Namaste Inc.

Thank you for your continued patience while awaiting the announcement for the charity drive raffle contest to support Soldier’s Angels.  Soldiers’ Angels is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) non-profit with hundreds of thousands of volunteers providing aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, veterans and their families.  They do this in a variety of ways, including sending handmade items to soldiers in the battlefield or in their hospital bed.  In addition, Soldier’s Angels currently donates to 93 Veteran’s Associations across the states. The following handmade (knit or crochet) items will be accepted in exchange for a raffle ticket to win one of our prizes:

• blankets/lapghans
• hats
• scarves
• prayer shawls
• trach bibs
• wheelchair/walker totes
• knitted/crocheted helmet liners

Yarn should be washable/dryable.  Variety of colors/patterns are appreciated.  For more information regarding patterns/suggestions for the above stated items, go to http://soldiersangels.org/crochet-craft.html

We at Namaste are accepting handmade donations in the form of any of the above mentioned items.  Each item submitted will earn the creator 1 raffle ticket, so the more items you send, the more chances you have to win in the prize drawing.  Each submission must include contact information of the sender, including email address, phone number, and address.

PRIZES:

3rd place: Hip Holster

2nd place: Messenger bag

1st place: Messenger bag & Hip Holster

Winners will be announced via blog post on September 10th 2010 and we will accept donations from now until then.

Please read below for more information reagarding Soldier’s Angels, the organization that will be the recipient of our charity drive.  As mentioned above, for specific pattern suggestions, please go to the Soldier’s Angels website:  http://soldiersangels.org/crochet-craft.html.  These patterns are intended as suggestions, but feel free to modify as you wish.

“May No Soldier Go Unloved,” encapsulates the motivation behind Soldiers’ Angels.   The volunteers of Soldiers’ Angels work tirelessly to demonstrate active care and concern for veterans, the wounded, deployed service members and their families.  To date, the Soldier’s Angels volunteers have sent hundreds of thousands of care packages and letters to deployed service members; they have supplied the wounded with their First Response Packs directly at the Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan and the major military hospital in Germany, as well as provided care and comfort to those in stateside military and VA facilities and have provided emergency aid to military families in need.

www.soldiersangels.com

To be a part of these care packages that are sent to some of the many men and women in uniform, just send your donations to Namaste headquarters, attention Soldiers Angels donation:

Namaste Inc.

attn: Soldier’s Angels donation

9025 Eton Ave.  Suite A

Canoga Park, CA  91304

www.soldiersangels.org

We look forward to donating to this worthwhile cause with your help.

Namaste….

UPDATE:  We have received some donations for the Soldier’s Angels charity and wanted to share them with you:

Christine K. (ravelry name: SheThatKnits) sent in 6 beautiful hats and 1 prayer shawl.  This donation earns Christine 7 chances to win the prizes in tomorrow’s drawing!Mary R. from Virginia generously donated 7 crocheted scarves, 4 hats, and 2 blankets, earning her 13 chances to win in the raffle drawing tomorrow.  Thanks Mary!!Karen B. donated a neckwarmer, a hat, and a beautiful scarf, to the Soldier’s Angels charity.  This donation earns her 3 chances to win, thanks Karen!Joann D. has generously donated her handiwork of 6 crocheted blankets and 4 hats, earning her 10 chances to win in our raffle tomorrow.  Thank you Joann!Peggy B. handmade 3 walker totes, 1 blanket, 1 hat, and 1 ear warmer.  This earns her 6 raffle tickets for tomorrow’s drawing- thanks for participating Peggy!Here is our last donation received Friday from IndyDi.  Thanks so much for the beautiful hats!  

And the winners are…………….

3rd place and winner of the Hip Holster:  Joanne Deyo from VA

2nd place and winner of the Messenger bag:  Diana from IN (Ravelry name: IndyDi)

1st place and winner of the Messenger bag & Hip Holster:  Mary R. from VA

Congratulations!!!  Please contact us at info@namasteinc.com to claim your prize.  Thank you to all who participated, the donations are being mailed to the Soldier’s Angels headquarters this week, and I know the soldier’s will really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Stay tuned for our next charity event.

