Give the Gift of LOVE - Brooke and Rachel

These two ladies sold more hats during the month of December than any other individual or team. We were so grateful for their participation in Give the Gift of LOVE and the fervor with which they shared the stories of our ladies in Uganda. Name: Brooke Age: 23 Location: Jacksonville, Florida Job: MAC Makeup Artist How did you get involved with Krochet Kids international? My dear friend Rachel Ryan shared KKi with me. Why did you decide to participate in Give the Gift of Love? After learning more about KKi and the amazing things the guys are doing to empower these ladies, my heart was totally captured by it. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas is my favorite! I love Christmas music, seeing all my family, and it's little baby Jesus' birthday. :) You and Rachel sold 550 hats! How did you do it? Rachel and I were a great team. We had almost over 20 events. A lot of our friends and family showed an awesome amount of KKi love! What was your favorite event that you put on? I really loved this radio concert that we did. It was a lot of bands playing all day and selling wonderful hats and listening to great music - Black Keys to name the best! What kind of dessert do you like? Hands down, my Aunt Dareleen's homemade Red Velvet Cake. We heard that you made a commercial - what was that like? Well, my dear friends from C&I Studios wanted to help us out in any way possible. So, they shot the whole commercial for us. I wasn't there when they filmed it, but it turned out great! They had a huge hand in helping us sell soo many hats. Big thanks to Josh and Amy Miller! What is your Favorite KKi product? I really enjoy the beautiful Betty. We sold sooo many of these. Every color looks great on the ladies and the yarn is soo nice and soft! You sold a lot of hats - what drives your passion surrounding KKi and Uganda? Well, the products and story are such an inspiring thing to me. I've had a huge heart for Africa since I was a little girl. Anything that helps improve the equality of life for these beautiful people motivates me to get involved. I'm thankful for KKi; they encourage me to keep driving towards my dreams of Africa. What song would you sing if you were on American Idol? "Baby, Baby", by Amy Grant! haha What are you most excited for when it comes to Uganda? To just take in everything these ladies are about. To be totally out of my element for once. I know I'll forever be changed by it. Name: Rachel Ryan Age: 27 Location: Jacksonville, Florida Job: Artist Relations and Movement Campaign Director at Got Your Back Movement How did you get involved with Krochet Kids International? I got involved with KKi about two and a half years ago with I met Brad and Stew (two guys on staff in the US) in Uganda. I really love the program and the ladies are INCREDIBLE! During last year's Give the Give of Love Stew asked me to participate and we threw a very big/very impromptu concert that ended up being a huge success. Toilet paper on the roll - over or under? Toilet Paper...Over, for sure. Why did you decide to participate in GTGOL? I tend to throw the whole "go big or go home" type of events. I decided probably in October that I needed to start thinking about what I was going to do this holiday season and planned very loosely until I heard the goal of 10,000 hats and wanted to step it up. It's really an honor to be involved in changing lives during such a giving season. Letting people know about how buying with intention really matters today was huge part of this campaign for me. How did you sell so many hats?! I am lucky enough to have so many connections in the south!! The south will rise! Haha, JK! We teamed up with some great giving churches and had our amazing friends behind us from day one. What was your favorite event that you came up with? I think my favorite event was the VIP Launch Party as we called it! It was a 'friends only' party at my house and we set up my front yard like a living room with Christmas lights and all and had the actual living room more like a store. Plenty of friends and friends of friends came out to get first dibs! How did you manage to get featured on the news? We were already working closely with C&I Studios and their publicist (exposedPR) had handed out the promo video to contacts and one thing led to another and we drove down to Miami and ended up int he NBC Studios. What is your favorite band right now? As I am typing this, I am listening to Chris August "No Far Away". I just met him this week and I can't seem to take this album out of my stereo! It's great. Check it out. What is your favorite KKi product? My favorite KKi product is going to be the Cream Thomas. I didn't even get one! We sold out!!! You sold 550 hats, that's incredible! What drives your passion surrounding KKi and Uganda? We sold hats, sure. We spread a lot more awareness than anything else. In a way Uganda has ruined my life, but in the best way possible. I haven't been the same since I went there. That is largely because of the KKi staff that I met there. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things is what's going to change the world.