Terrible.

I'm absolutely terrible at blogging. I've had many blogs before this one, and they always end up the same. Slowly, posting slips and slips until it is essentially non-existent. Fortunately, those blogs really didn't have readers, so I never felt bad about not posting. However, with this blog, I do feel terrible as I know that I definitely have readers that want to know what's going on with Threads for Teens. One of my New Years Resolutions is to update this blog more. I will do it!

First off, I hope everybody has been well since the last time I updated. Second off, a lot of CRAZY things have been happening. I cannot wait to announce them officially on the blog. I promise, readers, you guys will be the first to know. In general news, lately I have been sending out a ton a letters in hopes of getting new donors for Threads for Teens. As of today, I know that the batch of about 50 I sent was successful. I'm pretty sure that Threads has a new donor! This place is great. I will give more news on that as more comes available to me.

Secondly, I entered en essay contest called "The Santa Rosa Violet Richardson Soroptimist Award" and won! I just got the letter in the mail. What this consists of is a $250 donation to Threads and I get to go to a luncheon in march. Also, my entry will be forwarded on to the regional level. That really made my day, along with a couple of other Threads for Teens related happenings. Definitely, this new year has brought in a lot of good.

Lastly, I have been reading a really good book lately called "Goals" by Brian Tracy. It has really helped me to put pin-point what I want to accomplish with my life and how to achieve those goals. The main thing that I have learned is to write down your goals! If you do that, you are much more likely to achieve them.

Well, I will blog soon!
www.twitter.com/threadsforteens

-Allyson Ahlstrom :)

Update

Hi everyone, it has been a little over a month since I have updated this blog. A lot of sad things have happened to me personally since then. Threads For Teens is going great, but I would like to elaborate on the things going on in my personal life right now.

I go to Ursuline High School, and as many people already know, it is closing. Our whole school was delivered this news a couple of weeks ago with no warning signs at all. It was one of the worst school days ever. I am very disheartened about this news and wish that something could have been done to reverse the decision. However, I will be attending Cardinal Newman High School in the fall. CN was very generous in accepting all of us Ursuline girls. We are definitely most thankful. Here are a few newspaper article about the closing:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20101110/ARTICLES/101119937

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20101110/ARTICLES/101119991

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20101111/ARTICLES/101119870


Now, onto Threads For Teens related news. Right now I am currently in the process of applying for a 501 c 3. It is a very long process and I just turned in my paperwork. Hopefully that will get everything rolling and it will go a bit faster. Thankfully, I am wroking with a lawyer so I don't have to do this all on my own.

I don't have much to say right now! I am kind of just in a waiting period. There will be an update when I have more information to tell. Hopefully that will be sooner than later!! :)

SEE YOU SOON!
-Allyson Ahlstrom

"This is like a dream"

Hello bloggers! I hope all is well since the last time this was updated. So much new stuff has happened since then. I feel terrible since I have not put on a new post with all of this information. Please forgive me.

We had several GREAT newspaper articles written about us:

The Press Democrat

click HERE

The Windsor Times

click HERE

The press has really helped a lot with getting the word out there. Hopefully there will be some news crews coming up soon to film. We have had some interest. :)

So far there have been seventeen girls that have come in. Seeing these girls face as they walk in, has been so incredible. I can see how grateful they all are. Today, a girl came into the shop that was so cute.

She loved everything and had a blast. I kept hearing her say "This is like a dream," "I can't believe this is happening to me," or "This is every girl's dream!" That is what I LOVE about doing this. This isn't about me at all, it is about these girls. Although I feel that I have received something larger than these girls. It has been as much a blessing for me as it is for them.

Today I spoke at my church. I enjoyed it a lot! Thank you Redwood Covenant Church! Here is a video of the interview.

Other stuff that is going on, is that Threads For Teens is becoming it's own 501 c 3! That is GREAT news. I will let you know exactly when that happens. If you would like to send a donation please email me at this address:

allysonbrianna@gmail.com

Here are some pictures of the shop:

Please become a fan on facebook as well!

click HERE

That's all for now!

Watch out for more! :)

Allyson Ahlstrom

MONDAY

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I have been EXTREMELY busy. I know that I keep saying that, but it's the truth. Anyway, so I'm going to give a recap of Monday.

Well, we got to finally start setting up the storefront! We brought everything from the storage unit over and started hanging stuff up. Then, a reported from the Windsor Times came and took some pictures. That was pretty cool! HERE is a link to the article. After that we went over to Coddingtown Mall because they said we could take clothing racks from the old Gottschalks. That was actually a lot of fun.

After that we went back and continued to set everything up. We pretty much finished that night, so for Tuesday, we only had a couple of things that we had to do. Anyway, after that we went to Office Depot because the people that donated the space, the DenBeste's, said that we should fill the backpacks we were giving away with school supplies. Thank you much Mr. & Mrs. DenBeste!!!

