The Give Back Giveaway! *Ended 5/31*

Jessica, The Mom and Adventures of The Bauer's bring you

The Give Back Giveaway!

It seems that more and more people are learning how to effectively coupon, are getting some great deals and building some impressive stockpiles.  In light of recent events and coupon controversy, I thought it was a good time to encourage some "give back".

I personally don't have a huge stockpile, but I have a nice starter collection and have been able to donate a few items to our church during a food pantry drive.  But, I am a very blessed person, and I feel like I could do a little more.  I'm sure that at least some of you feel the same way.

Here is what I propose:

Anytime you go on a shopping trip and purchase more than 5 of the same items at greatly discounted prices, take one of those items and contribute it to your newly dedicated "donate stash".  If you bought 10 boxes of cereal at $1 a piece, are you really going to miss one box?  How about those deodorants & body washes that you got for free with double BOGO?  Or the free toothpaste that CVS is always giving away?
I'm going to run a little contest and I hope you will participate and encourage others to participate.  Let's see how big we can make this collaborative donation!

Here's how it is going to work:

1. Start your "Donate Stash" as soon as possible.  Separate it from any other stockpile you have in your home.  Maybe you have enough on hand now to get it started or start with your next shopping trip.
2. Link-up here once to indicate that you are joining this Give Back Giveaway.  (Enter your first name, last initial, participation (example - Jessica H. - participating)
3. For every ten items you donate, link-up once, using your first name, last initial, and where you donated (example:  Jessica H. - donated 10 items to Holy Cross Church in Stockton, IL).
4. This Give Back Giveaway will be based on the honor system.  Should you feel the need to cheat (false link-ups), then shame on you. 
5. For each qualifying link that you post, you will receive one entry to the Give Back Giveaway Drawing.  (A winner will be chosen at random via Random.org.)
6. This Give Back Giveaway will run though the end of May, 2011.  

THE PRIZE
For each participant, Jessica, The Mom and Adventure's of The Bauer's will personally donate one item to a separate dedicated stash (on a rotating basis - one item per participant, up to 100 items per hostess).  The winner of the drawing will provide us with the name and address of a food pantry, church, or other charity of their choice and we will ship the items to them on behalf of the winner.  I will also write up a complete post-article that I will send as a press-release to the winner's local newspaper and provide to any participant to share as they see fit.

*Note:  If anyone else is interested in co-hosting this event, please contact Jessica, The Mom.  As a co-host or hostess, you would personally donate one item for each participant, on a rotating basis, up to 100 items.  (Example:  3 hosts, 75 participants = 25 items per host.)  You would also help promote the event via your blog, website, facebook, etc.

Etiquette 
While I am all about blog hopping and blog networking, this is just not about that.  By all means, feel free to make new friends through this event, however, please refrain from "advertising" your blog, page, service, or product directly in this forum.  You may list your blog home page URL only as an accompaniment to each of your links, in case anyone is interested in checking out new blogs, but please do not include any other links, promotions, requests, etc.  Violations will be deleted.

Please leave links only as indicated above (participation & donations).  If you would like to make any additional comments, please use the comment forum on this post, NOT the linky list.

I would love to see this get huge so we can all just feel great about helping others in need!  Please, please share this post and lets see what a difference we can make!

**NOTE**  I have created a button / link directly on my homepage, in the top right-hand column, for easy access to this post.  Just click the photo to be directed here.




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