Pillowcase Challenge Inspires Donation

Crossroads for Women received a call the other day from the president of a local quilters guild in Standish, Maine. She had 14 beautifully handmade pillowcases that she wanted to donate to our halfway house. Since Crossroads maintains two 24-hour residential substance abuse treatment facilities for women, we are always in need of bed linens.

The inspiration for the donation was pretty cool. It was part of a 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge from American Patchwork & Quilting. According to the website, the simple idea is to make and donate pillowcases to local charities in your community. As I write this, there have been 234,627 pillowcases donated so far.

In addition to Crossroads for Women, the local quilters guild also donated pillowcases to other women’s residential facilities in the area. Like us, I’m sure they are always in need of pillowcases and other linens and have a very low budget for such items.

The best part is that the quilters had so much fun making the pillowcases that they’re planning on making more for us.

It’s amazing what a big impact a simple idea can make on a community.

Help Women Remember who They Wanted to be.

Beth struggled with alcoholism, bipolar disorder and other mental health troubles after leaving her corporate job. As Beth recalls, her life was filled with depression and a series of relapses that almost took her life.

Until she saw an advertisement in a local paper for Crossroads for Women™ that reminded her to remember who she wanted to be.

Are you inspired by our blog and the work that we do here in Maine? Are you willing to donate to Crossroads for Women this year so that we can help more women like Beth?

Beth has been a client at Kennebunk Counseling Center for more than a year now. For Beth, attending the intensive outpatient program (IOP), individual counseling sessions and receiving medication management services in one place has been “a beneficial and lifesaving experience.”

Crossroads for Women™ has managed to thrive in an otherwise gloomy economy. As a reader of our blog, you may have read about our successes throughout the year. Our board of directors and senior management team has worked together to trim excess costs, focusing on maintaining the high quality programs that help women like Beth remember who they wanted to be.

Crossroads for Women™ remains successful because we are always looking at the future of treatment. We hope that you will support our efforts, because we can’t do it without you.

We ask you to go to our secure donation site or simply send a check to Crossroads for Women™, attn: Lisa Merrill, 66 Pearl Street, Suite 326, Portland, ME 04101.

Thank you for your continued support by simply reading this blog!

Crossroads for Women is where you would send your mother, sister or daughter for outpatient or residential treatment for substance abuse and mental health so she can remember who she wanted to be. Your contribution will directly affect women, their families and the community around them and is tax deductible.

Holiday Giving That Makes an Impact for Good

Crossroads for Women gets lots of calls from supporters who are interested in making direct donations of goods to help our clients out while they are in treatment for substance abuse and mental health struggles with us.

Since our needs are always changing, we decided to create a wish list on Amazon.com. If you are interested in helping us out, you know that a purchase from this list will be put to immediate use! (Plus, ordering is easy and items are shipped directly to us.)

Being in treatment during the holidays can be particularly stressful, both for clients and their families. Items like recovery books and bath and body products make a big impact during this time.

View our Wish List on Amazon.com

Direct donations can also be made on our secure donor website.

FMI on giving to Crossroads, visit our Giving page.

Crossroads for Women’s Wish List

Running two residential and two outpatient facilities on a budget gets challenging. We are often asked by community members what needed items they can donate to us as a way to give back to the agency. To help communicate what our current needs are, Crossroads for Women has created a Wish List on Amazon.com.  The items on the list are needed at one or more of our programs right now. Simply choose an item, purchase it online through Amazon, and it will be shipped directly to us. Once an item is purchased, it is marked as fulfilled on the list. And, we’ll put your gift to immediate use.

View the wish list

For more information on giving to Crossroads for Women, call Jen Barbour at 207.773.9931.