SWEET DREAM IN A BAG
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Mission Statement
Sweet Dream in a Bag’s mission is to provide a gift of new bedding to children and youth living in poverty and difficult circumstances they did not choose to be in. Sweet Dream also gives the entire family acceptance, love encouragement and hope.
About This Cause
Sweet Dream in a Bag is a Public Charity 501 (c) (3) that was founded in 2010 by Wayne and Susie Fox. Over 18,000 children and youth living below the poverty level have been gifted with new bedding packages and personalized reading book. Presently Sweet Dream in a Bag partners with over 70 agencies to hold gifting events for children and youth. The agencies have first-hand knowledge of the children’s and youth's bedding needs and uses individual case workers, teachers and counselors to screen the children for bedding needs. All children and youth are eligible to receive a bedding package regardless of age if they reside with the family. Sweet Dream is an all-volunteer Public Charity that has no paid staff. In a typical year volunteers donate over 15,000 hours to Sweet Dream and they furnished their own transportation to and back home from the events. The founders donate the all administrative costs, so 100 percent of donated funds go to children’s bedding and booklets. Sweet Dream expanded the Public Charity outside the Denver-Metro area to gift children in areas like Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Fort Collins, Greeley, Castle Rock, Alamosa and the entire state of Colorado. Sweet Dream in a Bag has received 11 Awards and recognitions in 7 years and has been published 10 times. Sweet Dream in a Bag has special packaging events held on the third Saturday of each month, except in December. Dates and location and sign up opportunities are available on the web site. All events are for individuals, groups and families with children and youth of any age. Sweet Dream in a Bag has a thirteen yeat history of successfully partnering with various agencies and children/youth whose families are living in poverty in Transitional Housing or Head Start Schools in Colorado. Susie had a vision for helping children after seeing “Extreme Makeover” on television. Susie and Wayne decided to explore children’s/youth's needs and found that no other non-profit in Colorado provided bedding packages for children/youth. Annually Sweet Dream gifts nearly 2,000 new bedding packages to children and youth. New bedding packages includes a comforter, blanket, beanie baby stuffed toy, tooth brush, tooth paste in a clear, vinyl bag, that is artfully wrapped in ribbon to look like a gift. The children/youth also receive a personalized book called, “You are Awesome” and the volunteer models to the child, parents and grandparents about how to read together. Sweet Dream in a bag also provides air mattresses for children/youth that do not have beds. Forty to fifty percent of these children at local Head Start Schools do not have beds. Some of the impacts to these needy children/youth receiving bedding are; they sleep warmer, happier about their environment, get to make choices about their bedding, quickly become more stable in the family’s temporary home and perform better in school. Sweet Dream can provide new bedding bags with a personalized book at a cost of $60.00 each, which is one half the cost if the bedding items are purchased at a retail store. “You are Awesome” is a personalized interactive book written by Sweet Dream that is read during the gifting event and is given to the children/youth to take home and read with their parents. The children/youth select their new bedding from the Sweet Dream website. The volunteer sits with the child/youth and parents reading or listening to an interactive story that includes their name (several times) and positive word they choose about themselves and their bedding items. Before each gifting event Susie holds a training class for new volunteer on how to interact with this population and how to interact with the children and their parents. The volunteer models to both the parent and the child/youth about the importance of reading together and encourages the families to continue to have good reading experiences. The book and volunteer reinforces to the parent the importance of early childhood learning. The bedding gives the child/youth a pleasant place to lay down and to read or be read to by a parent.