Step up, Crafters, to help Baby Ike!

By now, many of you have heard about Baby Ike here in Austin who is currently in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Dell Children's Hospital, sedated, on paralytic medications and recovering from an operation in which he received a tracheostomy. Ike's mom, Kari Anne Roy , is a brilliantly hilarious writer and a beloved member of the Austin community. She and her sweet family (husband, Steven , Maker-in-the-making son, Sam, and tenaciously adorable daughter, Georgia) have been put through the ringer this year. You can read their full story on the Ike-a-saurus web site , and be sure to check out how the "Ike-a-saurus " name came to be.

There has been an amazing community effort to help out the Roy family. In less than one day, Ike's web site was created (by Austin web rock star, Jenny Medford *) and a community of mamas joined forces to organize several fund raising events . Donation buttons were displayed and dispersed through social networks, and by day's end, we'd raised enough money to cover Ike's Cobra insurance for February and March. It's been the most beautiful example of community outreach I have ever experienced.

But there is still more to be done. Along with bake sales, rummage sales and big family-friendly events , we are looking for fun ways to help raise money for Ike-a-saurus and to help promote the generous businesses and supporters who are lending a hand.

This is where you come in!

I am constantly in awe of how generous the crafting community is. I would love to give you the opportunity to extend your generosity and be a part of this incredible outreach experience by helping out in one of the following ways:
1. Blog about the cause. You can pull all the information you need from the Ike-a-saurus web site , and Jenny has even provided HTML to add a "Donate to Ike-a-Saurus" button to your web site (scroll to bottom of page). Post the info to Facebook, Twitter - any social network you can think of - and ask friends to repost.

2. If you have an Etsy shop: Designate one or more items in your shop as "Ike Items" and donate all proceeds from those items to the cause (email me at averagejanecrafter[at]gmail[dot]com for info on how/where to donate the funds) If you do this, please blog about it and please send the info and your shop links to me so I can post them on my blog, on the Ike-a-saurus web site and to all my social networks.

3. If you don't have an Etsy shop, but have items you have made that you would like to donate to be sold for the cause, let me know. I can arrange for you to send them to me where they can be included in a silent auction we are organizing. I'm also researching the possibility of setting up an Etsy shop for the cause, but am not 100% sure if I'll be able to go through with that.

4. If you don't have any handmade items to sell, but have craft books, kits, gift certificates, fabric, supplies or other items that you think would be useful in the silent auction, let me know. Everything is appreciated!

5. If you are local to Austin and would like to participate in a screen printing party for Ike, please let me know. This is still in the works, but if you'd like to be added to the list of possible volunteers/donors, that would be great.

Please spread the word far and wide - Ike and the Roy family need our help! Be a part of this awesome outreach experience - every little bit helps, and the Roy family is overwhelmed with gratitude.

If you have any other questions or suggestions, please let me know. If it takes a day or two to get back with you, don't fret - I'm just swamped in emails and replying as quickly as I can! Feel free to pass this post on to crafty friends whom you think would like to participate. I'll be including a list of supporting crafters and their blogs/Etsy shops/books, etc. on the Ike-a-saurus web site and on my blog.

Finally, if anything - please spare a prayer, thought, vibe, anything you can for Ike and his family. Every little thing counts.

Thanks so much!
Rachel

* Jenny is the creative mind behind Vickie Howell's Web site, the Future Craft Collective Web site, the Ramonsterwear web site, Jennifer Perkins' blog and more!