Shampoo for Everyone!

Written by: Kate Snyder, Development and Donor Communications Coordinator and Katrina Brown, Awesome EECM Supporter

Here's another story about a great friend of EECM who came up with a fabulous and creative donation. Hats off to Katrina Brown, a savvy shopper who decided to really put all those pharmacy rebates to work.

She says: "I use a web site called hotcouponworld.com where the members of the site work together to come up with the best deals each week at various stores. On the Rite Aid forum, the members find the best ways to combine sales, coupons, and rebates to get items for free or very cheap. I have not paid for anything so far."

"My friends, neighbors, and co-workers give me the coupon inserts from their Sunday papers and I file all of the inserts by date. Then, when the deals are identified on the Rite Aid forum, I find the inserts I need and clip the coupons. I take my coupons and my list to my Rite Aid, where the staff is very helpful in doing in my deals. They know me by sight and greet me as the "coupon queen" when I come in the door. This week the cashier made sure I had all of the new coupon books they had gotten so that I wouldn't miss out on anything."

"I go to the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Shadyside. I tried making my donations in the EECM food pantry donation box there, but on the day that I got 10 bottles of Pert Shampoo for free I realized that my donations were not going to fit into the box any more!"

Armed with her rebates and coupons, Katrina has rounded up more than $900 worth of toiletries to donate to our programs. That's a lot of shampoo! And razors. And toothbrushes and paste. And deodorant. And baby wipes. And glucose monitors. A veritable cornucopia of personal hygiene and health products appeared at our office thanks to Katrina's efforts.

We can (and will!) put these donations to use in any number of our programs. Toothbrushes to the Men's Shelter. Razors to the Orr Center. Glucose monitors to Meals on Wheels clients. Acne treatment creams to Children & Youth. Shampoo to Safe Haven. Baby Wipes to the Food Pantry. And on it goes. In one fell swoop, Katrina managed to donate some important necessities to more than half a dozen of our programs.

Kudos to you, Katrina!