Serving With Smiles Saratoga

Serving with smiles

2012-01-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

DON'T BE A GRINCH

“You don't need to be an agent to join this organization!”-Hoops & Yoyo

"WE LOOOOVE saving the world!"-CHARITY (the cutest baby on earth)

Serving with smiles is inviting you to join with them in helping the world! Find a location near you, and start saving the world.

2012 Resolution

2012-01-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

Make a resolution this year to make it out to our projects more often! Our numbers have dwindled a bit. Help us out and come have a great time with us too!

Our next project is Saturday Jan. 21, at 9am.

Summer's over and time to get back to Serving!

2011-08-25T12:36:00.001-07:00

Hope you all had a great Summer!
Our next project is coming up and we hope you're all excited to get back to serving with us! In the meantime, take advantage of all those back to school supply deals out there to bring to donate at our next project. We'll use those for school kits later for kids that need our help.

See you September 17th!

March Project

2011-03-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

We did so well this week! Congrats to everyone! We have a new project director. We would love to thank her! The new bead frogs are a hit but are a little complicated! Last time I think we had some new visitors! We learned more about the places our stuff goes. It was so touching to see people we had made happy. Retiring elders, homeless families, Ethiopian orphans, and so many more. We made so much for them this week! I'm so happy for all the people we get to help. We made 3 fuzzy warm fleece blankets, 3 cute bead frogs, 2 fierce bead geckos, 19 colorful pictures, 16 fuzzy scarves, 31 adorable bracelets, and 60 baby kits. The baby kits were our special projects. We made them for babies who are born needing supplies to be taken care of with. We put in lots of stuff like baby powder, 2 fuzzy towels, soap, etc. (for each bag). It was happy to think of all the babies that would get help! I hope everyone can come next time (the sidebar has our next date). Please come and help your fellow friends with a wondrous work to save the world, a couple people at a time!

Serving With Smiles goes to Ethiopia!

2011-02-22T15:28:00.001-08:00

Hello! My name is Amanda, and I am a guest blogger today on the SWS Blog. We had another great Serving With Smiles project this last Saturday. Lots of great kids showed up and lots of great things were accomplished. Thanks everyone! Hope to see you next time around!
I wanted to come on here and tell you a little bit about my experience taking the Serving With Smiles bracelets and Geckos to Ethiopia just a few weeks ago. My husband I traveled to Addis Ababa (that's the capital city of Ethiopia,) to appear in court for the finalization of our adoption of two beautiful children there.
We took with us on our trip lots of bracelets and geckos that our sweet Serving with Smiles children made here in Saratoga Springs Utah. We were able to deliver them to 3 different orphanages where the children absolutely loved them! They were thrilled!
I can't post pictures of the full faces of orphans that are not my own children here, so I've only included these two photos so you can get a little bit of an idea.
That's our son in this photo below! See how happy this gecko made him?! He's a serious boy, so it was so nice to see this nice big smile out of him! :)
We thought the children there would like these bracelets and geckos, but we didn't know that they were gonna go nuts over them! It made them so happy!!! What surprised us even more, is that the boys liked the bracelets too. The girls liked the geckos too. The adults all wanted bracelets! They wanted all the babies to have bracelets. These were a hit!

I will tell you a little story I like to call
"The miracle of the Serving With Smiles Bracelets."
Here's how it goes in a nutshell...
We take over two large ziplock bags with SWS bracelets and geckos in them. We think we need to be careful and ration these out carefully there in Ethiopia. We visit 3 orphanages and find that everyone, and we mean everyone in those orphanages want a bracelet! We don't have the heart to turn anyone down at all. So we give them all out. Guess what? Still there are bracelets left!
We decide we have enough left over to give some out to children on the streets. We do that for a few days. Guess what? STILL bracelets left over!
Finally, the last day we are left with a bag that is still about half way full of bracelets! How did this happen?!
We are getting ready to head to the airport. We give out bracelets to all the children we see around us on the street. No kids left. Still about 12 bracelets!
Suddenly a man honks his horn to get our attention. He hops out of his truck. He had watched us giving these out and was hoping he could get one too. We give him the rest of the bag and encounter no more children. We like to imagine him taking those home to his family who probably loved them. What a funny story hu?

Thanks for all your work you little humanitarians! You made lots and lots and lots of Ethiopians happy!

When we go back to Ethiopia in about a month, we'll be bringing your hygeine kits you made. Thanks so much! You're gonna make a lot more smiles with all that serving you have done. We really appreciate you!

January 2011 Project

2011-01-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

Some of our projects!

The quilt almost completed! (and now it is!)

Making geckos!

Hard at work!

As you can tell from the pictures above, everything is going wonderfully but don't get the idea we couldn't use your help! We successfully made 5 Winter hats (which are so cute and will be put to good use!), 1 quilt (what an accomplishment!), 2 fleece blankets (warm!), 6 bead geckos (so cool!), 39 bracelets (wow!), 23 scarves (amazing!), and finally, 39 happy pictures (perfectly colored).We also made hygiene kits. I am proud to congratulate the many people that showed up and helped. As for where the things are going: The geckos and bracelets are for several orphanages in Ethiopia. They will be brought there by my mom (no, I'm not going!). The pictures are going to a retirement center for the elderly. It was a great week and remember to come next time!