Then we went home. It was really fun. Okay so tomorrow I'm going to recap tuesday!!!

TTYS!

-Allyson Ahlstrom

PS: remember to suggest people to become fans of our facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Threads-For-Teens/10150105122060512?ref=ts

This week is finally here!

WOW! Tomorrow the Threads For Teens Event begins. I have been waiting for this moment since January, and it's really a great feeling. In less than 24 hours Threads For Teens will have it's very first customers. These past two days it has been a mad dash of getting all of the last minute things together. I will start with a quick recap of saturday.

On saturday a very good friend of mine named Kayla came down to visit me here in Sonoma County. I have known her since the second grade. :) I felt kind of bad because our whole day was spent running errands for the project, but nevertheless we had a ton of fun.

The first thing we did was go to Wet Seal where we spent a couple of minutes speaking with managers and getting the necessary approvals to obtain some of there unused clothing racks for Threads' boutique. While we were there, a grand opening sort of event was going on and there was a raffle to be entered. My mom, sister, Kayla and I entered the raffle, of course not expecting to win at all.

Next we did some shopping, looking for some clothing tops to make our inventory a bit larger. While we were at TJ Maxx shopping around, we came across these really cute, reusable shopping bags that were really big. The best part was that they only cost 99cents!!! Of course we picked out eleven of them so that the girls would have something to carry home their clothing choices. I wish I had a picture to show! I'll try and remember to take one tomorrow. :)

After that we got a phone call saying that Kayla had won the raffle at Wet Seal! She was so happy because Kayla seems to think that she has bad luck, because she was never won anything before. Well, now she can't say that as she is the proud new owner of a bucket of candy...wrappers...we ate all of the candy right after she won it. Kayla was very generous and made sure to share a ton.

We went to the storage unit after going to Wet Seal again to pick up the candy and then went to my storage unit where I had fun showing Kayla around. We tried on some outfits and had a lot of fun! I will put up some pictures.

The last thing we did before she had to leave was make a poster boards with all of the names and logos of places that donated to Threads For Teens. We didn't really budget our time well, so the majority of the poster was made in the car while driving her back to her grandma's house in Napa. Let me tell you, it was an absolute blast! Glitter glue was all over the car, ourselves and the poster. We both got so much glitter on each other that we had to take an "emergency" bathroom break to get it off. I will take a picture of that tomorrow. All around, it was an excellent day and I'm so happy that I got to spend it with such a great friend.

That's all for now! I have to get back to work and finish some last minute things. I will do a recap of monday soon, today and the days to come. Look out for those posts.

XOXOXO

Allyson Ahlstrom

so soon

In less than TWO WEEKS the Threads For Teens event will take place. I cannot believe it! Lately, I been working on making sure that all last minute details are in place. This is includes, going through inventory, getting clothing sizes for the girls, picking up hangers and clothing racks, and all of that crazy stuff!

Something exciting that I did last night was have a meeting to organize a press release. It should be sent out next week. Now, if you don't know what a press release is, here is an explanation. Basically it is sent out to different media outlets (newspapers, magazines, radio stations, tv stations, etc.) and if any of the media outlets are interested in doing a piece on what is in the press release they will contact the person that sent it out. So, it would be so amazing if any media outlet picked up the story of Threads For Teens, because it would give it so much more publicity and the chance for more people to donate. This could help out so much!

That's all for now!

Allyson Ahlstrom

the time is almost here!

Everything is happening so quickly! In 17 days Threads For Teens will have officially kicked off. I seriously cannot believe how great everything has gone and that this project has became so much bigger than I ever thought that it would become. Of course, I could never be able to have done this all on my own. So many tremendous people have helped me out throughout these past couple of months and without them, Threads For Teens will not be what it is today. Anyway, this blog post is not dedicated to thank you's. That will be coming in a later blog.

Lately I've mostly been dedicating my time to picking up last minute donations and documenting them so I know what I need to buy. I have also started picking up some items that were not donated, but I needed to "fill in the gaps". I have received several VERY generous cash donations. You do not know how much those are helping this project.

The other big, big thing that I have been working hard with? Finding girls to come and "shop" at the boutique. This really has been so humbling because these girls I'm working with have so little. It is my privilege to help them out. Honestly, if everybody in the world were to just dedicate a little time each week to volunteer at something they believe in, we might not have as many problems in the world as we do today. This whole notion reminds me of the song "If Everybody Cared" by Nickelback. It's a really great song, and really makes you think. I would highly recommend listening to it.

Well, I'll put some pictures up later! I know that reading all of this is probably quite boring, but I didn't really have much of anything to take a picture.

TTYS!

-Allyson Ahlstrom