Wrapping For Inclusion Gets Big Donation

We thought this was a great story about this year's BAF Wrapping For Inclusion campaign (Claymates wrapping gifts in local stores to raise funds for the BAF).

Some news about Wrapping for Inclusion
The other day my daughter and myself were wrapping in a tiny bookstore. They made us sit outside and bring our own paper etc. We had Lyndsays great WFI sign and a tip jar and that was about it.

They only gave us 2 hours. We had NO customers. Just before our shift was over a lady came up and began asking about TBAF. I told her just about everything there was to tell. Then she said in case I was wondering why she was asking so many questions was because she was a writer for the Arizona Republic. And get this, She writes a weekly article on Charities. She wanted to do a piece on Wrapping for Inclusion and BAF. So I contacted Kristy and got everything cleared and there will be an article in the paper on Dec. 19th. YIPPPPEEEEEE

She is so nice and she seemed very impressed with the foundation. She came to my sons highschool with me and watched the Best Buddies group wrap presents for their teachers. She took lots of pictures. As we were leaving I gave her a MCWL. She said " Oh, no that's ok, you don't have to give me anything" and I said with a little smile, " Oh, it's ok, it's what we do." She wrote to me that night and told me that she and her children had listened to it all afternoon. She said she had never heard him sing before. and she absolutely LOVED the cd. She said he had an amazing voice and she had no idea how good he was till now. YIPPPPPEEEEEEE AGAIN.

She also told me that I had no idea how fortunate I was. I said "why?" and she said , there are over 20,000 nonprofit organizations in the Phx area alone that have been waiting for YEARS to get an article written about their group, esp. around the holidays. She said they would kill to get a story about them in the paper. I had no idea. Then I proceded to tell her my story about the tip.

I was wrapping with my other daughter and just before our shift was over a man came up with 16 DVDs paired with 16 Christmas Cd's, Frank, Bing, etc. I teased him and said " What , no Clay?" He said he heard he was good but had never heard him. I found out he was playing Secret Santa to his employees. I also found out where he worked.

So we wrapped the gifts and he hands me a tip. It was a $100.00 BILL. OMG

I got all teary eyed. Then he left. The Borders employee came over and said I should put that in my pocket for safe keeping so it wasn't sitting in the tip jar. So I did. 15min. later we left and stopped at Subway for a sandwich and took it home.

At home I was talking to my other daughter and said "you won't believe what happened while we were wrapping" I reached into my pocket and the $100.00 was GONE. I was so upset. I figured when we went to Subway it must have fallen out of my pocket when I went to pay. So I called them and of course they hadn't seen it.

Even though it had been over 30 min. I decided to drive over there. I pulled into a parking spot and opened the door and put my foot on the ground. The $100.00 was laying 2 inches from my foot. The reporter from the Az Republic said it sounded like I had a guardian angel. I am beginning to think so too. I am going to drop off a MCWL where the man works and put a tag on it that says "Secret Santa" He'll know who it is. LOL

Now for the big news.

AS OF SUNDAY DEC. 11TH 11PM WE HAVE A GRAND TOTAL OF

$1,037.66

You guys should all be very proud. Every dollar counts, The day Shawna and I met the reporter from the newspaper we only made ONE dollar, but everything put together has added up to this much. Thank you all .

-- Renee