Elijah's free stocking stuffer and family support giveaway!
On Christmas Eve 2008, Amazing Spiral held ELIJAH'S FREE STOCKING STUFFER AND FAMILY SUPPORT GIVEAWAY. During this event we didn't just hand out free stocking stuffers but also gave away presents to families that could not afford gifts for their children. We were able to give more because we had some wonderful people make donations to add to our supply of gifts.
In all we helped out about a dozen families, including a mother who couldn't afford presents this year because her furnace had just broken and she needed to save money to fix it. Driana suggested that she also contact The United Way and the pastor behind her seconded it.
The pastor got gifts for about eight kids, including a family being headed by a fifteen year old girl while the mom is incarcerated. We did some special gifts for this hard working girl, including an Amazing Spiral Gift Certificate so that she could come back and pick something out herself.
There was also a mother who had tried getting gifts from organizations like Toys for Tots but had not gotten any calls back. She said God had led her into our store!
We ended the night with a mom, who had been given by a charitable organization, one gift for each of her three kids. We were able to hook her up with the seven stocking stuffer bags we had left and many more presents!
Comics Kingdom Donates $1000 to local Charity!
On Friday June 9 at 10:30 AM , local Baltimore business, Amazing Spiral Presents Comics Kingdom,
presented a check for $1,000 to
Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network (BIHN). The check is the result of a fundraiser
held by Comics Kingdom on May 6th, during
Free Comic Book Day.
"We are so appreciative to Comics Kingdom," says Terry Martin-Minnich, president of the Board of
Trustees of BIHN. "Comics Kingdom provided a fun and informative fundraiser as part of Free Comic
Book Day. It allowed BIHN to not only raise money, but also inform the community about the work
that we are doing and the families that we are helping. The money Comics Kingdom presents to BIHN
will be used to help a few of Baltimore’s 30,000 homeless individuals."
"It is easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless in the face of that number," Driana Pearlman co-owner of
Comics Kingdom says, "I remind myself that each number is a face, the face of a mother or father
doing their best to help their family, the face of a child who deserves a home. If we do nothing to
help these people then we are helpless." Free Comic Book Day is Comics Kingdom's biggest event of
the year, in which they give away specially made comics to the general public. This year the owners,
Sheldon and Driana Pearlman wanted to use it as a way to stand up and do something more.
"Our customers really responded to the idea of this fundraiser," Sheldon Pearlman says, " by more
than just shopping the sidewalk sale." There were numerous generous direct donations to BIHN,
people signing up to volunteer, donations from the BIHN wish list. The high school students from
the Baltimore Urban Debate League showed up to debate various comic book related topics from the fun:
Batman vs Superman -- to the more serious: Should superheroes have to register their secret
identities with the government under the Patriot Act.
"People do care and want to get involved; we just had to provide a place for that to happen.
We had one customer who brought in a donation a week later. He never made the sale because his
car broke down as he left the store he had gone to that morning to purchase basic household
products the BIHN families need."
All proceeds from the sidewalk sale plus additional funds contributed by Comics Kingdom are going to
BIHN in the form of the $1,000 check. "It has always been part of our vision as small business
owners to find ways to give back to the community. We started with the obvious, by donating comic
books to teachers and schools that came to us. This sale worked out so well for us and our customers
and BIHN that we are already working on future creative ways to help." Driana added, "during next
year's Free Comic Book Day festivities, we hope to raise double what we did this year with monetary
and BIHN wish list donations. It's a big goal for a store our size but with the help of the generous
Baltimore community, it can happen."
Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network, Inc.
(BIHN) is a network of interfaith congregations who have joined together in order to serve
Baltimore’s homeless families by providing them with the basic human needs: shelter, safety,
sustenance, as well as warmth and compassion. BIHN’s mission is to diminish the hurt of homelessness
and provide the support necessary for families to become self-sufficient with housing and employment.
BellyPower™ Workshop for Charity
On Friday, February 17, 2006, inline with the spirit of BellyPower™ which includes donating time to charities, Piper Reid Hunt, Rebecca "Kumari" Snyder and I donated our time to the National Woman’s Heart Day® event which was held at the Baltimore Convention Center. Piper danced and then taught a forty-five minute class on stage. Kumari assisted Piper on stage, while I taught mini-lessons, based on what Piper was doing on stage, to the women in the audience who were too shy to get up on stage. It was a wonderful event for a great cause. A lot of people don't know that heart disease is the number one killer of women in this country. —
Driana Pearlman
National Woman’s Heart Day® was the final event of Sister to Sister: Everyone Has a Heart Foundation, Inc.'s public awareness campaign designed to:
1. Raise awareness of heart disease as the number one killer of women
2. Provide free screenings to aid in the early detection and treatment of
heart disease
3. Educate women about preventing heart disease with lifestyle choices
such as heart-healthy dieting and stress management
Get more information on Sister to Sister: Everyone Has a Heart Foundation,
Inc. and National Woman’s Heart Day®
