Fundraiser

Update on Fundraisers for Ukraine

/ news /

It’s about time to give an update on the fundraisers for Ukraine that we have been involved in over the last year and a half. Last winter, we shipped 3,500 safety reflectors to kids in Kyiv which we posted about here. It was quite a project and we could not have done it without help from others here in the Chicago area and beyond. We are grateful for the students from the honors program at Evanston Township High School, who spend a few hours after school to attach chains to the reflectors. In an amazing team effort, about ten students chained over 3,000 reflectors in no time! An anonymous local donor and the Danish-Ukranian organization “Bevar Ukraine” helped us ship the reflectors to Ukraine. This included another 500 safety reflectors that we were able to send in November of 2023. The Kyiv Police posted some pictures here in March of 2023, when the first batch arrived.

Local high school students helping attach chains to safety reflectors for Ukrainian children as part of our fundraisers for Ukraine
A few of the high school students from ETHS that helped attach chains to the reflectors. Faces are hidden for safety reasons.

Safety Reflectors Raising Money for Ukrainian women in Sweden

Before we received the request for safety reflectors, we used some to raise funds for Ukrainian women in Sweden. In 2022, we donated 120 safety reflectors to SWEA, the Swedish Women’s Educational Association, which is a global network of Swedish Women living abroad. Across the world, SWEA was raising money for a project in Sweden, where Ukrainian refugee women in Sweden with a background in health care, received Swedish language education and help fining jobs in Sweden. The safety reflectors contributed to raising around $700 in chapters across North America. Globally, SWEA raised about $100,000, and it was their largest donation ever to a single cause. There is more information here (in Swedish) about the donation to “Beredskapslyftet” and the Ukrainian Professional Support Center in Stockholm.

Fundraiser closed

For now, we have closed our fundraiser for Ukraine, but if you want to help, you can donate directly to our partner in Denmark: “Bevar Ukraine” who are still very active or to any of the organizations listed in this NPR article.

Thanks again to all who are helping those who are in distress because of wars!

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Rock the Socks

/ thoughts /

This morning, my Facebook feed was full of photos of Swedes wearing colorful mismatched socks. That’s on a day when I had planned to blog about some fun colorful socks I recently found in a Swedish gift shop. What’s going on? To honor her older sister with Down’s syndrome, and to celebrate that difference is good, 10-year-old Nathea Anemyr had called for everyone in Sweden to rock their socks today, i.e. wear mismatched colorful socks. Many of my friends and others, even the ministers of the Swedish government, showed off their colorful mix of socks.

Police horses rocked their socks today in Lund, Sweden
Police horses rocked their socks today in Lund, Sweden! From the Facebook page of “Polisen i Lund”.

Even the police horses in my home town, Lund, rocked their socks today!

Rocka Sockorna
Sock Rockers from Sweden, 2015

Some more digging reveals that March 21st is the UN World Down Syndrome Day which involves wearing fun socks to get people talking. So today, I mismatched my new socks for Nathea and Noelle and to celebrate the beauty of us all being different. Tomorrow, I will wear the other mismatched pair to trigger conversations about Down’s syndrome.

As I mentioned, I found the socks at the Swedish Gift store “The Gift Basket” in Geneva, IL, and they are all made by Ozone. One of the sock designs is inspired by the Swedish Dala Horse and the other one reminds me of embroidery that my mother made in the 70’s and 80’s from Swedish “Hemslöjden”. The striped ones are called “Scandinavian Stripes”.

Rock the socks - celebrate that we are all different by wearing mismatched socks on March 20. Use mismatched socks to trigger conversations  about Down's Syndrome on March 21st.
Rock the socks – celebrate that we are all different by wearing mismatched socks on March 20. Use mismatched socks to trigger conversations  about Down’s Syndrome on March 21st.

My kids wear mismatched socks every day. Even for band concerts, when black socks are required, do they manage to find two different black socks. I buy big stacks of similar socks with harmonized color schemes, so the mismatch does not get totally out of control… 😉 When I hear other moms complaining about unmatched socks gathering in their laundry room, I realize how lucky I am that my kids embrace being different every single day!

Rock the socks and have a wonderful weekend!

Elisabeth

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