Busy, Busy, Busy!

I hope everyone has been having a great holiday season! Mine has been filled with doing a lot of work for Threads for Teens. There have been some extremely exciting happenings occurring.

In November, Threads for Teens was featured in Costco Connection! I was so excited and shocked when Costco emailed saying that they would like to feature TFT. Click HERE to read the article online. The magazine is circulated to 8.2 million subscribers around the world. After the article was sent, I received so many emails from people around the country wanting to open Threads for Teens locations in their own towns. Hopefully soon we can turn those wishes into realities.

(Council Member Salmon, Me, Mayor Fudge, Mr. Kelley, Chamber Board Director Jones)

Mayor Debora Fudge of Windsor, along with council member Sam Salmon, chamber board director Will Jones and Interim Assistant Town Manager David Kelley visited the Threads for Teens boutique on December 12th. I Had a great time showing them around and telling them the Threads for Teens story.

On February 25th 2012, Threads for Teens will be hosting a dinner/dance fundraising event. There will be live and silent auctions. I have been having a great time planning this event. Over three hundred letters have been sent out thus far soliciting donations for the auction portion. Today, I received confirmation for two items, which is extremely exciting! To the right is a picture of all of the different documents included in the letter. As more details of the event are firmed up, I will post them to this blog and on the Threads for Teens Facebook page. I would love to have as many supporters of Threads for Teens attend the event as possible!

In mid-March, Threads for Teens will be sponsoring a prom dress event that will give prom dresses to under-privileged girls. I am most excited about this event. If you have a dress that you would like to donate, please email me HERE. Threads for Teens will be working with several organizations in the county to make this event possible. Again, I will post more information as it is decided upon.

I also would like to say that Threads for Teens's board of directors are Lori DenBeste, Tarik Omar, and Judi Greaney. We had our very first board meeting in November, which was exciting. Thank you to them!

I wish everyone a wonderful 2012 filled with love and blessings!

Allyson Ahlstrom

Long Overdue Update About The Backpack Event!

Thank you to everyone that helped to make the Threads for Teens 2nd Annual Back-To-School Backpack Event a success. Seventy-five girls received backpacks filled with school supplies. All were incredibly excited to receive a backpack.

Thanks, Allyson Ahlstrom

501(c)(3)

Threads for Teens is officially a non-profit organization as recognized by the federal IRS! This process has been a long one with many different steps to take. I am so happy to have passed this hurdle! I definitely could never have done this by myself, so I would like to thank Kevin Veenstra and everyone at Sonoma Law Group that helped me with the paperwork for the 501(c)(3). They have been an absolute pleasure to work with and are extremely professional. With the 501(c)(3), Threads for Teens will have the opportunity to receive more donations and the ability to apply for grants. With this, Threads for Teens will be able to serve more and more girls.

Besides that, Soroptimist International sent out a videographer several months ago to shoot a video of the Threads for Teens boutique. Please take a minute to check it out!

TTYS!

Allyson Ahlstrom

Back-to-School Backpack Event!

Threads for Teens will be hosting a backpack drive to help on August 27th, 2011. At this event, seventy-five girls will be given backpacks filled with school supplies that might not have been able to afford them otherwise. There are two ways that you can help.

1. Sponsor a backpack filled with supplies by donating $20. For $20, Threads for Teens will fill a backpack with your donation.
2. Fill a backpack with school supplies and donate it directly to Threads for Teens. Here is the list of supplies that will be needed in each backpack:

One backpack

One notebook

One red pen

One pack of blue or black pens

One pencil holder

One pair of scissors

One 12" ruler

One glue stick

Four pencils

One packet of graph paper

One pack of colored pencils (12ct)

One pack of crayons (12 ct)

One binder

One highlighter

One pack of flash cards (100 ct)

One big pink eraser

Several small pencil head erasers

1 pack of #2 pencils (12ct)

2 pocket folders

1 pencil sharpener

If you are interested in helping out by donating $20, you can mail a check to Threads for Teens or you can donate online via PayPal.

or mail a check made out to Threads for Teens
Threads for Teens
ATTN: Allyson Ahlstrom
810 DenBeste Court Windsor, CA 95492

If you would like to help out by directly donating a backpack filled with supplies, that would be be great. You can drop off your backpack at the Threads for Teens location anytime between Monday the 21st and Friday the 26th. Hours being 7:00am-6:30pm. The address is: 810 DenBeste Court, Windsor, CA, 95492. A backpack donation box will be set out front. Please email me if you will be donating a backpack so I can anticipate the drop-off.

If you have any questions, please email me: allysonahlstrom@gmail.com
Thank you so much for your help!
Here's to this event being a HUGE success.
Thanks,
Allyson Ahlstrom

Water.

The other day, on Tuesday the 9th to be exact, I spilled a bottle of water on my computer. How did this happen, you ask? Well, here is the story.

