DECEMBER NEWS

2011 – WHAT A YEAR FOR HAPPYBOTTOMS

2011 was a year of amazing accomplishments at HB. Did you know we started in January with no diapers? That’s right. The current leadership team of Pam, Linda and Liz started in January with a great website, some files on our current partner agencies, a great name and 501c3 designation and an envelope with a little over $1000. In this letter we would like to share our accomplishments and thank all the wonderful partners, donors, sponsors and volunteers who made them happen!

FACTS AND FIGURES – OOPS – I Mean Diapers!

We began distributing to our partner agencies in April of this year. Since April 18^th, we have distributed 166,842 diapers! The number of children we have provided diapers to each month has grown from 148 children in April to 450 in November. We expect that December’s number will be close to 900 as we added new agencies and provided a one-time distribution to the Johnson County Christmas Bureau’s Christmas Shop to give diapers to 300 children in Johnson County, KS, for the holidays! Our other new partner agencies are True Light Family Resource Center, Synergy Services and reStart Inc  bringing the total number of agencies we distribute diapers to each month to 14!

DONATIONS and DOLLARS

As I mentioned, HB started the year with a little over $1000. We finished the year having raised over $55,000 through the generous support of our donors, sponsor organizations and writing and receiving several grants. If you follow us, you know we have no paid employees and maintain the lowest possible overhead to provide the greatest number of diapers to children who need them. We also received in-kind donations of products and services that have allowed us to experience tremendous growth. We plan to share all the details on our success when we file our financial/information return -  Form 990.

DECEMBER”S BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS….

Distributing diapers from our new warehouse space! We made the news once again thanks to NBC Action News KSHB- 41. Here is the clip if you have not seen it. In December we distributed 39,746 diapers from our new space at Hope Faith Ministries. We want to thank HFM for their generous donation of space as we could not have achieved this success without their wonderful support.

EXCITING EVENTS DROVE DECEMBER SUCCESS

December was our biggest month for Drives and Events to date thanks to the following organizations –

M!NT rallied Gordon Biersch and Spaces Magazine to hold a shopping event on December 15^th

The Overland Park South Rotary presented a matching grant of $1500 to HB at our Open House at Hope Faith Ministries on December 14^th 

Children’s Mercy Hospital donated $500 to our cause this month!

The Quilters Guild of Greater Kansas City, Research College of Nursing RSNA, P.E.O. Chapter LJ, The YMCA of Greater Kansas City, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Prairie Life Fitness Centers and Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church all did drives for HappyBottoms this month!

T-SHIRTS NOW ON SALE – GET YOURS TODAY

We have our t-shirts on sale through our website. Click here to check them out. When you purchase a t-shirt you are making a tax deductible donation of $10 to HappyBottoms in addition to getting a very cool shirt. Wouldn’t it be great to see these all over the metro – or perhaps the country??

THANKS, THANKS and MORE THANKS

Our list of organizations and individuals who we are thankful to continues to grow each month. Here are just a few of the names of those who make our mission possible. (For more great supporters, please scroll through our previous newsletters.)

Kebra Rios of Tastefully Simple for donating food for our Open House and Vicki George for donating desserts.

Marti Bodenhamer of M!NT, Jennifer Demerath of SPACES, and Chris Stuewe of Gordon Biersch  for making the shopping event at M!NT an incredible success.

Prairie Life Fitness of Overland Park and Bank of the West of Lees Summit  for becoming new drop sites.

Courtney Wasson of Busy Bee for donating her graphic design skills to help create an educational brochure for HB. (More to come on this in January!)

Arbor Pharmaceuticals for funding the printing of our educational brochure.

Kerry Adam for turning her holiday party into a fundraiser for HappyBottoms.

VML for agreeing to continue to support HappyBottoms in 2012 with a redesign of our website. Just wait until you see how awesome that will be! (Considering it is pretty awesome already.)

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW

As we look to 2012 and what HappyBottoms needs to accomplish to help Kansas City babies in need have diapers, we look to you and ask again for your ongoing support. Our 2012 goal is to provide diapers to 800 children per month- but that only covers 20% of the need in our community. Too many babies have days without clean, dry diapers. HappyBottoms has the ability to serve more than 800 children each month - but we need more funding to do so. That is where you come in. It is not too late to make a tax deductible donation for 2011 or make a jumpstart with your 2012 giving. We will be needing diapers and dollars 365 days a year – every year. So as you enjoy your holidays, think about making a baby’s holiday a little cleaner, dryer and warmer by donating to HappyBottoms.

