, mentioned about her yard sale, Melissa also feels that the yard sale fundraiser gave her a wonderful opportunity to share about Project Sweet Peas. Melissa said, "A lot of people were very interested and showed genuine compassion. I placed a couple of framed photos of Bennett on my table, alongside the plaster mold of his foot with his brothers' hands surrounding it, and was able to print off a few pages to put into a booklet that was shared with whomever wanted to take the time to look at it."

The yard sale will be on-going. She says, "I will try and keep it set up for as long as possible and also am willing to take in donated items from people that just have stuff to get rid of and don't want to host their own sale."

Melissa also explains, "We are still wanting to do a benefit concert in September." More details about this fundraiser to come later.

For more information on Nimkee Blessings visit the project's page on the PSP website by clicking here. Or contact Melissa at Melissa@projectsweetpeas.com.

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Donny's Shining Light Fundraiser Results

At the beginning of July we let you know about a fundraiser for Donny's Shining Light (you can read the post here), and now we'd like to share the results of that fundraiser with you!

This yard sale was the first fundraiser for Donny's Shining Light. Here are some of Theresa's thoughts on it:

"Yard sales are a lot of work...whew! However it was all worth it! I know I touched a lot of people's hearts as I told them about my son and about Project Sweet Peas. I received a genuine hug from one mom who kept saying how sorry she was... She was so nice. Had one lady take a business card and flyer and tell me she would copy it and pass them out at her church. How sweet of her. Had some people, after they heard exactly why I was having this yard sale, put money in my bottle banks I had on the table. I thanked them a lot!...I even met with a mom who lost a baby herself. She, along with many others, were very thankful towards me for delivering gift bags to families that have babies in the NICU. They said how nice it was of me. I, in return, said I do it because I know the road they are on. I do it in my son's memory. I feel so good about doing this. It is such a feeling to say to the world 'this is my son. He lived. He is loved every day. He brings us joy. It is through him that we spread love to others.'"

The yard sale was a success in more ways than one and raised over $450 for Donny's Shining Light!

The fundraiser went so well that Theresa plans on doing another yard sale fundraiser for Donny's Shining Light with her mom in September.

Here are some pictures from the event:

(Donny's Light Shining Down)

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Kiernan's Kindness Delivers!

Kiernan's Kindness donates gift bags to St. Joesph's NICU and Scottsdale Shea's PICU in Arizona and is led by Julie, Kiernan's mom, and co-led by Danielle. In total this past week, Kiernan's Kindness donated 65 bags to the two hospitals thanks to the help of the Pepsi Refresh grant!! Here are the bags waiting to be delivered:

On July 22nd, Kiernan's Kindness made their first delivery to Scottsdale Shea Hospital (where Danielle's son spent time at in the PICU). They were able to donate 26 long term bags, 5 breastfeeding bags and 2 item specific bags.

Here is a picture of Kiernan with some of the bags that were donated:

Julie had these words to say about the first day of deliveries: "[The hospital has] a 26 bed level 3 NICU so they don't get a lot of publicity or outside help since they are a smaller NICU. It was an amazing delivery. They took us directly into the NICU and I got to hand deliver 2 bags to 2 families of preemies. The first one I met was a mom who's husband had to move to Georgia without her while the baby is here in the NICU. She was born at 24 weeks and.... lost her twin at 6 weeks gestation....The strength of this mother was just tremendous and to know that I got to give her this gift of support from us was HUGE...This mom was so greatful and over joyed with just the simple fact of getting a PSP bag. Kiernan got to go with me and get his picture taken with the babies. He would NOT stop staring and smiling at them. It was almost like he just knew something we didn't....I cannot tell you the amazing feeling it was to do this today."

Here is a picture of Julie & Kiernan delivering a bag to one of the mom's and her baby:

Kiernan's Kindness made their other delivery to St. Joseph's (where Kiernan spent time at), and they were able to donate 34 bags. They had another amazing experience with this delivery. Below is an excerpt from an article written by St. Joseph's Hospital about the deliveries (to view it in its entirety on their website click here):

"Family donates to support families with children in the ICU

Julie, Kory, and Kiernan Leonard of Gilbert recently donated Project Sweet Pea bags to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.

The Leonards spent time at St. Joseph’s when their son, Kiernan, was born on August 20, 2008 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and a chromosomal defect. Kiernan spent nearly a month in intensive care at St. Joseph’s, with his family by his side. The Leonards said despite the trying situation, their experience with the staff at St. Joseph’s during this difficult time was great. After leaving the hospital, they wanted to find a way to support other families going through similar situations..."

For more information on Kiernan's Kindess please visit its page on the Project Sweet Pea website by clicking here.

Last but not least, Kiernan's Kindness was also featured in the local paper for their recent deliveries thanks in part to the Pepsi Refresh grant money. Here are two pictures of the article (click the image for a larger view):

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