Traveling Sweater Campaign
Hey Hey Local Laundry fam thanks for stopping by our blog tonight! Tonight we're going to be chatting about our Traveling Sweater Campaign and talk more about what the campaign is all about, who's had the sweater so far, what the random acts of kindness have been so far and more! Keep on reading to learn more about the Traveling Sweater, enjoy!
The Traveling Sweater campaign started out as just an idea back in early January. Inspired from the movie 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants', the premise of the Traveling Sweater was derived from wanting to share the stories from people around us. The idea behind the Traveling Sweater was to highlight individuals, Calgary neighbourhoods and to inject a little human spirit at the same time. For a long time I thought the Traveling Sweater would live as an idea forever, until we finally had had enough of the wondering, and decided to go for it. The Traveling Sweater campaign aims to evoke community spirit and support between Calgarian and our neighbours. As an effort to ignite stories of life in Calgary, inspire and motivate community residents, the Traveling Sweater looks to give back to people within Calgary through random acts of kindness. We are now challenging those around us to create impact in their community and city!
When an idea or project begins to feel so special, important and meaningful to you, you become even that much more protective of it. We hoped that each person that became nominated for the Traveling Sweater, to participate in the campaign, loved the idea as much as we did. From the beginning we have been blown away from the level of dedication, inspiration and the amazing random acts of kindness that have been performed.
So far the #CommunityCrew has moved through eight different participants within Calgary, each being in possession of the sweater for 72 hours. Here's an overview of who's had the sweater and the acts of kindness that have been accomplished so far!
We started out by nominating Katie Evans, owner of the Clothing Bar in Marda Loop. Katie donated library books to the free library, gave flowers to a couple at Blush Lane, dropped off dog food, gave out thank you cards to random houses and bought someone a coffee at Tim Hortons!
Katie nominated our second participant, Gabi from Red Paper Boutique!
Gabi bought refreshments for a colleague donated kids clothing to Made By Momma, a local Calgary charity, left money taped to the parking meter at the hospital with a RED greeting card, her daughter Nola gave our doggie pets (like how cute is that!), brought a floral arrangement to Liz + Lottie in East Village and gave her little act of kindness to herself and had some tea outside before work! From there, Gabi nominated Francesca from Outside The Shape!
Photos by Sue Moodie
Francesca handed out 100 tennis balls to dogs at the dog park, brought her hubby coffee in bed from Monogram, George (Francesca's puppy) shared his treats at the dog park, gave lilacs to random people from her tree outside, dropped off fresh rhubarb from her garden, bought a round of beers for her friends and brought care packages to the women at 1853 Recovery Centre!
From here, Francesca nominated Jenn from Wild & Raw.
Photos by Sue Moodie
Jenn made a very special delivery to a friend of hers in the Foothills Hospital, made random people Village Icecream, made a donation to the Calgary Emergency Women's Shelter and created a giveaway for a 1-Month Unlimited pass to Bodhi Tree, 10 Pass Drop-In at Define Yoga, $50.00 gift card to Wild & Raw and a sacred plants smudge spray from Ritual Holistic!
Jenn nominated our fifth participant, Nikki from Yummi Yogis!
Nikki donated books to the community library box in Inglewood, gave away 30 meals to the homeless from the food truck, donated 10 percent of sales to WestJet charity of choice and donated food and stuffed animals to the Mustard Seed and Inn from the Cold! From Nikki, the sweater traveled to Lisa, owner of Adorn Infusions!
Lisa did a giveaway with Soul Float Studio, donated library books to the community library, put random love notes in books, placed love notes on random cars, gave away a Rosso gift card to a stranger and gave away free bus passes and lottery ticket to random strangers! From there, Lisa nominated Kori Leigh!
Kori Leigh wrote 9 love notes and placed them on strangers cars, bought a little tucker treat from wild and raw for an unsuspecting stranger, bought light cellar cookies for an unsuspecting stranger, got 2 Rosso gift cards and wrapped them up in love notes and hand delivered to 2 strangers, bought banana bread for humans from sidewalk citizen, went out in the rainstorm to see if anyone needed help, brought a bag of free fruit to the athletes and people passing by the memorial drive stairs, tapped change to a parking meter, delivered Farmapothique samples to the Clothing Bar! Kori Leigh nominated our eighth and current participant, bestie Kelsey Schiavon!
Kelsey brought clothing and a gift of her favourite treats to Making Changes Association, left love notes and lilacs on random cars up and down Stephen Avenue, did a collaboration giveaway with Jennifer Joan to win a Mindful Beauty Coaching session with Kelsey (including 30 minute follow-up) and beauty plus a full size Luxury Face Oil to go along with it (combined value of over $200!), bought a cup of coffee for a unsuspecting visitor at Vendome Cafe, more love notes and finished up with her own self-care rituals!
Kelsey nominated our ninth participant, Jess Irwin, co-owner of Swoon Giftbox!
Jess started off her takeover by donating money to Journey Yoga Calgary, had her little helper (her 4-year old daughter Tatum) assist with cleaning the yoga studio, left lacrosse balls at Vantage Health and loves notes for Dr. Levi Irwin's clients, Jess's daughters, Haven and Tatum taught us all about what they think kindness is, and ways to be kind, went to Blue Star Diner and donated a meal with Meal Share, went to Cannibale and bought a gift card for the next customer, which then Cannibale matched, dropped off random loves notes, and lastly distributed random Swoon Gift boxes to unsuspecting people!
Photos by: MCurran Photo
Jess nominated friend Megan, owner of MCurran Photo, as our 10th participant of the Traveling Sweater! Megan is gearing up to take the sweater tomorrow for the next 72 hours, so stay tuned to see where the #CommunityCrew travels to next!
Our goal is to complete 150 random acts of kindness for Canada's 150th and currently we're sitting at 75! With your help we can get to 150 sooner. Send in a picture, video or just a story of your random act of kindness and we'll post about it on our social media and add it to the tally!
The #CommunityCrew will continue to move through Calgary as participants nominate more Calgary residents to join in with the our Traveling Sweater Campaign. We have to take a second to thank all of the participants of the Traveling Sweater so far. We've been blown away, at times totally speechless and brought to tears while watching your fearless pursuits to create impact, bring kindness and happiness to our world and work to bring the Traveling Sweater campaign from an idea to life - and for that we're eternally grateful!
Keep an eye on our Instagram story to see who has the #CommunityCrew next, where they are in the city and what amazing things they're up to! Till next Monday YYC, stay local!
