Back in August, we were contacted by Kathy Barbro of an organization called Project HOPE Art. The group is devoted to providing ongoing assistance for victims of last year’s horrific earthquake in Haiti.

The group was kicking off a new project, a homemade dress drive for young girls living at an orphanage in Port-Au-Prince. Their goal was to sew and deliver 30 dresses to the orphanage, and Kathy wondered if they could use our free Popover Sundress pattern for the project.

We are always happy to have people sew from our patterns for charitable causes. We told Kathy that, of course, they could use the pattern. She put up a blog post, and we Tweeted a link to it.

Fast forward two months. Did 30 people sew and send in a Popover Sundress? Yes. And then another 30 did, and another 30, and another 30, and…. To date, Project HOPE Art has received 143 completed Popover Sundresses to deliver to Haiti!

Now Project HOPE Art is raising funds for an interesting new project in Haiti. Once the project is funded and goes forward, the dresses will be delivered by the people with the organization who travel to Haiti to facilitate the project. If you would like to find out more about the project and make a donation to help fund it, you can do so on the project’s Kickstarter page.

Thanks to all of you who have donated your time and talents to make these dresses. And thanks to Kathy for putting in all the legwork to make this wonderful project happen.

Angel and Jenny from Stumbles and Stitches are holding an on-line fund-raising raffle to support relief efforts for the devastating tornadoes that recently ravaged several states in the southern United States.

For every $10 donated to The Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services, participants receive one virtual raffle ticket which puts them in the running for one of four prize packages ranging in value from $100 to $350. (Prize package number 2 contains two Oliver + S patterns of the winner’s choice.)

You can see the prize packages and get all the details about how you can make your donation count at this page.

You may remember that last November your purchases on the Oliver + S website helped support classrooms in underprivileged schools across the United States. You can see photos of how your funds were used on our Public Page at Donors Choose.

We’re pleased to announce that board members of Donors Choose have recently provided additional funding that will allow past donors to support new classroom requests.

Oliver + S has received five Donors Choose gift cards, each good for a $25 donation to the project of your choice on the Donors Choose website. We will send these gift cards to the first five people who comment that they would like to use them.

Since Donors Choose projects are all based in the United States, you should be a resident of the U.S. to take advantage of this offer. And since we would not want this funding to go to waste, we do ask that all people requesting a card promise to make use of it by selecting a project and completing the funding process on the Donors Choose website.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our recent Thanksgiving Donors Choose promotion.

During the last week, Oliver + S set aside 15% of all retail website purchases to support needy classrooms across America. Today we matched this 15%, to double your contributions, and made donations to classrooms in 10 states.You can see the projects supported on our Public Page at Donors Choose.

We selected projects 1) that will have a positive impact on children and 2) that were close to being fully funded. If you didn’t purchase last week, we encourage you to view these projects and make a small donation to help them reach their full funding levels.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In celebration of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, Oliver + S is joining with Donors Choose to help support needy classrooms across the United States.

Here’s how you can help. Buy one or more Oliver + S patterns at retail price from our website between now and November 24, 2010, and we will donate 15% of the total purchase price (excluding shipping and tax) to a classroom in your state.

At the end of the week, we will calculate total sales by state and will make a donation to one Donors Choose project in each state where orders were shipped. All orders shipping outside the United States will support one or more classes in the New York City Public Schools, the home school district for Oliver + S.

Help us help teachers in underprivileged schools provide new and enriching learning experiences for their students by making your purchase today.

Please share this offer with friends and family who may be interested. And, if you make a purchase, feel free to leave a link to a Donors Choose project in your state as a comment on this post. We can’t guarantee that each will be funded, but your recommendations will provide us with a place to start when it comes time to make the donations.