That Tuesday, I was at my shop for an appointment with a lovely young lady who was shopping around. This girl was having a lot of fun and chose all pink items. Anyway, as I was talking to her foster mom, I was drinking water from huge a Smartwater water bottle (obviously this water doesn't make a person smart...). I didn't secure the cap each time I set it down, rather I just left the cap on the top of the bottle. Well as I was talking to the foster mom, BAM! My hand hits the water bottle and it spills all over my computer. I caught the water bottle quickly, but not quick enough. The computer screen turned black. Then, my mom had the brains to turn over the computer in a V position to let water leak out.

After the appointment was over, we rushed to the Apple Store, where I was quickly told that the computer would cost $770 to repair since my computer is out of warranty. UM NO WAY AM I PAYING $770 TO FIX A LAPTOP! So we went to a Mac Repair shop in town to see what they would have to say. Once again, I was quickly told that it would not be worth it to fix the computer. During this time, being the tech-savvy person I am (not really), posted on Facebook what had happened. Within a couple of minutes, my friend Synica commented on my status and told me not to fear because her dad fixes water damaged laptops all the time! YAYY!

On Saturday, my mom and I drove to Antioch where Synica's dad fixed my laptop. Besides that, he added more RAM and upgraded my operating system so thank you so much! I have to say, my computer runs much faster than it did before....maybe water is the cure to a slow computer? Just joking, but in all seriousness, it does run faster.

TTYS

Allyson Ahlstrom

"Agents of Change"

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to do an interview with the site KooDooZ. KooDooZ is a social networking site for kids that want to make a difference in their communities, countries, and event the world. It honestly is a great tool for when a young person just is starting out in wanting to make a difference. The site is a great tool, and one that I would highly recommend. The interview went great. Thank you for having me Brandi, Dani, and everyone else at KooDooZ!

During the interview, one of the phrases that was used was "agents of change". That really stood out to me, because I believe that if everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot! A lot of people think that it takes so much work and effort to help out, but it really doesn't! I do spend a lot of time on Threads for Teens, but none of it is hard work, it is all fun. This post is going to highlight different resources on how to start your own project.

First of all, KooDooz is an excellent resource to get motivated and have fun. I would highly recommend that you join the site! Who knows, soon you might see a familiar face on there ;)!

DoSomething.org is another incredible website to network with other young philanthropists and learn many things about running a charity project. I have a project posting for Threads for Teens on DoSomething. By having a project posting, I am able to apply for a grants which is a great resource. There are not many grants out there for young people. DoSomething also has this incredible online "university" that teaches many things about running a charity project. The information is invaluable as it addresses topics like getting corporate donors, marketing, etc. These informational videos and articles are great because the information contained within them is not easily found on the internet. Click HERE to go to DoSomething University.

The book Generation Change by Zach Hunter is the book that helped to motivate me to start my own project. It has many different organizations profiled, with information on how to help those organizations or how to start a project similar to the ones profiled.

Allyson Ahlstrom

The Carroll Shelby Foundation Benefit/Open House

Last night I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Carroll Shelby Foundation Benefit put on by Lori and Bill DenBeste. It was such an amazing event; I had an absolute blast. Thank you very much to the DenBestes for having me!

I brought three of my friends to help out at the event: Natalie, Katie, and Heidi. Also, my friend Synica also was there to help. We arrived and greeted people at the entrance as they walked in. After doing that for an hour and a half, we went into the event and were able to enjoy a VERY yummy dinner of Spaghetti with Meatballs, vegetables, veal, and some other food items. At this point, I was asked to go on stage and speak. Here is my speech:

During the event, a generous man said he would donate $200 if someone matched him with that donation. Well, it seemed to me that everyone in the whole place raised their hand! At the end of the night, Threads for Teens raised over $5,000 dollars!!!!!!! WOW, thank you! That is absolutely incredible. When I figure out what Threads for Teens will do with that money, I will most definitely be updating this blog.

After I spoke, Mr. Carroll Shelby spoke about his foundation. Which does some pretty incredible things for children. Check out his foundation HERE. Then there was a live auction. I have to say, auctioneers really have a lot of talent. I definitely would not be able to talk that fast. I had enough trouble following the whole auction. The auction was incredibly exciting to watch. My friends and I had a blast. THANK YOU SO SO MUCH TO LORI & BILL DENBESTE FOR INVITING ME TO ATTEND. :D Here is a picture of my friends and me at the event with Carroll Shelby.

(Natalie, Me, Carroll, Katie, and Heidi)

Also, my Open House event went incredibly well. I was very happy that everyone that came to the boutique had the opportunity to fully understand how Threads for Teens works. Thank you to everyone that was able to come. Sometime in the future I will have another event so anybody that was unable to attend, might be able to see the boutique.

TTYS

Allyson Ahlstrom