PJ's for Pals!

PJ's for Pals was a huge success! Thank you so much to everyone that donated their time, money, and effort into making this pajama drive as big and meaningful as I had hoped for. Things started off pretty slow, my intentional start date kept being pushed back and fear of it failing constantly got in my way. With the help of my family and Jonathan I built up the courage to finally start in the middle of November. The drive lasted for about a month and after people began to hear about it the pj's started pouring in! I set up drop off boxes at Camden-Wyoming Fire Company, Lifestyles Fitness Center in Dover, Calvary Assembly of God in Dover, Best Buy of Christiana, and the Sheraton in Wilmington. My pageant family and supporters were a huge help as well, along with the employees of DNREC, Wal-Mart of Dover, and AppleTree Answering Services. We collected over 220 PJ'S!!!!

It was my goal to make this an effort that the success would be dependent upon the involvement of the community, and Delaware definitely stepped up to the challenge! I feel that it is my responsibility as Miss Delaware to get the name of our organization out in the community, and I feel that it is my responsibility as a citizen to help others that are in need. I took both feelings and combined them into a pajama drive for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Pajama's ranging in size from premature babies to teenagers were donated. So many businesses and community members, as you can see from the above paragraph, displayed exactly what I teach when I visit schools. Their action is exactly what defines a person that is a good citizen and more importantly one of good character. When I sorted through all of the PJ's that were donated and came across a bag with a receipt from South Carolina for a bunch of PJ's, I knew that the goal of PJ's for Pals had been reached. It was a drive for the patients at CHOP, but it was also something that I hoped would spread and touch the hearts of people all over. If someone from South Carolina could donate a few pajamas for a Miss Delaware pajama drive, then certainly we all can take a moment to help out those in need within our own state.

With love and great thanks,
Heather