RAZ 2010 = Random Acts of Zhu 2010

What a fantastic deal!  The makers of one of the most popular toys out there is sharing in their success by donating their product... Zhu Zhu pets. Cepia calls giving away their 2010 Toy of the Year one of its "Random Acts of Zhu." 

Today, I had the opportunity to do something AMAZING for families in my community, thanks to Cepia - the people who make our favorite hamster friends - Zhu Zhu Pets. This holiday season, Cepia invited digital moms around the nation to participate in their charity initiative and allowed us to perform "Random Acts of Zhu". I was overjoyed to have been chosen as one of the many digital moms to participate in this WONDERFUL program to bring Zhu Zhu pets to children who otherwise might not get a holiday gift this year.

Cepia sent me a total of 104 Zhu Zhu Pets and asked me to identify the charity of my choice to donate them to. I immediately knew that I would be workingwith my church to donate these Zhu Zhus! Each winter holiday our church hosts a food and toy and gift drive for underprivildged families in our area.

Every Thanksgiving my husband hands out turkeys and bags of food for these families, allowing them to have a Thanksgiving dinner. It is a very rewarding experience for him. Myself and many other wonerful ladies in our church collect the food and package all the individual items in bags for the pickup day.

Every Christmas, myself and other wonderful ladies in our church make lists from our needy families in the area. We take these lists and make paper ornaments for a tree in our church lobby. Each ornament has a name and age and size of a child. The parents may make requests, but it is ultimately up to the purchaser. The chidlren typically do not even ask for toys. They are not asking for toys because these children need clothing more than a toy. In addition to the ornaments, we make tags for the amount of food that we will need donated as well. We collect all these wonderful donations from our church members, package the donations up and set them up in stations and pass them out to the families who have signed up for assistance.

We have a check in station, a prayer station, a meat station, a grocery station(a bag of non perishable food items), a gift station . . . and this year, I was able to have my own station . . .

A RAZ Station: "Random Acts of Zhu"

I enlisted help from my children because I really wanted to have them involved in this amazing experience. I wanted my children to know that giving . . . the actual handing out of a toy to a child who would really want a toy but would be unable to "get" the toy . . . I wanted my children, who do not know what it is like to really "NEED" something to find joy in this simple gesture.

I wanted their hearts to explode with joy as mine was this morning by watching the excitement and gratitude and utter amazement on the faces of the families in need. It was quite overwhelming for me and I had to hold off tears many times! My children experienced something wonderful today and learned a lesson as well. I am proud of their actions and all the hugs they gave out!

My oldest two after a couple of hours!I have participated many, many times in handing out the food items to families in need over the years, but this day was different for me. I can't quite articulate what is was like to have my children participate in this amazing experience. But I am forever thankful and grateful to have been a part of 2010 Random Acts of Zhu!

Our church was able to give 125 families a wonderful reason to celebrate this holiday season and RAZ 2010 added a bit of sparkle and Zhu to the day!