GAD - Haiti Care Kits

[basketrn]

Has anyone did this one? I am interested in doing it, but afraid the cost involved would be more then actually volunteering my physical time.

What are your thoughts if you did do this? Also, it says families can do this, but the way I read it, I have a family of 3, so I would have to do 30 kits, right?

 

[Ezzie]

Did you receive an email back from the Haiti Care Kit project? I emailed them about a week ago and have not heard back from them. Did they give you a list of items that need to be included in the kits?

 

[Tri-Delta4Life]

I helped my mom and sister with their Haiti Care Kits and they ended up being quite expensive IMO, about $70 / 10 kits. All of the things that go into the kits are inexpensive ~$1 each, but when you have 8 items + 3 ziplocks per kit it adds up quickly! We haven't sent the kits in yet because we're still looking for wide tooth combs that are ~$1 each. I feel like the money could have been better spent as a donation to group to purchase those items in bulk for a 10th of the cost. Hind sight is 20/20!

ETA: And that's without the cost of shipping! They requested the kits be shipped in boxes of 10, so 2 flat rate boxes from the USPS will add on another ~$20 if they can fit in the medium box or ~$30 if they have to go in a large box.

So after shipping, each kit will have cost us $8-9. If the items were bought in large bulk quantities direct from a supplier that $8-9 could have easily purchased 10 kits.

 

[Tri-Delta4Life]

Did you receive an email back from the Haiti Care Kit project? I emailed them about a week ago and have not heard back from them. Did they give you a list of items that need to be included in the kits?

After expanding the Haiti Care Kits oppertunity on the Give-A-Day website and entering an e-mail address, an e-mail was auto generated and sent to the e-mail address. That e-mail contained a .pdf link to the care kit instructions (including list of items) and a link to actually sign up for the oppertunity.

 

[AInWonderland]

I too have signed up for this with my 3 children. I did not realize how expensive it would be. We will need to make 40 kits total. I tried to sign just them up ( my oldest is 19) but it would not accept without a parent or guardian also signed up.

 

[ixmnrs]

I helped my mom and sister with their Haiti Care Kits and they ended up being quite expensive IMO, about $70 / 10 kits. All of the things that go into the kits are inexpensive ~$1 each, but when you have 8 items + 3 ziplocks per kit it adds up quickly! We haven't sent the kits in yet because we're still looking for wide tooth combs that are ~$1 each. I feel like the money could have been better spent as a donation to group to purchase those items in bulk for a 10th of the cost. Hind sight is 20/20!

ETA: And that's without the cost of shipping! They requested the kits be shipped in boxes of 10, so 2 flat rate boxes from the USPS will add on another ~$20 if they can fit in the medium box or ~$30 if they have to go in a large box.

So after shipping, each kit will have cost us $8-9. If the items were bought in large bulk quantities direct from a supplier that $8-9 could have easily purchased 10 kits.

I agree with Tri-Delta 4 Life in that there was significant expense to this task, especially since I had to send it in from Canada which cost about $100. But it was fun to do and look for all the items with the kids and assembling the kits. We donate directly to the Haiti relief effort also. Once they received the kits, verification was pretty quick, 4 business days for ours before vouchers were issued.

 

[DrummerBoy523]

How do you find the Haiti Care Kit opportunity? I searched our zip code and see nothing. Any help finding this would be great - I desperately want to do something with my DS7.

 

[ixmnrs]

How do you find the Haiti Care Kit opportunity? I searched our zip code and see nothing. Any help finding this would be great - I desperately want to do something with my DS7.

With the help of disboards, I believe the zipcode of 99999 would show you the opportunities likfe Project Linus (blankets) and the Haiti Care Kits.

 

[AInWonderland]

For those that have done this where did you get the hand towels and washcloths from? Also, what size is appropriate for the shampoo?

 

[ixmnrs]

For those that have done this where did you get the hand towels and washcloths from? Also, what size is appropriate for the shampoo?

Up here in Canada, we have very good dollar stores where most things are a dollar or 2. For eg. hand towels were 2/$2 and Face cloths were 4/$2. The shampoo was 50ml.

 

[SCPP]

Toothpaste at $0.29
http://www.minimus.biz/Freshmint-Toothpaste-C01-0114302-8100.aspx


Toothbrushes at $0.07
http://www.overstock.com/Health-Bea...d-Toothbrush-Case-of-144/1929630/product.html


Washclothes at $0.23 per
http://dealspl.us/product/essential-home-25pk-bulk-washcloths-white

Shampoo at $0.43
http://www.minimus.biz/Breck-Salon-Essentials-Conditioning-Shampoo-C03-0114401-8200.aspx

Toothpaste at $0.35
http://www.rockbottomdeals.biz/pd_colgate_total_advanced_cleaning_trial_size_toothpaste.cfm


That comes to $1.37 for these 6 items.

Still have not found a deal on these yet.

o One hand towel
o One wide-tooth comb
o Ten adhesive bandages
o One individually wrapped bath-size bar of soap

 

[AInWonderland]

In the photo of the directions for the kit they show a 15 oz. shampoo, do you think that .75 oz is enough.

