Wandering Jellyfish responds to Marshall Fire

Carissa Mina and Jerilyn Patterson, co-owners of the Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop, launched two successful fundraisers for the community. They will also be hosting another fundraiser for the Après-Ski celebration on Jan. 29.

From Jan. 10 to 16, the shop donated 10% of their revenue to the Boulder County Wildfire Fund. The effort raised $247, which they rounded up to $250. Mina said, "Since we are still a relatively new business and, because January is generally slower than other months in retail, we decided to search for a matching donor, which we found in Hectic (full disclosure, my husband is the COO). We submitted our donations totaling $500 on Monday, January 17." If you aren't familiar with Hectic, it is a productivity platform that provides educational services to freelancers.

In addition, the bookshop partnered with Niwot Elementary School for a gift card drive supporting those affected by the Marshall and Middle Fork fires. For those of you who aren't familiar, a gift card drive collects gift cards from businesses such as Target or Walgreens, to help those who are struggling financially by distributing the gift cards directly to those in need.

Mina and Patterson were working with the school librarian on creating store coupons for the children who completed the school's reading challenge when they heard about the school's gift card drive. and asked if there was any way they could team up. At the same time, they had some people reach out on social media, and in the store, asking if they planned on hosting a book drive for the wildfire survivors.

The owners came to the conclusion that hosting a gift card drive instead, due to storage and distribution issues, made more sense. Customers were able to buy Wandering Jellyfish gift cards, donate the recently purchased cards in the store's box, which would then be delivered to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management.

The co-owners collected $390 in gift cards during their fundraiser that lasted from Jan. 17 to 23. In addition, they donated 28% of the gift card revenue ($110) to A Precious Child, a non-profit dedicated to helping children living in poverty and/or survivors of abuse. This organization has over 500 Agency Partners in eight different counties, including Boulder County. Their services include education, school supplies, arts and sports equipment, clothing, hygiene products and employment training for teenagers and young adults.

Mina and Patterson are looking forward to planning other fundraisers in the future. "We are always looking for ways to give back to our communities and beyond," Mina said. "One of our ideas is to dedicate 20% of revenue from TWJ merchandise [branded tote bags, pins, squish the jellyfish stuffed animals] to local child-focused charities. When we decided to pursue this dream of opening a children's bookstore, one of our goals was to get to the point where we could continually help disadvantaged children and families in some way. We're not quite there yet, but that won't stop us from giving when we can."

Drop by the bookshop on Saturday, Jan. 29 for the Après-Ski celebration. Mina and Patterson will be hosting an hourly storytime starting at noon, featuring winter-specific picture books for children ages zero to eight. Ten percent of the sales revenue will be donated to a wildfire-responding organization on the day of the celebration.