Brainy Beanies exceeds expectations

A message from Brain Tumour Support NZ trustee and Brainy Beanies originator, Sarah Gibb

Hello everyone,

As the sales of Brainy Beanies wind down for the season I thought I’d just like to tell you how the awareness and fundraising campaign has gone. Easy answer: “way beyond expectations!”

1224 Beanies donated and $13,200 raised.

Thank you so much for supporting us!

We’re overwhelmed by the result, as our initial aspirations were for 200 Brainy Beanies for the exhibition and to raise around $5,000.

We still have Beanies available for sale on our website (they make lovely gifts for friends and family who live in the northern hemisphere, currently going into winter!). Others are going into our Brain Boxes every week and others have been stored away and will come out again next autumn.

Brain Tumour Support NZ is a small charity - we’ve only been going since 2019 - but it is clear that we have hit on an ongoing project here that not only assists us with fundraising, but raises awareness about brain tumours, and provides a resource to be added to our care packages, the Brain Boxes.

Since our Brainy Beanie launch in May this year, 57 Brain Boxes have been sent out with a Brainy Beanie inside and people are so happy to receive them.

Feedback from a recent recipient of a Brain Box: “Thank you! One of the few 'perks' to having a brain growth along with disability parking! Rang to say thank you the day it arrived. So nice. Have been wearing my beanie non-stop. Made me so happy. Love the contents.”

So I’m delighted to announce that our intention is to keep going with Brainy Beanies.

Every single one is unique because people went to the trouble of making them themselves. “Created with love by someone who cares.”

We’ve heard some great stories about why the Beanies were created, where and who for. My own cousin continues to get Beanies to me every few months and she lives in Honolulu, not somewhere where Beanies are needed!

We will be making an announcement later in the year, inviting all the Brainy Beanie creators to create some more for next year’s campaign.

Another exhibition will be planned for Hamilton in early May 2023, at the start of Brain Tumour Awareness Month. We are hoping we might find someone interested to host a bit of an exhibition in the South Island too.

BTSNZ trustee, Sarah Gibb

We recently published our Annual Report 2021/2022 which includes an article and photos of our inaugural Brainy Beanies campaign on pages 20 and 21. We couldn’t give them too much of a focus because most of this project has happened outside of this annual report time frame (end of 31 March 2022), but the photo collage is great.

Again, a big thank you to everyone who participated in Brainy Beanies this year, especially the creators. Your contributions of time and materials are truly appreciated.

Regards,
Sarah