 

[pperfectmom]

I just signed us up today for this project. My 6 year old DD has been wanting to do something to help with relief efforts in Haiti so I thought this was perfect. We will be doing 60 for three of us(DS is too young) so I am now joining the search for good deals as well. I don't even know if we'll be able to use the tickets but if we can, that would be great.

 

[DrummerBoy523]

With the help of disboards, I believe the zipcode of 99999 would show you the opportunities likfe Project Linus (blankets) and the Haiti Care Kits.

thanks a bunch. FYI, I searched high and low on this board and never found anything referencing the 99999 zip code. Not sure how I missed it - but thanks for spending the time to answer my post!

 

[JLR]

We did this project.

When I originally priced it the cost was going to be about $70 per "free ticket." But my daughter's class wanted to do something to help people in Haiti so I looked into bulk purchasing and bought enough for 120 kits. Then we made 20 kits at home (for our 2 gads) and then at school we made 50 kits, I gave supplies for 30 more to my friend who is planning to go in November and gave the remining kits (20) to our local domestic violence crisis center. So I ended up spending about $500 once you add shipping, but it just ended up being one of our big philanthropy projects for the year. BTW we are using the voucher for fast passes instead of free tickets anyway.

A few things:
I could not get 10 kits in the large flat rate box because we sent somewhat larger shampoos and toothpastes - they fit perfectly in a size 5 Target brand diaper box. We sent them regular mail instead of priority.

The book Selavi is VERY grim. I special ordered it and then couldn't use it with the third and fourth graders. We just talked generally about earthquakes, Haiti, how cool the US is that we have such good resources when disaster strikes here compared to other countries (so we wouldn't start any anxiety disorders in the kids), and talked about how good it feels to help others.

Hopefully I will get my act together and put some photos up on our Pre trip report.

I do have a list of what is in each kit if you haven't found that yet on my PTR.

Also - I forgot to add, Walmart has 16 washcloths for $4 right now. I was not happy with the hand towels I got from the Towel Depot online. www.dollardays.com had deals on most of what we needed if you are willing to buy hugely in bulk.

 

[MadiWI]

Has anyone else not used the USPS flat rate boxes? I'm not sure mine are going to to fit.

I found hand towels 4/$2.99 at Target. They also had large packages of up & up bandaids pretty cheap - I can't remember the exact cost, but I think enough for 30 kits ran me about $5. I found hair combs for $.60/each in 2 packs at a large beauty supply store that caters to African American clients. Those and the hand towels were the hardest items for me to find cheaply.

 

[pperfectmom]

We have all we need for 30 kits except for the hand towels, toothpaste and about 20 combs. I keep looking for towels and toothpaste for @$0.50 each but no luck. It's not that I'm cheap, it's just that this project has added up to a lot of money! I signed up mostly for my DD who has been worrying about what she could do to help the people in Haiti since the earthquake. I keep telling myself that it is all about teaching my kids that they should help people in need and not about what Disney can do for us.

 

[babydovesx2]

We have all we need for 30 kits except for the hand towels, toothpaste and about 20 combs. I keep looking for towels and toothpaste for @$0.50 each but no luck. It's not that I'm cheap, it's just that this project has added up to a lot of money! I signed up mostly for my DD who has been worrying about what she could do to help the people in Haiti since the earthquake. I keep telling myself that it is all about teaching my kids that they should help people in need and not about what Disney can do for us.

I found the hand towels at Sam's Club. If got them 12 to a pack for about $8.00. The cheapest I could find the toothpaste was a Walmart for $0.97. I had to go several places to get the combs. I found some at Walmart for $1.00, some at Kmart and some at Sally's Beauty Supply. We had 40 Care Kits to make so I had to go multiple places to find enough combs.

Once the kits are complete they do not fit very well in the flat rate box. I bought 4 14x14x14 boxes at Walmart and they fit perfectly in them (10 per box). You might be able to go to a 12x12x12 box if you can find them.

I also signed up becuase my DD has been worrying about the people in Haiti. In addition DH (US Marine) was sent to Haiti to help and the devastation he described was beyond belief. It ended up costing more that I thought when I signed up but feeling it gave me and our DDs once we had them all together was great. I always am skeptical about sending money to relief efforts becuase I worry whether or not it is placed to good use. But this way we were able to help and not worry whether our donation would be put to good use. I did not even tell my DDs that we were getting free fastpasses because I don't want them to think they get something everytime they volunteer.

We received our vouchers very fast. I mailed the boxes last Monday, they received them last Thursday. I was pending verification the Monday and received my vouchers today.

Good Luck. Hope you enjoy this project as much as we did.

 

[pperfectmom]

I looked at Sam's for towels the other day but must have missed them. I did find wide-toothed combs 2/$1 at the Dollar General Store but took all they had. Hope they restock. I was also wondering about using the flat rate boxes. I'm glad to hear that you used regular ones and it worked just fine. Do you remember how much your shipping was approximately per box? It may end up being cheaper than the flat rate.

 

[babydovesx2]

Shipping was around $15/box.