onceuponasheep.com
Friends, when I opened Once Upon a Sheep (OUAS) on April 5th, 2003, I had no idea it would still be in operation 20 years later. I remember the ladies from the seniors’ centre barging their way through a group of our shelter residents in order to find the yarn shop before we even opened. It was a great encouragement for me, knowing I was taking a risk.
By 2006 we formed The Shepherd’s Heart Society to oversee the shop and create a financial firewall between The Salvation Army and the shop. This proved to be the secret sauce in keeping OUAS afloat. Our board of directors, five of us since the beginning, and a few others who came and went along the way have done a superb job of keeping the shop on track and making sure the Purposes of the Society are the guiding lights for us.
Since the beginning, YOU helped us raise thousands of dollars for The Salvation Army’s Send a Kid to Camp program . As a child who attended these kinds of camps as a child, I cannot begin to describe the feeling of having a ‘vacation’ away from home. Most of the children we send to camp come from families where a vacation is something they can only dream of. For every dollar you spend at Once Upon a Sheep, we are able to continue to make summer camp a reality for children from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
onceuponasheep.com