Last month I told you a little bit about the Movers for Moms charity drive and why it’s so important to me and my company, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK. Truthfully, Movers for Moms is the most important thing I’ve ever planned, and I always start brainstorming the next year’s campaign the day after the current year’s ends. Last year in 2016, my goal for the program was to collect 2,000 donated essential care items for moms at Safe Haven Family Shelter in time for Mother’s Day. But Nashville, as you know, is an incredible city filled with incredibly generous people, and we ended up delivering over 3,700 donations to Safe Haven in May.
I was so overwhelmed by emotion that day last year, and I was a little sad that the only people there to celebrate were Safe Haven’s staff, even though the people all over the city had made that day possible. So this year, I was determined to throw a giant party at the end of Movers for Moms so everyone could celebrate with us.
After talking with my managers and the Events Director at Safe Haven, we started to plan Nashville’s first ever Movers for Moms Festival. At first, all I knew for certain was that I wanted every family in Nashville to be able to attend, regardless of their income level; that I wanted moms to feel celebrated and loved; and that I wanted the festival’s proceeds to completely benefit Safe Haven Family Shelter.
Now, after nearly a year of planning this event, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK is about to host its first annual Movers for Moms Festival, featuring over twenty exciting games and activities for moms, kids, and everyone else in Nashville. Community members like The Frist Center for Visual Arts and Mathnasium’s tutoring center are leading arts and crafts, The Nashville Mom and Orangetheory Fitness are hosting active games, and Nashville Ballet & Co is even teaching a group swing dancing class! On top of all that, local snack producers like Nashville Jam Co and Ousley Ouch Salsa are handing out free samples of their yummy goodies AND donating 10% of their sales for the day to Safe Haven. And we even have Mother’s Day gift sets and other high-value treats (like a Daddy Gift Set!) up for grabs at a silent auction which also completely benefits Safe Haven.
I really hope you’ll make a contribution of some baby products, cleaning supplies, or bed and bath linens to the Movers for Moms drive… But I also hope you’ll join us and The Nashville Mom to celebrate all local mamas at the Movers for Moms Festival on April 22nd! We’re holding the festival at Dragon Park in Green Hills from 10 am-2 pm, and most of the activities are completely free to enjoy. The activities that do require paid tickets (like Kid Yoga led by Blooma and photos with Fairytale Princesses from Fairytaled) all completely benefit moms at Safe Haven Family Shelter. Safe Haven will be on-site selling those tickets for $1 each, but you can also bring a donation of brand new pillows (still in plastic or with tags) for 5 free tickets each.
Check out the festival’s website for more details, including a preview of some silent auction items and event activities. I hope to see you there!