kids Archives - Crowdsourcing Kids

Volunteers Pack Elephants at 2nd Annual Packing Party

March 11, 2020 Alison Events No comments

About a dozen volunteers helped tag, prep and pack 100 boxes of handmade elephants for Crowdsourcing Kids 2020. Each box contains 12 elephants, two large and ten small, which will eventually be sold by American kids who want to help fund well-drilling projects in India.

Packing Party Volunteers Holding Elephants

Packing Party volunteers pause for a group photo to celebrate!

Who Made the Elephants?

The elephants were made by young ladies, once enslaved in rock quarries in India. They are now supported by Set Free Alliance. The young ladies are learning the trade of sewing and do an amazing job making elephants. Volunteers packed a total of 1200 elephants to fill 100 boxes. There are many new colors and patterns for our 2020 elephants!

New for 2020 is the box of elephant ornaments, launching in August.

What’s the Elephant Packing Party Like?

This is the second year in a row volunteers rallied to help accomplish so much in such a short amount of time. Each volunteer takes on a task and works in an assembly line until all 100 boxes are complete. The process begins with tagging all of the elephants, and ends with sealing and numbering each of the boxes. In between stickers are applied, elephants are carefully grouped and organized, and paperwork is inserted into each box.

How Does the Community Support This Event?

All volunteers received a goodie bag with freebies from local businesses including Methodical Coffee, Organic Tan Face & Body, Flair Fitness and Brio Aesthetics. We also enjoyed freshly baked chocolate chip cookies donated by Baking Sweet Scents. We are blessed by the community support of our event!

Meet Wella! One of the changes for 2020 is the introduction of Wella!

How is Crowdsourcing Kids Different in 2020?

Every year we strive to make Crowdsourcing Kids even better! This year you will notice a couple of changes. We are introducing Wella the Elephant! You’ll learn more about her on the newly designed tag. We hope people who buy Wella will take her along on their journeys and share photos of her on social media. Also, because of the popularity of our elephant Christmas tree in 2019, we created an entire round of Crowdsourcing Kids that features elephant ornaments! Every white box with red tape is filled with 12 elephant ornaments. This round will become available for sale in August 2020. Also new for 2020, is that every box contains a very special gift for the seller of the elephants– just our way to say THANK YOU for bringing awareness to the water crisis and the work of Set Free Alliance.

Volunteers seal one of the ornament boxes, distinguished by the red tape.

How Can I Buy One of the Elephant Boxes?

Volunteers at the event received a first chance to buy an elephant box for our 5th round of Crowdsourcing Kids. Sales will open up to the public beginning on World Water Day, March 22, 2020. There will be 50 boxes available for $25 each, plus shipping. We will launch our 6th round of elephant boxes on August 12, 2020 which is World Elephant Day.

Registration is CLOSED! What Does That Mean?

December 14, 2019 Alison Kids No comments

Registration is now CLOSED for Crowdsourcing Kids! What does that mean? It means a couple of things:

All of our elephant boxes to fund our FIFTH Crowdsourcing Kids well in India have been snatched up! That’s great news! It means that when everyone sells their elephants and submits the funds to Water of Life, our fifth well will be fully funded and we’ll be able to drill another well to completely change the lives of an entire village. Want to see the last well we drilled? Check this out!
Since all of our elephant boxes have been claimed for our fifth well, we are now asking new friends to sign up for the waiting list. That way we can notify you when a fresh batch of elephant boxes becomes available. We anticipate the next round launching around World Water Day 2020.

Meet Our Newest Crowdsourcing Kids

We are having so much fun seeing photos of our elephant salesmen and saleswomen from our fifth class of Crowdsourcing Kids! They’re doing a great job sharing the story of Water of Life, while learning about the water crisis.

These three world changers are Caleb, 5, Joshua, 4, and Samuel, 1. They sold elephants door-to-door on a drizzly Friday afternoon. We love what mom Jennifer had to say about the experience, “What a blessing it is to teach them what it means to love others and what that looks like in action. They understand that not everyone in this world has access to fresh water like we do. We’ve had conversations about slavery and the freedom that these elephants represent. And they are walking away from this experience with the understanding that even though they are young, they can still make a difference in this world.”

Thank you boys, and thank you to all of the kids who are making our fifth Crowdsourcing Kids well possible. We can’t wait to show you photos and video from India!

Teaching Compassion: School Sells Elephants to Fund Well Drilling in India

August 14, 2019 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

Sixth grade teachers Jean Crosby and Lynn Connelly at St. Joseph’s Catholic School are always looking for ways to teach students life lessons that extend beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. They want students to learn things like compassion, kindness and the importance of serving others. But, how do you teach kids compassion? With that goal in mind, they invited Set Free’s Executive Director Sarah Kelley to the school to talk about the ministry’s work in India. “Her message was so beautiful,” recalls Lynn. “[Set Free] wants to take care of the whole person, not just the water, but also spread the message of Christ.”

An Eye-Opening Message

Sarah’s stories deeply impacted the students. They learned how children, just like them, don’t have access to clean water, and how others are forced into slavery. The students even practiced carrying jugs of water, just like children in Africa and India must do for their families. Sarah explained how Set Free works to share Christ through the gift of clean water, and cares for hundreds of children pulled from slavery. “I think our little 6th graders found it hard to fathom,” says Jean. “A lot of them did not know there was still child slavery.” Lynn adds, “when they realized there were children in slavery it really touched their hearts. They wanted to do something.”

Can We Sell These?

The teachers knew their students were taking the message to heart because 60 of them sat quietly the entire time, soaking it in. The students heard about how the rescued girls make stuffed elephants as a way to learn a trade so they can gain employment and end a cycle of poverty. “[Our students] were like ‘can we sell these?’ When they heard it was helping others it took on a life of its own,” says Jean.

Young Seamstress Makes Elephant

Elephants Practically Sell Themselves

The students started selling elephants and the goal quickly expanded. The school now hopes to sell enough elephants to fund an entire well drilling project in India. “[The elephants] sell themselves. We just didn’t know it was going to take off,” says Jean. “We had the elephants in our rooms and the kids came flooding in.” The school plans to adopt this project again for the 2019-2020 school year, when the theme will be ‘compassion.’ “I think for the students it’ll be very meaningful that they were able to accomplish this as young as they are,” says Lynn.

Get Your School Involved!

Do you teach, attend, or know of a school that would like to sponsor a well in India or Africa? Selling elephants is a great way to incorporate math and entrepreneurship into lessons. Learning about the country teaches geography and history lessons. We’d love to support you in your goal! Please reach out and let’s change the world!

They Drilled It! Introducing Our First #CrowdsourcingKids Well in India!

August 23, 2018 Alison Clean Water No comments

Thanks to the combined efforts of 50 kids, the first #CrowdsourcingKids well has been drilled in India, providing fresh drinking water to 414 people in the village of Bangarumetta. According to our partners on the ground, this village used to rely on a tank that collected water from the hills, but for the past several years that water has not even lasted two months out of the year. That means the rest of the time villagers had to go to water sources far away to collect water, a job that often fell on school-aged children.

The Pastor for this village visited every Friday to lead services and share the Gospel. The well arrived, presented as a gift from Jesus, which only serves to strengthen the faith of the people there. Pastor Praveen created this thank you message especially for the children who sold elephants, funding this well-drilling project.

Want to get involved with helping to drill our second well in India? Right now there are boxes of elephants available. It’s a fundraising-kit-in-a-box that includes everything your child needs to raise money for our ministry partner Water of Life. When all the elephants from these 50 boxes are sold, we’ll be able to drill our second #CrowdsourcingKids well!

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