The Alice Springs Beanie Festival

is now gathering together the 6000 or so beanies which will be up for sale. This year's event will be held over 23-26 June if you happen to be up that way.

I have contributed ten beanies - the maximum allowed if you cannot go and help. My good friend W....has contributed another ten. She has been more than once and tells me it is great fun helping. The whole event brings in tourists and trade to an area which desperately needs it.

I made nine of the beanies I contributed and my friend M.... made one. Hers went in under my name because, if we sell any of them, then the funds will go towards the science scholarship that was set up in the name of a late friend of mine. The scholarship is only tiny - enough for the actual school expenses of an unaccompanied girl to go to school for an extra two years in Africa. It is something though and we usually manage to sell the beanies to cover a good deal of the cost involved.

M...'s beanie was accidentally attributed to me - something I have now rectified - and yesterday I was telling someone about this. She looked surprised and then said, "Why bother? Nobody would have known. It's only a beanie."

Well, it mattered to me. M...'s beanie won a prize in the state show. It is beautifully made. I cannot take credit for it. I would have known. M... would know if I told her. My friend W... was the one who alerted to me that it had gone up on the FB page under my name. She knows too. We both think it matters.

So, I have put a note up on their FB page and explained. I have told them where the beanie has come from and how it has won a prize... and I have told them where the funds will go. I think I can be almost certain it will sell now. It will give M.... a thrill because she likes to help others, something which her deafness often makes it difficult for her to do. 

I had an email from M... yesterday - I had sent her the picture from the FB page and said I would explain. Her reply was a single "smiley" face. This morning there was another - a row of the same smiley faces and "thank you I like to help". 

I like to make sure she gets acknowledged too.