Operation Shower Blog

We’d like to introduce you to another one of our amazing donors, The Global Fund For Children.

When you think of “Operation Shower” you probably think  of our Showers in a Box or our big group baby showers. While you’d be right to think that, one of our goals is that you’ll also think of Operation Shower as a fun and creative group of people who desire to reach beyond the baby gifts and help create a community of caring and nuturing support for the moms we honor. If you want to think of us as hilarious too, we won’t stop you. As we move forward, we keep working on ways to include other services and ideas that help support these deserving moms. 

We’ve seen just how many of these women have more than one child (sidebar: as if it’s not hard enough to be pregnant when your spouse is deployed…but to have other children, too, to single parent!) so one little thing we’ve started to do is to provide a gift for the siblings as well. We at Operation Shower LOVE books and are big education advocates, so to have The Global Fund for Children on board is such a great fit!

At our recent Red, White and Coo shower we set up “The Sibling Station” where moms could come and pick out a gift for the little ones at home. Some of the gifts were books donated by The Global Fund For Children. Moms also received more books as part of their Showers In A Box. You know what they say, “Reading is Fundamental”….did we just age ourselves with that reference?

We recently found out that they have committed to sending us another 180 books for our boxes.  Thank you, Global Fund For Children!

Here is a little more about our fantastic donor from their website:

“The Global Fund for Children’s mission is to advance the dignity of children and youth around the world. GFC pursues its mission by making small grants to innovative community-based organizations working with some of the world’s most vulnerable children and youth, complemented by a dynamic media program that, through books, documentary photography, and film, highlights the issues affecting children and celebrates the global society in which we all live.”

Our “Red, White and Coo” baby shower with the PGA TOUR and the March of Dimes is fast approaching. Want a sneak peek of our adorable invitation?

Each Operation Shower baby shower is a chance to let our military families and moms-to-be know how much we appreciate their service and their sacrifice. Sure, we have such amazing product in our boxes that we could do punch, cake and doilies and have a great shower. OR we could give each shower its own theme, pay attention to every little detail and make them events to remember. Guess which one we do???

The first chance to set the stage for our showers is with our invitations. Operation Shower is so lucky and so grateful to have the support of Tiny*Prints as our official Invitation Sponsor this year.  Our relationship with Tiny*Prints started last year and we are thrilled to have them on board for our 2010 events as well! One look at the Baby Shower invitation section alone is proof that with their selection you can never run out of cute party theme ideas with style.

It’s not just baby shower high style though. From weddings to birthdays to holidays to  personal stationery – Tiny*Prints has all of your paper goods needs covered.

Thank you, Tiny*Prints. Companies and people like you make what we do possible!

You can thank Tiny*Prints for their gift to you, too. Use the link above to get 10% off of your order of $49 or more for a limited time.

Operation Shower just completed our A is for Apple, B is for Baby . . Shower !   We joined with the March of Dimes to hold an event that we will always remember.  We will write much more about it soon, but I wanted to share this amazing video from Stephanie Beaty|www.lifeographer.com.  She generously donated her time and these wonderful photographs!  I have to warn you, you may cry!

We’ve been working hard to make our upcoming event with the March of Dimes a special day for a group of deserving military moms who have babies in the NICU at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

We certainly haven’t been the only ones working hard though! A lot of people are on board to make this a success. There will be a lot more to come on all of the efforts of our generous donors and sponsors, but for now (while we catch our breath!) here’s a little sneak peek of the invitations.

Did we mention the design and time spent on these and the rest of our papery goodness to come were all donated by the lovely, Kim over at The TomKat Studio? Do we have the best donors or what?

We can’t think of a better way to start this blog then by recapping this year’s Mother’ Day “Boxes in Bloom” showers at Ft. Hood and Scott AFB.

Operation Shower was able to feature a recap of these events on the fabulous Hostess With The Mostess blog so let’s just take a peek at how that all went down!

From Amy, Chief Event Planner for Operation Shower:

“I am so excited to bring you a recap of the recent success that Operation Shower and Cloud B had with our “Boxes in Bloom” Mother’s Day Showers at Ft. Hood and Scott AFB.  Between the attendees and the boxes we sent to moms who could not make it, we honored 65 women and families with amazing gifts for the new little ones. Just look at some of the wonderful donations from our sponsors!  We at Operation Shower cannot thank them enough for their contributions.

Our goal this year was to not only throw great events but to make them as Eco-Friendly as possible. It’s really easier (and cuter) than you might think! (Go here for more ideas on throwing an Eco-Friendly party.)

All of the boxes and gift wrap are made of recycled materials. Nashville Wraps so generously donated recycled wrap and tissue that we used to make our boxes more special, and we used the whimsical Whimsy Press gift wrap for our centerpieces. Not only did they liven up the table, but they also contained raffle prizes and helped ensure everything we did had a dual-purpose. Don’t forget to recycle the little amount of recycled paper you do use!

Some lucky moms also got the adorable teddy bears as their prize. Those cute little flower placecard holders from a Favor Affair? Well, those went home with the moms to be used to hold photos of their new babies. IKEA bud vases? Yep, those were favors, too. Flowers? You got it, those were given as thank you gifts to our helpers from each Base.  Finally, the cards are from the Arbor Foundation as we planted a tree in honor of each baby.

We also were able to not only make the moms feel like they were Queen(s) For A Day by using real dishes and linens instead of paper, but we were able to help avoid paper waste. Thanks to Aramark for donating the items for Ft. Hood and thanks to Kim at Head of the Table for making our Scott AFB have a great punch of color with your donation of fun coral and white dishes and stemware.  But there is no coral in the gift wrap…. No problem! Just remember you can always incorporate your accent color in your flowers or other decorative elements to tie it all together. The punch of coral roses and alstromeria really made these florals fun to create!

What makes a great party even better? Great food! Thanks to Let Us Do The Cooking and Works of Art Cakes for providing food and cake for Ft. Hood and Hollyberry Catering and Jennifer’s Pharmacy for donating deliciousness to Scott AFB. One word: YUM.

While every party doesn’t have the luxury of having a professional photographer, we were spoiled enough to have two: Angela Breckenridge and Julie Enstall.  If you have a special event coming up in either of these areas, I recommend checking them out! These ladies not only spent their Saturday donating their talents but also provided each mom with very special portrait donation offers. We are so grateful to each of you for helping us capture these events on film.

Thank you, Jenn, for letting me share our event with all of your readers and I hope you all will not only check out Operation Shower but also be able to use some of these ideas for your next Eco-chic party.

Blessings and a safe return home to all of our deployed soldiers,
Amy

P.S. Be sure and check out the Operation Shower website to links to all of our sponsors. Those of you with kids are gonna want these products for yourself! Trust me.”