The Monday “What have you done lately?” accountability post, where I announce my Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy program promotion goal for the week and fess up on last week’s goal.

My goal this week was to contact Laura Kelly at The Handwork Studio in PA to invite her and her students to participate in the 2009 Bookmark Challenge.

Done, but only just yesterday.

I also have the last batch of brochures ready to send Kat, and I started discussing with the TNNA Counted Thread and Embroidery Group Chair ways we can implement the “adoption” of the program that occurred last January.

It may be a strange week here on the blog, as Mike and I should be making our way out to Aialik and getting set up on site. I’m not sure when or how much we’ll be online. That won’t stop me from setting a goal, though.

I think this week I’ll aim to contact TNNA manufacturers and distributors, asking them to participate by promoting the Challenge to their customers (shops) and perhaps offering incentives. I already post to industry message boards, so this will be a door-to-door (email box-to-email box) effort. Lots of emails.

I have another goal for you should you choose to undertake it. Contact your local shop or guild and ask the owner or members to participate. Remember, there’s a flyer you can print to get the ball rolling.

If you don’t have a local shop or guild, do you have local stitching friends? Your group of friends can enter the Challenge yourselves. Give yourselves a Group Name and start stitching…and reading. I’ll add your group to the list of participants here. Donate your bookmarks to your local library. One bookmark is a prize that can be awarded to the winner of a reading contest or random drawing. Every child in the library who reads a book during Children’s Book Week can be entered in a drawing to see who wins that very special bookmark. If your group stitches four bookmarks, four winners can be selected. Every bookmark counts.

No local stitching pals? How about online stitching pals? Maybe you can organize stitchers on a message board. Choose an inner-city or rural library somewhere as the recipient.

Any questions? All right, hands in and on the count of three, “Stitch.”

One, two, three…

Stitch!