My daughter has been eagerly anticipating an American Youth Corp (AYC) trip since her older brother took one to Costa Rica the summer before his freshman year of college.  If the truth be told—she’s not much of a traveler, but she feels a call to ministry and knows the missions’ trip with other youth has the potential to be life changing.

I’m proud of her: She’s stayed on track, watching the dates for when the trips would be announced and for when she could apply.  On Wednesday, she found out that she’d be accepted to the Washington, D.C., trip at the end of the summer.  Her requirements for trip were simple: it must be stateside (no hopping the pond for this girl) and scheduled for a week that doesn’t interfere with Youth Camp nor Bible Quizzing Nationals (just in case she qualifies).

The next step is fundraising.  Our oldest worked at the local tennis courts and earned his travel money along with generous donations from family and friends; our middle child raised the funds by selling his incredible original LEGO® models at church, raising $700 in one day; and Liz will raise funds by dog sitting and selling book art.  A perfect fit for her. She is, after all, the biggest dog lover and bookworm I know.

We’ve a plethora of books from the classical education that each child has received from homeschool and private school.  We have multiple copies of some classic books, each teacher insisting on a specific publication and rarely overlapping in this demand.  In many cases, the books cannot be re-sold or donated.  Even Goodwill has stopped taking book donations due to you-know-what!

So, we’ve got stacks and stacks of sad, lonely books with which to create beautiful art, wreaths, and pomodoro balls.  Below are pictures of her current inventory if anyone’s interested in helping fund her trip!

Book jewels? We may add embellishments to the one on the left to make it into a cute and friendly library hedgehog.
One of several Christmas trees!
First attempt at a heart design. Don’t worry! We’ve figured out what we’re doing now!
There are four of these available so far.
A gift for that hard-to-please person in your life? Hook ’em horns! Or any other simple mascot design….
Pomodoro balls have no reason to exist except to be pretty.
This one has a fairly deep dimension, which is hard to tell in this photo.
Display a bunch of book balls together for a bigger impact!

Let me know if any of you are interested in either commissioning Miss Liz and purchasing an item or two to help her reach her goal of $950.

1 Comment

  1. Tony

    Very pretty.

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