CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE!

I am so completely blown away by how awesome yesterday's marathon and last night's banquet was! I am truly blessed! There are lots of pics and info to come but in the meantime I want you all to see the reason behind why we do what we do. Many thanks go out to all our Ordinary Heroes featured in this video! The other video with all the pics that were sent in is coming soon.  Trust me, you will be blessed by watching this! Click here if you would like to go to the direct link or watch below. 

Thanks for the Pics Yesterday!!!

Wow!!!

It's so cool to see all the amazing families out there doing so many amazing life changing things for all these kiddos!!! I LOVE that OH has inspired or empowered you in some way through your experiences.

Thanks so much for sending in your pics! I am officially not taking any more. Wow! I heard from at least 150 of you!! Now I have a lot of work to do with this video, Ha! We will be showing at our banquet Saturday night and then I will have it available to watch online soon after that.

There are a lot of you amazing Ordinary Heroes out there!!

Thanks for sharing a glimpse of your life with us.

Kelly

Need Pics FROM YOU for my new video TODAY!

LAST MINUTE REQUEST! TODAY ONLY!

Have you been inspired by OH in some way? Have you adopted? Have you sponsored a child? Do you have a family pic you would like us to use in our upcoming video? Do you have that first referral pic of your child and then a family pic of you guys together after your adoption? Do you have your referral pic and have passed court where we could show your child you are waiting to bring home? Do you have a pic of you with your sponsored child?

If you would like to be featured in our upcoming video please send pics of the above mentioned or a pic of you wearing OH gear and DON'T FORGET TO TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE FROM and anything way you have been inspired by OH.

We would love to show off our supporters from around the country and those who have been inspired to adopt, sponsor, or help a child in need. Please also include in your email that you are giving me permission to use your pictures in a video that will be featured online and at our upcoming banquet dinner. Include first, last or any type of name you would want featured with your pics.

SEND PICS TO Kelly@Ordinaryhero.org

I am throwing this together last minute......well, cause that is how I roll, Ha!

I look forward to hearing from some of you today!

Kelly

April Grant Contest Winners!

Each month Ordinary Hero holds a Grant Contest where our affilaites sell products and donations in our OH STORE over a specified time period. Our top 3 sellers in that given time period are awarded a $500 Grant in addition to their 40% commissions that they earn off of each order. Our affilaites can fundrasise with us at ANY time, but a lot of people compete for that Grant money each month! It's FUN!!! and it is a great way to earn some FAST CASH for your Adoption or Mission Trip!

If you are in the Adoption process or are going on a Mission trip and would like some extra cash, we would LOVE to have you fundraise along side of us! (If you know someone adopting or going on missions trip PLEASE tell them about our Affilaite Program!) It is FREE to sign up, Go here.

In a few weeks we will be in full swing with our May Grant Contest and we will be giving away $1500 again in Grant money! Our winning affiliates earn between $2500 and $1000 on average during a Grant contest! That could be YOU-- and you could make this much in 7 days! Who doesn't love FASTCASH? (and you CAN compete MULTIPLE times!- We have had many affilaites WIN more than once!)

Ok, so let's announce our
April GRANT CONTEST WINNERS!!!!!!

It was a tight race for our #3 spot all day yesterday and then one of our #3 contenders jumped to #2 in the last few hours of the contest! Wow!! Man, a lot can change in just a few hours! 

#1 Winner of the $500 Grant is Shannon Poulin from Enumclaw, WA! The Poulin family is adopting from Ethiopia thru AGCI. They have been waiting 16 months now for their referral of their son! Let's pray they move up the list and get their referral soon! Shannon sold a whopping $3791 in product merchandise and donations over the last 7 days! She had 62 orders placed in her name! Wowza! We will so be asking her what her receipe for success was later and will be sharing with the group!
 She earned $1516 in commissions and by adding that $500 Grant, she is walking away with $2016
 from Ordinary Hero that will be sent to their adoption agency, AGCI, to help with their adoption expenses!  She heard about OH through one of the pillars of the adoption world- Kristi Johnson!!! She is also friends with 2 of our past Grant winners!!!!! Shannon said "this has been fun and its such a great way to get others involved in not just our adoption, but helping out with donations and awareness of orphans!" Congrats Shannon! Your hard work has paid off! :) I think everyone Shannon knows bought an OH shirt! Pretty sure she sold more shirts than anyone person has ever sold in a contest!