Serving With Smiles Visits the Maliheh Clinic

2011-01-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

We donated winter hats, gloves, bracelets & geckos and some toys we’ve collected.

People go to this clinic when they can’t afford to go to a regular clinic.

The doctors and nurses give our donations to the kids that come in to help them not be scared, and to keep them warm when they leave. 100’s of doctors, nurses, dentists and other people come work there for free in their spare time.

Crossroads Journal

2010-12-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

We got into the newspaper! It was great. They talked about some of our leaders, Jennifer Paulson, my mom, and me (though I'm not a leader but I do like doing our blog). It was a great article about what we do and all the kids that help out to make cool things for people in need. I think it even mentioned how we have guest humanitarians every project and how anyone can get in! It really helped people see how good Serving with Smiles is!

Trip to the Food Bank

2010-12-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Some of the Serving With Smiles kids at the Food Bank!

Notice!

2010-12-05T21:08:00.000-08:00

For our project on December 18th we will meet at a different building than usual. It's very close by. The address is 270 W Harvest Hills Blvd. This is the church building that is left at the first roundabout coming into Harvest Hills. Our next project will be on January 22, and we will meet in our regular building.

Watch for us!

2010-11-23T10:44:00.000-08:00

There will be an article in the Crossroads Paper about us! It will be the Dec. 2nd issue. So be sure to watch for us. We're famous!

November Project is Cancelled!

2010-11-07T18:50:00.000-08:00

Due to scheduling problems, we've had to cancel our November project. See you in December!

Tour the Utah Food Bank with us!

2010-10-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

We have scheduled a tour of the Utah Food Bank on November 6 at 10:00am. Parents need to bring their own children. Please let us know if you want to come tour it with us by October 30th! Click here to email us and let us know. Also, here is a link to their website:
Utah Food Bank
Their location is: 3150 S. 900 W. SLC

Information About Our October Project

2010-10-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 16 is our next project!

At this project in addition to our usual fun activities, we'll be collecting food for the Kid's Backpack Program at the Utah Food Bank. This program is designed to help children whose regular meals are breakfast and lunch at school. The Utah Food Bank gives these children backpacks of food so they will have something to eat until their next meal. We will also be scheduling a tour of the Utah Food Bank facility...on a Saturday morning. More information will be coming, but all SWS children and parents are invited to attend.

Here is a list of the most needed items:
Shelf-stable milk (8oz)
Peanut butter (12 oz)
Fruit cups (small cans with pop tops)
Veggie cups (small cans with pop tops)
Granola Bars (healthy varieties)
Boxed juice (6-8 oz)
Soup (pop top)
Tuna (easy open)
Cereal (small boxes, healthy varieties)
Fruit snacks (100% juice)
Kid size apple sauce
Instant oatmeal packs
Crackers
Sun flower seeds
Raisins
Instant breakfast
Trail or granola mixes

Please join us!

Photos and Stats from our September Project

2010-09-25T15:10:00.001-07:00

Our project was a lot of fun!
We made 20 Value Bracelets, 51 First Aid Kits,
18 Coloring Pages,
7 Geckos,
1 Hat, (these take a long time!)
3 Fleece Blankets were tied, and 1 Receiving Blanket was sewn.
We also worked on these stuffed socks too. We had worked on these at another project before. They will be going to Indian Reservations in Arizona.
Kathi Andersen came to talk to us about Haiti. She has gone there several times to help out since they had their earthquake. It's tough in Haiti! She said they give our bracelets and geckos to kids when they come into their clinics.
Hope to see you there next time!

September Project

2010-09-20T07:55:00.000-07:00

This Saturday September 25th from 9-10 am is our next project! Come to the church at 2181 N. Harvest Moon Drive (our regular meeting place).
We'll be doing projects such as: making bracelets, hats, first aid kits, geckos, receiving blankets, and color a smile!
Also, wear your Serving With Smiles T-shirts to school on Thursday and invite your friends to come. See you there!

Back in Action

2010-07-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

We've taken a break this Summer, but we have a meeting in August! Be sure to pick up some extra school supplies as you're shopping for them these next several weeks! Here's the info:

Calling all Serving with Smilers!

We've missed seeing you the last few months and are excited to meet again soon.

Here is the Serving With Smiles schedule for August and September.

August 21 at 9:00am will be a mini project.
Come to the church at 2181 N. Harvest Moon Drive (our regular meeting place).
Bring school supply donations to drop off. (See the list below.)
We will not be working on projects.

Our regular meetings will start again on September 18 at 9 am.

School supplies that are needed:

Spiral notebooks

Children's scissors

Pencils

Pencil sharpeners

Erasers (not pencil top erasers)

Rulers

Colored pencils

May-August Plans

2010-04-18T18:36:00.001-07:00

This is what is happening with Serving With Smiles Saratoga May - August!
(Below is a description from our SWS American Fork friends.)

