In honor of my upcoming birthday*, just a touch over a month from now, I'm launching a new "contest" to help out Interim House. Details about IH are included in the first contest post. Details about this contest follow.

It's simple! Between now and noon (ET) on August 8th, send a package to Interim House, then send me an email telling me that you sent a package, and a general idea of what you sent (and who referred you, if that's the case (you can't refer yourself)). My (spam-proofed) email ends with @gmail.com and starts with crazycatladymel (just switch the order and pop 'em together). We did this in the late winter, and the ladies at IH loved seeing mail come in from all over the country. To add some extra oomph! to your package, you could include a postcard from your state/area. ETA: Kathy from IH loves this idea! So please, definitely consider it. More in this post.

New this time: Please, please, please spread the word! Don't think of it as lowering your chances of winning. If you're meant to win, you will! And how's this? If someone enters and says you referred them (and you entered too), I'll put your name into the basket twice. Feel free to grab the button (you can even use my bandwidth) and link to this post**. I'll do up to 4 referral points per person, so you could have up to five chances to win. Of course, you need to enter yourself for this to work! Absolutely EVERYONE qualifies, no matter where you live or if you won last time.

Sometime on the 8th, I'll put all the names into a basket (including the referral dups) and draw at least one. I can't guarantee a repeat of last time (everyone got something), but there will be at least one cool prize that I'll be working on between now and then. Ask anyone - I "give great package" (that vaguely suggestive description courtesy of my upstanding SIL, T).

They're always happy to get partial balls of yarn, and feel free to include them; however, for this contest, if sending yarn please consider sending complete skeins***. An assortment of accessories and tools would also qualify. Essentially, everyone is on their honor.

A great idea that more than one person did last time was to put a kit together, with everything needed for a project: yarn, needles and pattern. Most of the women that come into the program start out as beginners, but some of them progress really quickly, so they can use virtually any kind of project (cotton washcloths, felted bags, lace shawls). If you're a thrifter, keep an eye out for yarn or needles. If you're a sale-watcher, watch for clearance items like tape measures or yarn. If you're a knitter/crocheter, then you KNOW what to get (anything!).

Send stuff to:
Kathy Duffy, Social Worker
Interim House Inc.
333 W. Upsal St.
Philadelphia PA 19119

ETA: You can keep track of updates via this link, or looking for "IH_Contest" in the tag list on my side bar. I'll post about developments, update about prizes, etc.

*August 8. #41. And it's okay to send me a b-day present too ;-)

**You can take this string of code and paste it in your LJ or blog (thanks to naiad_kitty for reminding me about basic HTML):
<p align="center"><a href="http://crazycatladymel.livejournal.com/269166.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://home.comcast.net/~crazycatladymel/IH_contest_button.gif"></a></p>

***Please do not send ratty or stinky old yarn. It's totally fine to send on a style of yarn that you have in your stash but don't care to knit with (e.g. fun fur or acrylic for yarn snobs), but not cool to send crap that no one should have to knit with. (This was NOT a problem last time. I'm just trying to cover all the potential bases.)