#2Winner of the $500 Grant is Erica Halpin from Dallas, TX.
She catapulted her way from #8 spot two days ago to #2 spot
 in the final hours of the contest! Wow, is all I can say! You go girl! She is going on one of our 4 Ordinary Hero Mission Trips this Summer to Ethiopia! Erica is also in the adoption process and has been waiting for a referral of their daughter for 13 months now!! Erica, we are praying you move up that list quickly! How awesome it is that you are going to SERVE while you wait for the rest of God's plan to unfold for your family!!!! Erin sold $2671worth of product and donations in the OHStore for this Grant. She earned $1068 in OH comissions! Adding on her Grant win her total fundraised total for the last 7 days is $1568!!! Congrats Girl! Amazing! She said her friends and family had a blast buying the donation packages! She said "my sister never ever thought she would buy 1/2 of a sheep, and she was amazed by how many lives were touched by a contest!"


#3 Winner of the $500 Grant is Lisa Wilmert from Pekin, IL!! Lisa and her daughters will be traveling with ShowHope this summer to China for a Mission Trip! She heard about OH from one of our very first trip members and she heard OH/Kelly speak at an Orphan Care minsitry conference! She sold $2031 in product and donations made $812 in commissions and tacking on that $500 Grant she won, brings her 7 day fundraising total to $1312!!! Congrats Lisa! Lisa sold a mixture of EVERYTHING we had to offer. She said they got way out of their comfort zone and "begged, and we never do that!!"  Well, your persistence and showcasing products paid off girl! You are a little bit closer to your China trip now!!! Ya-Hoo!

Honorable Mention Awards goes to:

Kristen Gilliss $1259.47
Jessica Currey $954.73
Kristen Banker $895.64
Meredith Lagorga $846.19


These ladies worked soo hard! I wish we could give EVERYONE a Grant! I hope that you consider competing in another future Grant contest! Last month we had a winner that had won 2 honorable mentions before she landed in one of the Top 3 spots! Don't give up yet! And you are all winning because remember
everyone earned 40% of what you sold!! So all of your adoption funds/ Mission trip funds got a little smaller over the last 7 days! Yay! You all competed so well and have so many Extra- Ordinary Hero's to thank!!! Our Honorable Mention recepients receive a
$50 Ordinary Hero Gift Certificate to the OH Store! We hope you will consider selling again and next time YOU are the Winner of that Grant money!


OH would also like to send out a HUGE

to ALL of our APRIL Product Partners!!! Our Product Partners generously donate items to our Store to help offer a
Variety of goods for our Fundraising Families to Sell! In turn, we would like to ask you to stop by there blogs and etsy stores and check out what all they make and see if there is something you would like to buy! Thank them for supporting our afffilaites and for being EXTRA- Special Ordinary Heros! I pray they are all BLESSED by particpating in this opportunity to help our affilaites!

Our Product Partners this month were:

Etsy store "quiltnmama2" donated all those Africa and China necklaces.... They sold out in just 3 days folks. Check out all of her items! She has TONS of amazing stuff and she even does fundraisers with her jewelry! Check her out and tell her OH sent you her way!Thanks so much Gayly!
My Jie Jie & Me Custom Hand Stamped Jewelry


Amy Ruston from Wisconsin, sent us MORE adorable custom made boutique clothes. Liked her duds but needed a different size? Her stuff is ADORABLE! Go to Beautiful Brown Eyed Girl Boutique HERE.


Megan Chaffe from Indiana, designed all those precious, hand made note cards- she sent us Africa/China/ Homemade thank you cards and they were a BIG hit! Thanks girl! Check out her Etsy Store Here. We have very little of her cards left! The Africa cards sold out FAST!