Liz

Don’t forget to check out our upcoming events by clicking here.

NOVEMBER NEWS

RECORD BREAKING MONTH FOR HAPPYBOTTOMS!

November was a month for the record books for HappyBottoms. We provided diapers to a record number of children, received a record number of donated diapers and crossed the 200,000 diapers distributed milestone. This month 450 children received diapers from HappyBottoms. In the 8 months we have been operating with new leadership we have grown from 148 children our first month to 450 today. And we are not done yet! We can’t wait to report on December!

DID YOU KNOW?

Last month when we sent this letter we knew we were getting 250,000 diapers. Did you know we had no place to put them? Thanks to the incredible generosity of Hope Faith Ministries we now have our own warehouse space to store our diapers! This collaboration is proving to be amazing. We not only have the space but all the tools we need to distribute our diapers. Plus we have great support from Desiree Monize and her incredible team at Hope Faith. Beginning in December HFM will become one of our partner agencies and we will begin distributing diapers to 200 homeless children in the Kansas City community by partnering with them. This amazing partnership is allowing HappyBottoms to grow at an accelerated rate to serve our community. We could not be more thankful.

BECOME AN AMBASSADOR

We kicked off a new program at HappyBottoms for people who would like to help us called the HappyBottoms Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are a group of volunteers who will go and spread the news from HappyBottoms to help create awareness of the need for diapers in the Greater Kansas City Metro area. They will advertise and support our events and encourage donations. Would you like to become an Ambassador? Please contact our Program Chair, Joe Calhoun, at joe@happybottoms.org.

YES! SUCCESS! AT OUR FIRST HAPPY HOUR FOR HAPPYBOTTOMS

November the 10^th was a great night for HappyBottoms as we held our first Happy Hour for HappyBottoms at Coal Vines on the Country Club Plaza. Our thanks to Coal Vines for the outstanding  appetizers and a great setting to hold our first event. We had over 40 new HappyBottoms supporters come out that evening. All reported having a great time while getting a chance to learn a little about what we do. Would you like to attend our next Happy Hour? Please contact us at admin@happybottoms.org  for more details.

SEEN ON TV! THAT”S RIGHT – WE MADE THREE DIFFERENT STATIONS THIS MONTH!

HappyBottoms was on FOX 4, KSMO, and KSHB NBC Action News! Our thanks to FOX 4 and Tess Koppelman for covering the donation of diapers from Huggies and the National Diaper Bank Network, to Dana Wright with KSMO’s Your Kansas City for interviewing us and to Frank Boal of KSHB NBC Action News and Certified Transmission for selecting us for Job Done Right. Click here to see the clips.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

We have so many people to thank this month for their generous support I am worried we will forget someone. Let’s start with card making an pie baking. Thanks to:

 Aubrey Bend Middle School for making holiday cards for the children who receive diapers from HappyBottoms and collecting $186.32 in a change drive to help “change a baby.”

Harmony Middle School’s Helping Hands – for baking the yummiest Dutch Apple Pies at HyVee at 135^th and Antioch and raising $

Teri Kehm – for telling her friends – “don’t buy me a gift for my birthday – just make a donation to HappyBottoms”. This little birthday party donated $455 to the cause!

Coal Vines on the Plaza for hosting our first Happy Hour for HappyBottoms!

The Lenexa Rotary Foundation for providing a $500 grant to HappyBottoms!

Trabon Companies for donating printing! (Again)

Posterworx – for making the coolest banner ever to hang at our diaper distribution and VML for designing it on very short notice!

WHAT YOU CAN DO – DONATE TODAY

You have read all the great things that continue to happen for HappyBottoms – so it is time to ask you to help us keep growing to meet the needs of the community. You may think we don't need you as we have 250,000 diapers. That is the furthest thing from being true. If you follow us you are beginning to see how overwhelming the need for baby diapers is for low income families in our community. We estimate that 250,000 is about enough to supply the children who need them for one month. If we ever hope to get diapers to those children we need your help. Please consider making a donation to HappyBottoms through our holiday fund drive today. Our goal is to raise $10,000. Just click on the bright red square on every page of our website to find out how. If you would like to create a Wish for HappyBottoms for the holidays through Causes, just click here to get started.

