Children's Crafts Support Philanthropic Causes

PHOTOS courtesy of Little Loving Hands

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Looking for a holiday gift that keeps your kids (or grandkids, nieces or nephews) busy and teaches them how to help others?

Vienna mom Lily Yeh has launched Little Loving Hands, a business that not only keeps children busy with interesting crafts but teaches them how to help others with tie-ins to various charities.

“As a mother of 2, I was in search of a way to have my young children involved in giving back to the community,” she said. “I wasn’t able to find much, given the age restrictions of most volunteer opportunities. So, I set up Little Loving Hands.”

Little Loving Hands provides pre-packaged children craft kits where the end product is used to contribute toward supporting a philanthropic cause. “Our mission is to provide a fun and educational method for parents and caretakers to engage children in learning about the importance of being kind and giving back to others,” Yeh said.

Monthly subscriptions can be purchased for $25 or you can save by pre-paying for a 6-month or 12-month subscription. Every month, a new box arrives with craft materials designed to help your child learn about charitable giving. The box includes educational content about the organization in need, a certificate of achievement, a collectable button and more. Using the pre-paid return envelope, you can send your child’s finished craft as a donation to those in need.

“Within each kit, we provide not only the materials for the project that ends up as a craft that is sent back to an organization in need, but also documents and other fun items to reinforce what the children are working on and how they are helping others,” Yeh noted. “We started right here in Vienna and continue to get a lot of parents joining our efforts in the area, but we are also starting to go nationwide.”

Yeh has sent out more than 200 craft kits since starting the business in the summer and launching a Web site in November.

The current kit Little Loving Hands is mailing out is proving to be really popular, Yeh said. It supports The Children’s Inn at NIH. “They are making fun activity bags and games that will be given to the patients staying at The Children’s Inn,” she said. “We’re also getting a lot of people excited about our heatable snowman stuffed toy kit that is going out next month to support Ronald McDonald House Charities.”

Yeh is officially working solo but is receiving a lot of pro-bono support from family, friends, and intern graduate students. Yeh’s education includes a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing and International Business from the University of Maryland and an MBA from The George Washington University. She’s held a number of senior positions focusing on business strategy and product development. Past employers have included AOL, Blackboard, and Monster Worldwide.

Yeh notes that her for-profit business is focused on social responsibility. “Beyond the items we receive that are handed off to the charities, our goal is to always donate additional funds to various causes,” she said. “We are definitely expanding beyond this area and have seen subscribers from many other states. Our February spotlight organization is one that supports children of wounded, deployed and fallen military parents nationwide.”

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