Cradles to Crayons

Cradles to Crayons is a nonprofit organization based in Quincy that serves low-income and homeless children throughout the state of Massachusetts. The organization was founded in 2002 by Lynn Margherio as a means to provide children with the basic essentials they need "to be safe, warm, ready to learn and valued."

There are more than 400,000 children in Massachusetts who are living in poor or low-income households. In 2007, C2C served approximately 35,000 children with donations of clothing, school supplies, books and toys. In addition to providing these children with everyday essentials, C2C strives to promote and provide an atmosphere where children and adults alike can make a difference in the lives of other children through meaningful volunteer opportunities.

Currently, C2C is partnered with about 400 social service agencies, which include shelters, health centers, public school districts, parenting programs and day care centers. Our partners fill out order forms for the families they represent and let us know what the children need. We do our best to fill the orders - "Kid Packs" (as we call them) - in our Giving Factory.

In short, we connect communities that have adequate resources at hand with those that do not. C2C collects new and gently used children's items through drives. Once the product reaches our warehouse, it is sorted by quality, size and gender. We do not package and give away any items that we would not give to our own children. The idea is to help the children we serve feel good about themselves and valued. Every child deserves to walk into a classroom with his/her head held high.

I am the North Shore Community Outreach Coordinator at C2C. During the course of my AmeriCorps year as a VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America), the goal is to build organizational capacity by increasing community collections and recruiting and training community leaders. I have been assigned five target communities in the North Shore - Beverly, Lynnfield, North Andover, Topsfield and Winchester.

C2C has never focused their attention on the North Shore and it is my responsibility to spread awareness about C2C and engage communities in that region with service opportunities. Those opportunities can include a number of things:
1. Volunteering at Cradles to Crayons in The Giving Factory.
2. Holding a product drive.
3. Hosting a fundraiser.

For more information, please visit www.cradlestocrayons.org or e-mail me with any questions. Thank you!