What a glorious Fall we are having. I can’t remember the colors being so brilliant. I had the privilege of being in New Hampshire last week where the mountains look like they are on fire with all the red and yellow leaves on display.  And locally, I notice that our trees have also gotten the memo.

We are so happy to report that Together Women Rise announced on October 1 that we will be the organization’s featured grantee for April of 2023.  This means that we will receive a grant of up to $43,000 to cover the expenses of our eight cooperatives in Africa. Linda, Phoebe and I were on a Zoom call with TWR when we found out that our application had been accepted and all three of us got very choked up. It was such a relief to know that some of our funding for next year is already in place. THANK YOU TWR!

What is Together Women Rise?

Together Women Rise is a global community of women and allies dedicated to achieving gender equality. They have hundreds of local chapters across the U.S. where members learn about and advocate for gender equality issues, give grants to organizations that empower women and girls in low-income countries, and build community to forge meaningful connections that increase our strength and collective impact. There is a local chapter in Albany! Consider attending one of their monthly dinners! They are held at the Women’s Building on Madison Avenue, Albany on the second Thursday of each month. Contact Rosemary Revoir (rosemaryrevoir@gmail.com) for more information!

October is a busy month for The MoonCatcher Project as we gear up for end of the year activities. On October 11 we celebrated International Day of the Girl - an important day to remind us of how important our work is.

Our annual report is about to go to press, a holiday card is almost ready to be printed and our usual #GivingTuesday and year-end campaigns are almost underway.   Be sure to save the date to be part of our #GivingTuesday appeal – this year on November 29.

All of our sewing guilds have been making and distributing kits. Sadly, one of our guilds in Malawi was robbed and two sewing machines were stolen along with supplies and even some finished kits. We’ve yet to replace these things. We are hoping to find an organization or grant that can help with this expense so we can do this before the end of the year. The photos below are from Kenya and Uganda.

Our friend Ruchika from the Shashi Kiran Charitable Trust is in India working to link the project there to new partners. She sent us the photos below.

We have been working hard to bring our fundraising up to where we were last year - and so many of you have helped! We remain behind but are determined to catch up by the end of the year. So many of us are anxious about our finances so it is understandable that donations are down a bit. If you would like to help us to reach our financial goals - there are a few ideas at the end of this post.

In September we were beyond happy to host our annual “MoonWine and Cheese” Party live and in person. It was great fun to see so many of your smiling faces. Thanks to all who showed up and to so many of you who couldn’t make it but donated anyway! We raised over $4,000.

We’ve had a few MoonBees this fall, some in person and some not. We’ve been keeping the numbers small (20-25 people) and meeting in fairly big, open rooms.

We’ve also been working with schools on fundraising. There are two gatherings planned this Fall to paint “Welcome” signs for sale (to support MCP) and the State University at Albany is planning a “story room”. More on that in the next blog!

How Can I Help?

Some of you have been asking how you can help MCP. Here are a few ideas:

• Launch your own Facebook Fundraiser. It’s easy! Click here to watch a video explaining how to do it. Do it for your birthday, anniversary or just because!

• Consider running a race. My daughter, Pisie is training to run her first marathon in November. She’s asking for sponsors to contribute $1 per mile (or $26.20) to The MoonCatcher Project. She has already raised nearly $2,000!

• Do you have a birthday or anniversary coming up? Throw yourself a party and ask attendees to contribute to MCP and bring menstrual supplies for our local food pantries.

• Sign up for Amazon Smile where a percentage of your purchases goes to MCP. Use this LINK.

• SAVE THE DATE: Dining for Dollars will be back this year on December 14 at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady (Volunteer dates are Dec. 13 and 14)! We will be cooking up lasagna dinners for our community once again. Email us (ellie@mooncatcher.org) if you would like to volunteer. Watch for more information on how to order.

I am so very grateful for all that you have been doing and continue to do to support our important work. Thank you for helping us to keep girls in school every day of the month!

Warmly,

Ellie