MOM loved her bag!

A good experience…

Today I called a (new location) nursing home & assisted living facility to speak with the activities director. As I explained that we make bags and want bring our mobile community service project into this location, the worker who answered the phone told me her mother a breast cancer survivor had received a bag a while ago. With a few more questions we established it was one of our drop off locations a year or so ago. Her mother loved that bag.  And now she cherishes that bag because it meant so much to her mom. 

WOW… It had to be one of Jessie’s bags.

 We described the patchwork style and she excitedly said that’s it. She had no idea who made the bag but her mother loved it.

I was really excited to hear that.

 Our bags and notes of encouragement are like seeds that we scatter all around. We don’t know where the seeds will land but we hope they brighten someone’s day, and encourage them during a difficult time.

 Our bags are hand made with love and care by Jessie and other volunteers…

We don’t usually know who gets one of Jessie’s Bags but we give it out with a hand written note that contains message of encouragement.

WE have been making bags for 9 years now. WE have given away hundreds of the bags we make to Breast cancer survivors and other cancer patients. Bags have been dropped off in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Most of our bags we don’t hand out personally, Because of HIPPA laws we don’t have access to names of survivors so it is all random who gets a bag. We have locations where survivors go for supplies and we have dropped off bags for the workers at that location to give out Jessie’s Bags. Some of our bags are handed out at the patients homes. Some of our bags were given out at our booths corner location.

It was so nice to know one of Jessie’s Bags (the seeds) encouraged the receiver and is still loved. Nice to know the bags are appreciated. Hopefully we will meet this woman if we are invited to this location to do Jessie’s bag building work shop.

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The cost of doing business..

This is the last day we will have a store front at Booths Corner Farmers Market.

We opened the doors in august a few days after Jessie’s 3rd Breast Cancer surgery. Opening this store gave us something new to focus on. Jessie loved being there meeting other survivors .

We tried it and enjoyed. When we looked at the big picture for Jessie and her bags we have to make an adjustment.

When you do the math it did not pay for us to have this location open.

 One weekend we paid our rent and only sold 1 bag for $15.00. I had no one to work that weekend so I worked 2 full days at the market.12 hours one day and 11 hours the next day. Even though this location was only open two days a week … It cost me 23 hours of time. And this is volunteer time. Not paid time… So at the end of the day we were working on a deficit.

 It cost $ money to rent the space.

 It cost time and energy to coordinate and juggle the rest of my life around these two days.

I try not to regret the choices I make in life.and I don’t regret this experience. I learned that I do not want to be a retail business.

The old saying is do what you love and the money will come. ( in 2016 we will see if this is true!)

We enjoy making bags and giving them to breast cancer survivors. We enjoy taking Jessie’s bags into new locations. We enjoy getting others involved in working on the bags. We enjoy meeting and working with new friends.

So in 2016 you will see Jessie’s Bags on the road. We will be going places and meeting people. We are taking our show on the road. Hopefully the money will come to support our activities.

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