On behalf of all the HappyBottoms volunteers, we wish you the happiest of holidays and thank you for your support.

Liz

BREAKING NEWS! HAPPYBOTTOMS TO RECEIVE 250,000 DIAPERS

Yes – you read that headline right. On November 15^th, HappyBottoms will receive 250,000 diapers from Huggies as part of the launch of the National Diaper Bank Network. (NDBN article click here.)

This incredible donation will allow us to immediately serve more children who have no other source for diapers by taking on additional agency partners who will provide the diapers to the children each month.

A new collaboration with Hope Faith Ministries helped to make this donation possible as HappyBottoms will be using warehouse space provided by Hope Faith Ministries. Please click here to go to their website. This new partnership will also mean that HappyBottoms will provide diapers to Hope Faith Ministries as a partner agency and will be able to reach children who are homeless in our community.

Even though 250,000 diapers sounds like a big number, we will only be scratching the surface of filling the gap in the need for diapers for KC babies. When we use the poverty statistics for the Greater Kansas City metropolitan area we conservatively estimate the need for baby diapers at over 200,000 per month. This means we must continue to ask for donations of dollars and diapers to grow to meet this basic need.

In October we provided diapers for 450 children. After partnering with Hope Faith Ministries we will likely be serving well over 600 children per month. The sad thing is there will still be over 500 children on our waiting list.

It’s a big job to try to fill this gap for babies in KC and we would love to have your help. Please consider volunteering or making a donation today. Then we can really provide Life. Liberty. And Diapers. For All.

OCTOBER NEWS

BREAKING NEWS!  

Check our website on November 7^th for some very exciting news for HappyBottoms and our community! If you like our Facebook page – HappyBottoms.org – you will automatically receive an update.

 Record Distribution Month – HappyBottoms Hits New Milestone

September was the largest monthly distribution in the history of HappyBottoms. We provided diapers for 409 children in September. HappyBottoms also hit a new milestone with the October distribution. We have distributed over 100,000 diapers to our partner agencies since April. 106,778 to be exact. Thanks to all our terrific donors and sponsors who helped make this happen.

Fund A Cause Success at the KC CAN! Auction – THANK YOU!

On Friday night October 14^th we had the honor of speaking to the attendees of the KC CAN! Auction which was followed by auctioneer, Tanna Guthrie, asking the audience to donate to HappyBottoms. . We owe a very special thank you to Peter and Veronica Mallouk and the entire Board of Directors for KC CAN! for their incredible support of HappyBottoms this year.

Tanna started the bidding at $1000! Thanks to her terrific auctioneering skills, the generosity of the incredible donors and the opportunity provided by KC CAN!, HappyBottoms raised $10,650. It was amazing. The Board’s recognition of our cause, their donations of diapers and their willingness to make HappyBottoms the Fund a Cause with their supporters was unimaginable. We also want to thank each of the individuals who donated for helping HappyBottoms help KC families in need.

New Drop Site – Dave and Busters at the Legends

HappyBottoms now has its first Wyandotte county drop site as Dave and Busters at the Legends is hosting a donation bin. We truly appreciate Greg and his team allowing us to place a barrel there. If you are looking to donate diapers or dollars you will find all the drop site locations on every page of our website. We want to thank all these generous merchants. As a reminder, we do take those open packages, so please bring them to us and don't throw them away.

Spreading our Message at Recent Speaking Engagements

HappyBottoms would like to thank the Village West Rotary Club, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, the EWGA KC Metro Chapter and the Quilters Guild of Greater Kansas City for allowing us to speak to their members and spread our message of the need for diapers in our community. The EWGA completed a drive raising $205 and 340 diapers! The Quilters are holding their drive in November and December. Many thanks to all these organizations for helping us provide diapers to babies in need in KC.

 More Media

Watch for us on the NBC Action News Segment – Job Done Right – with Frank Boal. This spot is supported by Certified Transmission who provides a donation to a KC Charity every week. We are very thankful to have been selected to receive the donation and the recognition and the air time.

Upcoming Events

Aubrey Bend Middle School, (Blue Valley School District) will be making holiday cards for all the HappyBottoms kids on November 1^st. They will follow this with a loose change drive. Their change will help us change a baby!

