It’s Candy Gram time? What you’ve never heard of Candy Grams? Well, then let me tell you a little about them. They have inspired me and have helped me develop a new theme for the new year. My theme is “.50 Cents at a time.”
Here is my story:
About three years ago the Principal at the elementary school that I work at 
approached me and said she would like to sell Candy Grams at Christmas time.
You see each month we send out a school newsletter and in the November news letter she always asks those that are in need of some extra financial help this year to fill out the included form and return it to the school.
Well, the needs were great that year and have become greater every year since. So, we started selling Candy Grams to earn money to support our special families at our school.
At first we didn’t know what to expect. We made several hundred copies of a little note that said:
Merry Christmas
To_____________
From_______________
Message______________________
Then we had the teachers all donate a couple of boxes of Candy Canes. We then taped a candy cane to the back of each note. We sent out a note to the parents announcing our plan and letting them know when children could start purchasing them at .50 cents a piece.
The big day came and I and a teacher from the school stood behind a table ready to help the children write their notes after they had eaten their lunch. We were overwhelmed at the sight of 100 or more children waiting in line the first day to buy one. We had 6th grade children helping the younger children write their notes, putting Candy Canes on and putting them in the correct teachers bag to deliver to the child it was intended for. Three hours later we had sold all of the candy canes, I think 400 or so, and had to go and buy some more. This continued throughout the week. We made sure that each of the 625 students at our school received at least one Candy Gram.
This was our third year of selling Candy Grams and I have learned some new tricks to make the process smoother, quicker and even better. So this year we sold 2610 Candy Grams altogether totaling $1300 to share with some very special families from our school and we did it all .50 cents at a time. This amazes me every time I think about it and I am so impressed with the kind and giving children that literally broke open their piggy banks to make this happen. Doesn’t that just warm your heart the way it does mine?
As I was contemplating all the good that happens at this time of year, I began
thinking about our Candy Gram project and realized that I want to live my life “.50 cents at a time” this next year. Can you imagine all the good that can be done “.50 cents at a time” or in other words if I set one “.50 cent goal” to reach at a time and then set another one and reach it and so on…Can you imagine all that could be accomplished in a year. I wonder if I could accomplish 2610 goals this year if I looked at it with the right kind of heart and if I did it with only “.50 cent goals” instead of “$100 dollar goals” at a time. Thus my theme for the coming new year “.50 cents at a time!”
So, one of my goals is to scrapbook all of the wonderful pictures that I have of my children from the past year. Another goal is to scrapbook a calendar for the 2011. If I look at these two goals collectively they overwhelm me. But…if I break them down into smaller goals or a “.50 goal” then they become an achievable goal. So one goal that I will set is to set aside one hour a week on a specified day that I can get started. Some of you with young children may want to set just 10 minutes a week to get started or try 10 minutes a day. Another goal that I want to set is to carry my camera with me all of the time. I have a small camera that can remain in my purse. I find myself missing out on so many picture taking moments just because I took the camera out and left it home. One more goal that I think will help so much is to make just one calendar page a month from new pictures that I have taken. I think if I can achieve these three goals in January that I will naturally set some more for February and so on. This makes my ultimate goal of becoming a great digital scrap booker become realistic to me.
Just as a Candy Gram at a time we provided Christmas for several children, we can set one goal at a time for ourselves and we will be amazed at the outcome!
Have fun setting your goals for 2010! I truly hope that by doing so all of your wildest dreams will come true.
Happy New Year!
Denise
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Want to read about Making a Calendar? then see this article: Making a Gift Calendar from Quick Pages!
A quick way to scrap calendars is to use the 12 Month Year-Around Quick Page Digital Scrapbooking Kit 1.
This kit us great to make calendars, albums, or any scrap project that needs a variety of months or holidays!
It has a different page for each month with many pages having holiday themes included in them!
With Quick Pages it is easy to quickly add photos, some text and personalize with some extra embellishments from other kits and in no time, make a calendar really quick!
