What can 34 coupon train riders accomplish in one week?

chitownmelli · 11-10-2008, 09:23:32 PM

If you asked me a week ago, I would say "a lot." Ask me again now...... there is nothing we can't accomplish.

I promised this thread to a few people, and it has taken me a couple of days to get it written. See, I just couldn't find the words to express my amazement at how this train turned out.

The Thanksgiving Caring and sharing train was a dual effort between me and Dominicsmommy. We rode, modded, conducted, and everything together, and were each in charge of our own team. The goal of this train was to send q's to your assigned people, like usual and all of my trains have a catch. This one was a doozie. Each member was to make a donation of some sort to any charity or person in need in their own community. They would then report back to us via PM, and we would secretly log their points into our team's database. Most things were worth 1 point, and a few were worth 5. The majority of things donated were 1 pointers. The team that donated the most would be sent potluck envies from the team with fewer donations.

So here is what got me. When I started this train, I asked Kristy if she would like to conduct beside me, because I thought, gee, we might get like 500 donations to log, that could get busy. I was so relieved when she accepted! I did however underestimate by a little on how many points we had to log for people. In total our collective team logged 6844 points! That means that between 34 people, nearly 6844 items were donated on behalf of our efforts! 6844 people were reached and helped in one way or another. Out top givers were jkelstaten with 1210 points, and scouch71 with 734 items!!!

I wanted to take some time and share with you all some of the things that were donated between our teams. This is not a complete list, just an idea of what everyone did.

2061 Food items were donated
2028 HBA items were donated - this is including boxes to troops over seas, gift baskets, etc. as well
24 hours of community service were donated
20 turkeys were or will be donated when it is closer to Thanksgiving
2466 items were donated to Goodwill, Salvation Army, Shelters, etc.
24 Glucose meters were donated
2 units of blood were donated to blood drives
1 member donated to locks of love
41 books were donated
28 pet items were donated

WOW! Everyone was so involved in this project, that I don't think they even remembered that there was a bonus for the winning team LOL!!! We had so many PM's every day with people updating their donation totals. We were totally blown away by how big this project ended up being.

So how about a big hand for our riders on the Thanksgiving Caring and Sharing train ~ you guys did an amazing job!!!

newatthis · 11-10-2008, 09:38:57 PM

I have to say - that is awesome!!! You and dominicsmommy need a hand too! You guys did a lot of hard work!! Thanks for a great train!!

chitownmelli · 11-10-2008, 09:44:20 PM

I didn't PM everyone and ask permission to post their names in my little "brag about them" thread, so all of you who rode the train, feel free to tell your stories here if you like, as well!

Thank you, newatthis, it really was a fantastic group effort and everyone really played their part. Also, everyone was so nice about specifying very clearly what sort of items they had donated, it really cut down on the amount of back and forth writing to log their donations. We also made some good friends, so many people had stories to tell when they wrote it, it was amazing to get to know so many of our fellow board members like that all in one week!

ladywaterwind · 11-11-2008, 04:49:26 AM

Wow!!! You guys all did an amazing job. I can't believe you donated that much in just a week! Way to go guys!!

NJOYURLIFE · 11-11-2008, 05:28:28 AM

Wow!

You guys are awesome! and all in one week!

tacatcon · 11-11-2008, 05:44:30 AM

So awesome Mel and Kristy! And all the participants! Makes you remember again, we're more than just couponers and traders!

What a wonderful effort by everyone! Keep up the great work!

momof4inmi · 11-11-2008, 05:54:33 AM

As one of the riders on the train I want to give a huge thank you to Melli and Kristy. You guys did an awesome job of keeping track of everything.