Remember to mark your calendar for a very special 3 year anniversary project next May 15! This project will be held at an LDS Stake Center at 690 W. 600 N. in American Fork from 9 - 10:30 a.m (note time change). American Fork Serving With Smiles and Saratoga Springs Serving With Smiles are combining this month! We also have a very special guest speaker and singer, Jenny Phillips who will share her experiences traveling with her choir to South Africa plus entertain us!! Of course we will have yummy treats afterward.

Please note that after the June 5 project, we will not have a July project and the August project will be a mini-project to only collect school kit supplies (we like to take advantage of the mega sales of school supplies at that time of year).

April's Project

2010-04-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

Today we had our Serving with Smiles's April Project. It was a very accomplished project!! We were able to make:
2 blankets sewn,
5 bead geckos,
1 quilt tied,
6 fleece blankets tied,
33 Coloring Pages to make someone out there smile,
1 hat crocheted,
25 hygiene kits,
We also did a very special project where we made 100 hygiene kit socks. This is how we made them: Each table got 15 socks, and stuffed them with multi-colored toothbrushes, toothpaste, a comb, lotion, shampoo, and a tiny soap bar. We will make school supplies socks in our June project. Then we will give these socks to Circle of Love (another service group) and they will take these socks to Arizona and give them to children on Indian Reservations.
We also had about 40 kids there. You should come to our next projects. I'm really glad we have Serving with Smiles, it's been such a great experience. It's a really good feeling to know that we're helping people in the world. My mom wishes she had this opportunity when she was a kid.

P.S. Remember our next project (May 15th) will be in American Fork but, it will probably be our best and most fun project this year because it's going to be a celebration of the 3 year anniversary of Serving with Smiles! You better come!!!!

The Next Projects

2010-03-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

It would be great if everyone could come to our May and April's Projects even though our May project is in American Fork. We're going to have SO MUCH FUN! It will be the best project ever! The reason is, we're celebrating the 3 year anniversary of Serving with Smiles. The SWS group in American Fork and our Saratoga Springs group are going to combine for a very special activity! I would love to see everyone there. So please show up!

March Project

2010-03-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

We had another fun, successful, activity! Yet again, the Serving with Smiles Group were able to help many people out! On, March 13th, lots of kids showed up at the Serving with Smile's March Project. They (including me!) were doing a very special project along with the usual projects, this project was a teddy bear, an Easter egg with a piece of chocolate in it, a picture frame, a flower seed packet, all in an Easter basket. Why did we do this? This was our gift to the siblings of recently lost stillborn or miscarried infants. We were able to make 28 of those and take them to the American Fork Hospital. We also made: 6 file folder games, 15 finger plays, 6 matching games, and 2 sensory bins for the Harvest Hill Elementary's Autistic Preschool, 5 fleece blankets, and 2 quilts. What a successful project, huh? I can't wait 'til April's Project!

February Project

2010-02-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

On February 20th we had our Serving with Smiles activity. Lots of kids showed up. We made 39 bracelets, 5 bead geckos, 26 sets of rhythm sticks, and 26 sets of sand blocks. We tied 5 fleece blankets and one quilt. We were able to send 18 donated coats, the 5 fleece blankets we had tied, and 20 hygiene kits to a road home in Midvale. Our meeting was quite a success!

Preparing for February's Project

2010-02-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

During our project in February, we'd like to collect coats of all sizes to donate to the shelter in Midvale, Utah.
If you have any coats you can spare, bring them with you!
See you Feb. 20th!

Images from our December '09 and January '10 Projects

2010-01-31T16:44:00.000-08:00

An explanation for kids; written by a kid like you. (10 years-old)

2010-01-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or does it sometimes feel like the world is going to fall to it's knees if we don't work to help it? Destruction seems to never end. Hopes fail sometimes. Don't get depressed though! There is a way to help! In Saratoga Springs there's a children's program that wants to prevent that from happening. They work once a month to help a part of the world where the human race needs a lot of help! Such as Haiti, destitute places in Africa, even a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City! This program is called Serving with Smiles. This is a program for children. Here's how the program works: The Directors (or grown-ups) and children gather once a month in a church building in the neighborhood. The directors of the projects had bought the supplies for their project beforehand. Then they set up some tables around the gym. By the time the the children arrive all the tables are set up and each table has a fun project for the kids to do. The projects are things such as making bracelets, bead geckos, hats, story books, etc. Each kid can pick ANY of the projects available! It's our choice not the grownups! After most of the projects are done, we clean up and listen to a guest speaker and then sometimes make kits. We make Humanitarian Kits, Baby Kits, Hygiene Kits, etc. After that it's time to go home. This process only takes 1 HOUR! What do we do with the kits, then? We send them to a part of the world in need. The same goes for the projects we make. Guess what, it's also free! They love donations though so they can buy more supplies for kits! How do I know so much about it? Well I happen to go to this program! Believe it or not, I'm just a normal 10 year old girl!