Namaste….

After we shared the pictures from our photo shoot in Istanbul, Turkey we thought we should share some pictures of the Istanbul scenery.  My sister lives in Istanbul and I’ve been to visit her at least once a year over the past seven years and have always been inspired by the culture, the people, the architecture, the food, the animals, and the sense of community in such a big city.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from my trip:

During the most recent trip, I got to try my hand at working from Istanbul, as I would be staying over a month and the plans for the future include spending more time there.  What I found was that with daily Skype calls, I could stay completely connected to the Namaste operations in LA.  Since my trip I’ve been awestruck when I reflect on the power of technology to connect humans and activities.  Even while staying in Istanbul, I was still able to take care of the day to day requirements as an owner of Namaste.  I couldn’t do it without the support of my unbelievably supportive and generous business partner Dawn, and the phenomenal employees that make up our Namaste family.  For that I am immeasurably grateful.  

–Kelly

Hi all!
We’ve decided on the next charity cause to donate to with a handmade items drive. Please stay tuned for details about which items we’ll be collecting for our charity drive, and what the prizes will be for the drawing winners. The organization we will be working with is here: www.soldiersangels.org. We feel it’s a very worthy cause and are looking forward to doing our part to help. Please stay tuned for more details to come!
Namaste…

Friday night, February 5th, Dawn and I appeared on our very first webshow on Mom TV called “Stitch and Dish“.  Karrie from KnitPurlGurl is the host of the show and we had so much fun together!  

Let us know how you liked the show .  We had so much fun!

Namaste

Today we received our first lap blanket donation/contest entry for the charity lap blanket drive for children.  It was from pbaxter, a fellow Ravelry.com member in the Namaste Love group, and boy oh boy did it impress all of us here at Namaste.  She has “officially” started the contest and the bar has been set pretty high- pbaxter donated 6 blankets, earning her 6 raffle tickets for a chance to win 1 of 3 fantastic prizes at the end of the contest:

Thank you pbaxter!!  So far, odds are looking pretty good in your favor as you’re the only one competing for a prize!  To everyone else interested, remember that the deadline has been extended to March 1st- send yours in now for a chance to participate in our contest & donation!

Namaste

http://pitch.pe/39484

Hi all, 
With much thought and consideration, we’ve finally decided on the theme for the next charity contest:

Namaste Inc. will collect and donate lap blankets from all contest participants and donate them to the sick children at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. This charity contest is your chance to make a difference and touch the lives of a child with cancer, autoimmune disease, traumatic injury, or other illnesses that make being a kid and having fun a lot more difficult. Children undergoing medical treatments will appreciate the extra comfort of a hand knit lap blanket to keep them warm.
Help us to help the children by knitting, sewing, or crocheting a lap blanket that is a minimum of 2 feet by 2 feet and is made of material that is machine washable. We’ve been informed by the donations center at Children’s Hospital that it’s important to make sure the blankets don’t have pet hair on them as this can be harmful for some of their patients.
Each lap blanket donated will earn you 1 raffle ticket to enter you into our contest for 1 of 3 prizes.
3rd prize: free Buddy case of your choice 
2nd prize: free Namaste handbag of your choice 
1st prize: free Namaste handbag and free Buddy case of your choice.

The contest begins now, and we will be accepting lap blanket donations through the end of January. There is no limit to the amount of lap blankets you can donate, and each qualifying donation will earn you 1 raffle ticket to be placed in the official drawing.

Winners will be announced on February 1st and prizes will be mailed immediately. Please send all donations with your contact information included to:

Namaste Inc. 
Lap Blanket donation 
9025 Eton Ave. Suite A 
Canoga Park, CA 91304

Namaste..