Harmony Helping Hands  – a group of Harmony Middle School Students - will be at HyVee at 135^th and Antioch in Overland Park making Dutch apple pies on November 18^th from 4:30 to 6:30pm and the 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.. All proceeds will go to HappyBottoms. Come on out and buy a pie!

The first Happy Hour for HappyBottoms will be held on November 10^th from 4:15 to 6:30 at Coal Vines on the Country Club Plaza. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to liz@happybottoms.org

HB t-shirts will go on sale in November. We will post on Facebook how to get your very own HappyBottoms t-shirt.

Our holiday fundraising campaign will kick off around Thanksgiving. More details heading your way soon.

The first HB video will be on our Facebook page in November.

Why Diapers

You may wonder why we work as hard as we do at HappyBottoms and why we get so excited when someone joins our cause - so let me try to help you understand why we say ask not what diapers can do for you, ask what diapers can do for your community.

November will be another milestone month at HappyBottoms. We will distribute the 200,000^th diaper since our organization started. That is a big number. The good news is we will have distributed 200,000 diapers. The bad news is, it took us two years to get there. When you look at the greater Kansas City Metro Area and calculate the need for diapers it is about 200,000 diapers per month! So we have only scratched the surface of providing this basic need to low income families in KC.

That is why we would love for you to volunteer or just spread the word that HappyBottoms is working to make a difference for babies in KC. Just send us a note and join the team.

Liz

SEPTEMBER NEWS

September sizzled for HappyBottoms. Our weather cooled down in KC but HappyBottoms activity continued to gear up!

We started the month by adding two new agencies to our current partner list. Welcome to The Upper Room and Bridge of Hope! When an agencies moves to the current partner list that means we at HappyBottoms commit to supplying diapers for their children on a monthly basis. This brings our total number of children served each month to 340.

We also welcomed back our intern from Rockhurst University, Beth Beckman, who is helping us by working with our drop locations and taking the things she is learning in her Non-Profit curriculum and applying them at HappyBottoms. We are pleased to share we have another intern who has joined our team, Kathryn Deck. Kathryn is a communications major at Kansas University and is helping us with social media and marketing. Beth and Kathryn are working together on several campaigns you will be hearing about in future news

Our first Board of Directors meeting was September 14^th. It is incredible to put powerful people in a room and turn them loose on a problem. Our board prioritized fundraising and warehouse space as our top two priorities. If our goal is to serve all the kids on our waiting list and keep accepting new agencies, we absolutely must become successful fundraisers. This means finding individuals in our community who can help us grow by giving us the funding to do so. Even if we held multiple successful diaper drives every week we would still need to money to support our infrastructure.

Here is an example – we need at least 2500 square feet of warehouse space. (We could really use closer to 5000 – but we are trying not to be greedy.) We had hoped to get the space donated – but so far we cannot find anyone who is willing to donate space. So, we started pricing space. To get 2500 square feet it will cost us $1900 a month or almost $24,000 per year. That’s a lot of money. Money we don't have – yet.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the drift. Distributing diapers is an expensive proposition even when you get great support through drives. If you know someone who may want to help fund us – or has a warehouse – can you please send them our way?

Now for September “thank you’s” -

 Overland Park South Rotary Club did a diaper drive for us and collected over 200 diapers and $437!

TPP Certified Public Accounts agreed to donate their time to do a year end review of our financials!

KC CAN! made another donation of over 7000 diapers! The support from this great organization is absolutely incredible. Don’t forget to come to their auction on October 14^th as they have selected HB as their” fund a cause” that evening. You could support two great organizations in one night!

Radio Disney – thanks for interviewing us. We appreciate the support to increase awareness of the need for diapers.

Blue Springs Harley Davidson – thanks for dong a drive for us!

Coming next month….

T-shirt sales! We think you will like them and they should bring in a little cash.

E-Newsletter – please contact us about getting on our distribution list at admin@happybottoms.org

More publicity – we will break into another TV station – so exciting!

Now for the close. Pam and I had an opportunity to ride the Operation Breakthrough Urban Education Tour Bus on Wednesday. It was a real education. We drove right past 26^th and Prospect where the police had roped off the area of shooting. We learned two men died there that evening. How sad. The truly encouraging parts of the tour were getting to hear from parents who have pulled themselves up by their boot straps to escape this violence and take care of their children. The challenges to success for them are huge – but these parents are doing it all because of their love for their children. So please, while sitting in the safety of your environment, consider helping these families by donating to HappyBottoms.

Liz