Charity For The Win

January 18, 2021 /
Coronavirus Charity: How to Decide Where to Donate | CPA Practice Advisor

Fabric, family, creativity and customer service are a few of the key pillars of my family business….The Jaftex Corporation. Above and beyond all of those important aspects is none other than….CHARITY. With that, I would like to start the year off by talking about charity with you all.

From my adolescent years, my parents instilled the importance of charity on me and it has stuck with me to this day and don’t see any reason why it won’t stick with me forever. It seems very fitting that I ended up in the fabric industry as the people in this industry know how to give back and that makes me proud and happy.

Free Photo | Colorful letters forming the word charity

With all the craziness going on in the world right now, I want to encourage you all to continue to give back in 2021. There are many people struggling out there and there is nothing more comforting than a beautiful quilt or fabric masterpiece. I know that my company will continue to aggressively make donations to help those who are suffering and my hope is that you will do the same.

Today, I want to briefly talk about 2 charitable giving events that we at Jaftex hosted last year so to speak.

FreeSpirit Fabrics (freespiritfabrics) - Profile | Pinterest

1. FreeSpirit Sample Auction:

  • In 2020, FreeSpirit auctioned off a bunch of quilts and samples. This is the second year that they had this event.
  • Over $6000 was raised and each charity received almost $1600.
  • The money was split among 4 charities. Project Linus (ill children), The Lydia Project (cancer), Project Night Night (homeless and vulnerable children) and Enchanted Makeovers (veterans).
Image may contain: 1 person, text that says 'MAKE TIME FOR GOOD.'
Brettie 5g was in the photo that went with the post…..”Make Time For Good.”

2. My @jaftexpresident Facebook page giveaway.

On November 1, I went out with this:

As we gear up to close out this crazy year called 2020, I want to step up my “giving back” efforts on behalf of my family and my companies. I know this has been a really tough year for many and we want to do our part to try to help out. With that, I am looking for suggestions of places where I can donate fabric to where there is strong demand and an immediate need. Please share your suggestions in the comments. Must be US based.

  • I ended up selecting less than 10 organizations and people to send fabric to.
  • Each recipient will get or got a box of fabric which contains no less than 7 bolts of fabric. Each charity got or will get over 100 yards of Jaftex quilting fabrics to make things for those in need.

I hope this post encourages you to do your part and “Make Time For Good.” You will feel great that you did it!

If you gave back in 2020, please share in the comments what you did and share pictures too if possible. I would like to honor you for your good work and commend you for being a good citizen.

Have a great week!

11 Comments

  • Rachael Woodard at Quilted Twins

    January 19, 2021 at 10:16 pm

    On November 30, my twin decided that she wanted to help change one family’s lives by doing something big, like providing coal for the winter or giving a family a wardrobe for their clothes plus the clothes and shoes to put in the wardrobe. One family she felt burdened to help the family permanently by sending the father to truck driving school, so he could get a good job and feed his own family.

    She approached me, and I appealed to our readers/customers. We raised $12,000 in just over 12 days, and our Quilted Twins customers ended up supporting and changing the lives of 6 families in a major way with coal for almost all 6 families to clothes, lots of food, duvet covers, and of course, quilts, shoes, clothes and more. Becky lives in Poland and this is where this Noble Project took place. We were able to collect the money here, and not one penny was saved out to pay for the bank fees or for their fuel to shop, pick up and/or deliver the gifts.

    We all were thrilled to read the feedback and tears of joy and laughter filled our faces over Christmas as we saw how one group of people caring could change their lives.

    We have a lot of people with Polish roots in our readership and it was thrilling to be a small part of a big part of changing people’s lives during this “downer” of a year.

    Here’s one link to ONE of the blog posts that described what happened:

    https://blog.quiltedtwins.com/new-blog/2020/dec-bigfinalepart2

    Here’s a blog post showing the feedback from the handler for one of the families that we helped.

    https://blog.quiltedtwins.com/new-blog/2021/jan-noblepackagesfeedbackfam1and2

    • Scott Fortunoff

      January 20, 2021 at 9:55 am

      OMG Rachael,
      I freakin’ love this. That is so amazing! You all should be proud of yourselves. I am sure those lucky families are beyond words. I look forward to reading the stories.
      Truly amazing. So glad you shared this!
      Happy New Year!
      Scott

  • Shirley Clark

    January 19, 2021 at 11:18 am

    I live in a small town, and not many here sew, but I like to make some things for different charities every year. For several years, I made drawstring bags for the domestic abuse victims house about an hour from here. My mission group filled them with all kinds of toiletries. I’ve donated lap quilts to veterans and fabric bibs to nursing homes.
    This past year when the pandemic hit, our local clinic needed masks desperately so I made and donated them as fast as I could. (Due to some health problems, I can’t sew as many hours as in younger days) Some even went to friends that work in Shreveport, LA.
    Then others asked me to make them, and some gave me money which helped to replenish elastic. I admire all of those can can do whole quilts and such to donate.

    • Scott Fortunoff

      January 19, 2021 at 6:32 pm

      That’s awesome Shirley. Thanks for sharing your kindness. Keep up the good work.
      Regards,
      Scott

  • Scott Fortunoff

    January 18, 2021 at 4:19 pm

    Hi Barbara,
    Thanks for your kind message. Glad to help a worthy group. Thanks for your patience as we will get you the fabric at some point soon. We are slammed. Would love to see what you guys make? Good luck.
    Scott

  • Debra Pudgil

    January 18, 2021 at 1:52 pm

    Hi Scott, I am the organizer of Sunshine Quilters of Spencer NC I was told Our group was chosen by you on Nov 1 to receive a donation for Our Charity work that I started in 2012. At the time my mother was going through and ended her battle with Cancer and I began making Quilts for patients undergoing treatment for cancer in San Diego and Riverside county in CA. On my own purchasing all supplies and doing all of the work on my own. I then also supplied quilts to Michellles Place in CA and since that time I organized group sew a longs in CA to make quilts also for NICU’S in 2018 We moved to North Carolina and now meet in Concord NC at We’re Sew Creative each month. They are kind enough to put us on their calendar monthly where volunteers can now sign up online and join me in making as many Baby NICU quilts as possible. And I still make adults on request of course for anyone in need. We have donated a few thousand quilts now and I could not be happier. I Love what I do. And I look forward to opening your box of fabric when it arrives. I enjoy watching you help so many others and appreciate everything that your generosity is going to do for my ability to spread as much Sunshine as I possibly can. Thank you again

    • Scott Fortunoff

      January 18, 2021 at 4:17 pm

      This is awesome Debra. You should be very proud of yourself. And yes, you did win and your group will eventually get a box of bolts from Jaftex. Keep up the good work!
      Happy New Year!
      Be well.
      Scott