Welcome to Series #1 of “Tiny Stars”. This is where I get a huge kick out of introducing you to amazing and inspiring people who are doing tiny but significant things to make a difference in a huge way. I hope you appreciate their stories as much as I do!
I love the people I am meeting right now, through my blog and especially through Twitter.
Coaches, writers, parents, teachers, healers, artists, marketers, thinkers…to those who dismiss Twitter as being trite and pointless rubbish, I say to thee – you are just talking to the wrong crowd!
I have never had more opportunities to connect with people who challenge me, inspire me and generally impress me every day with their generosity and spirit.
Take Nikki McGonigal over at Nikki, In Stitches. She is busy sewing a particular kind of tiny magic on her blog that I deeply admire. Having left her teaching career to be a full time mom to her gorgeous son, she is now days away from giving birth to baby number two. And what has she been doing with herself in this precious calm before the beautiful storm?
In a little over ten minutes Nikki sews together a pair of mittens salvaged from an unwanted sweater. A pair of mittens that will leave her hands and be delivered to the frozen fingers of the men and women being fed and sheltered at the Columbus House Shelter in Connecticut. Right now, she has enough sweaters for 100 pairs of mittens, scheduled to be delivered on Thanksgiving. She has plans for another batch at Christmas time, and no doubt this will be even bigger, with more shelters hearing about her generosity and dedication, and asking if they can also be a part of her drive. But with the winter fast approaching, she needs as many sweaters she can get her crafty little fingers on.
This is where you come in.
Do you want to make a tiny difference yourself? Has this story shown you how easy it can be to take action to make another person’s life just a little better? Can you see how it’s about just taking a step – no matter how small – even when you’re flat out and think you have no time?
I urge you to collect just one sweater and send it to Nikki.
It doesn’t take much, just the cost of posting it to her. It can be an old sweater that is lurking unloved at the back of your wardrobe. It can be that ugly jumper your hubby occasionally wears that you have been dying to throw out for ages (because now you have an excellent excuse!) Maybe you have a few that your kids have outgrown. Or if you don’t have one yourself, collect one from a friend, or your mum and dad.
You can see from her picture that the mittens she makes are really lovely – there is so much love and thought going into making every pair, well worth the tiny effort it will take you to contribute an unwanted item of clothing. Every sweater you send will make a huge difference to the hands of a very deserving and grateful person this winter.
For a woman who has so much going on in her own life and must be feeling really ungainly and achy and tired (and I know how she feels, as I am due to give myself in a month or so)…how incredible is it that she is focusing on making other people – strangers even – more comfortable?
She is truly a woman worth supporting, and I urge you to help her in any way you can.
What you need to do next :
Send 1 sweater as soon as possible to -
Nikki, In Stitches, P.O. Box 8242, Berlin, CT 06037.
Don’t forget to say I sent you and make sure you include your details – I will be following up with Nikki after her campaign and we want to be able to share her thanks to you personally here on this site. But if you would prefer to be anonymous, that’s totally OK too.
And even if you think that you cannot help her this time, then please, retweet this post, or email it to a friend, or blog about it yourself, and help Nikki to spread the word!
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