Next we want to thank Shelley Brown at Grafted Together. She has a heart for those supporting Orphans and has an etsy store with several friends who make things and 100% of what they sell goes to Orphans. Shelley, has sent us MANY Product Parnters our way and we hope they are all blessed through this experience! Check out her Store HERE! Thanks Shelley! Those Buy 1, Give 1, Pray for 1 dolls sold out like hotcakes! What a great idea and what a sweet gift! Those dolls are going to kids in Kenya, and she is working on getting awareness out about a sponsorship program for kids in Kenya! If you want more infomation on how YOU can help go to http://brownstreeintheforest.blogspot.com/2012/04/haven-of-hope-child-sponsorship.html

Diana Kramel also donated those fabulous John 14:18 Red Adoption shirts to us this month! She is hoping to sell 500 of these shirts to complete her adoption goal! Contact her to order shirts or you can go on her BLOG HERE and order directly! They are the SOFTEST tee's ever! You will not want to take them off!

Thanks again Product Partners for BLESSING OH with your donations! Thanks again for blesssing our fundraising families! If you would like more info on how to become a Product Partner with OH, contact Gina at gina@ordinaryhero.org - we would love to parnter with you and showcase you items in the OH STORE!

Ok, so when is the May Grant Contest?

Mark you calendars for 7 days of fundraising FUN which will start on Sunday **May 20th through Saturday May 26th! (contest as usual will close at midnight!)
**note this date has been changed! it was the week prior, but failed to realize that was Mother's Day, so we are pushing out one week!

Sponsorships. Respire Haiti. 24 Year Old Megan Boudreaux.

Respire Haiti was founded by 24 year old Megan Boudreaux after visiting Gressier, Haiti only one time for 45 minutes on a missions trip. Later when she returned to the United States, God began to pull her heart back towards Gressier and the children there. In December of 2010, God gave her a vision for this community and their children. With so many children not in school and so many families struggling to provide for their kids, she moved to Gressier permanently in January of 2011 and began helping the children and people of Gressier.

Megan has custody of these two biological sisters, Michaelle, 7 and Jessica, 4.

Respire Haiti desires to educate, empower and encourage the people of Gressier, Haiti so that they are not only a self-sustaining community, but that they are also reliant upon the community and not outside resources for their success. They are desiring to build a community school, medical clinic and church for the hundreds of children not in school in Gressier. This community school is being built by locals and all of the material is being purchased locally. This will support the local economy, create jobs and encourage the Haitians. Here is a plan of the school they hope to finish within the next year:

 And here's where they are!



Restavec: Children that are sent by their parents to work for a host home as a domestic servant because the parents lack the resources required to support the child. This term usually refers specifically to children who are abused. Majority of the children Respire Haiti educates are restavecs. With a school to attend, these restavec children have the opportunity at a brand new life.

Megan is an Ordinary Hero. She has chosen to give her life to serving the people of Haiti. Her work being done is changing lives, one by one, all because she choose to act on God pulling her to something new. Something life-altering. Ordinary Hero has teamed up with Respire Haiti to advocate sponsorships for these children.You can be apart of her vision by choosing to sponsor the children Respire Haiti has begun schooling. Education is the first step to prosperity in a fallen country, however, it is SO rare for children living in extreme poverty. Respire Haiti is in the process of building this school, and now it is your turn to make this an easy transition into the classroom. The children are available to view on a  password protected site. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, email deborah@ordinaryhero.org  for the password, and visit Ordinary Hero, Respire Haiti's new sponsorship page HERE. All information on costs and such are provided on the sponsorship page. To see all sponsorship partners, visit our SPONSORSHIP page on our OH site. 

And on a side note... An exploratory team with Ordinary Hero will be traveling to Haiti in 3-4 weeks to visit Megan and Respire Haiti's ongoing projects. Keep an eye out for trip dates to visit Haiti within the year as we continue to make connections overseas! Haiti, here comes OH!!