Hey! We've moved! Please visit us at our new site: Joy Makin' Mamas Home

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Get your own JT email banner!

Get your own Joy Troupe Email Banner for Yahoo, Hotmail or Microsoft Outlook email. To see this at the bottom of your email:
Got kids?  Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.com
Copy and paste this to your email sig file:


Want a smaller one? To display this:
Got kids?  Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.comGot kids? Get out and get friends: www.joytroupe.com
Use this:

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Holiday Service Projects

The Joy Troupe is so pleased to be sponsoring a local family for the holidays.

Giving anonymously to others is the best way to teach our kids that gifts are not just for getting, and nobody knows more than we do how happy a mom is to see her kids' happy faces around the holiday table, so we, as a caring community, have decided to help another family make that happen.

You can learn more about Our Daily Bread, the program that matched us with our family, by visiting their website.

So far our generous group has contributed cash toward a grocery gift card that will be delivered today and plans to get together during the month of December to wrap gifts for the family and assemble a food basket.

We are also participating in:

HOLIDAY CARDS FOR HEROES

The American Red Cross is spearheading the effort this year to get holiday cards to our wounded vets in military hospitals, like Bathesda, and Walter Reed, in Washington, D.C.

Address for All cards you send:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O.Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Rules and Guidelines:
Deadline for sending.....cards postmarked by December 10, 2008
1. All cards must be signed.
2. Limit of 25 cards per person from sender.
3. Use generic salutations such as Dear Service Member. No cards to specific individuals.
4. Cards only....no long letters.
5. Do not include email or USPS addresses in cards. This is NOT a pen pal club.
6. No inserts of any kind, like photos or letters. NOT permitted.


These projects are STRICTLY the more the merrier. If you have a desire to adopt a family, I urge you to contact ODB and see if they have any families who have not been matched. If you are unable to acquire a family of your own, I hope you will consider a generous donation of food or money to UCM, an agency which serves the Route 1 corridor. People who volunteer for food pantries and related charities say this holiday season is going to be a tough one for a lot of people. Food distributions have seen unprecedented turnouts, and other emergency giving programs have people applying for help non-stop. Formula and baby food donations are particularly needed!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Northern Virginia Library Links

Just a quick index of local library system websites. I'll add DC and MD at another time. You can look up their events calendars or find out how to reserve meeting space.

Arlington, VA
Alexandria City
Fairfax County
Loudon County
Prince William County
Fauquier County
Stafford