Birch Box Projects
Our story
The day after the American election in 2016 I felt ,like I imagine many of you felt: discouraged and disappointed. Instead of adding fuel and feeding the fear, I decided to "complain creatively," and find a way to invest in my community. I contacted a friend to help me with this and we came up with a new take on the trending concept of pop-up shops as a fundraiser for new refugees in our city.
My name is Amy Krahn and I am a hairstylist/woodworker. My partner in this endeavour, Ivan Valencia, is a partner in Nuburger. Ivan's parents were refuges that came to Winnipeg in the late 80's. He's been wanting to find a way to support this community for a while and when I came to him with this idea the answer was an immediate YES.
What's the big idea?
We are converting a shipping container into a pop-up barbershop/braid bar and retail space for festivals. During off times we will switch out the furnishings and host creative workshops inside. The outside of The Birch Box will be covered in a mural that tells a story of the hopelessness of being a refugee and transitions
into showing a community of supportive people helping. When the doors open to the shop the helplessness will disappear behind the doors and guests will enter into a clean shop aesthetic lined with birch branches, thus the name Birch Box. We'll have 4 chairs for services, with shelving and display for products near the wider entry point. During workshops we'll switch out the furniture to tables and shelves
All the stylists doing services will be volunteer and the makers will donate a percentage of their profits to the cause. For the workshops, we'll be paying the educators an hourly rate with the rest of the funds going to our cause.
Who are we helping?
This is the start of a social project to benefit new refuges. IRCOM (Immigrant Refuge Community Organization of Manitoba) is an awesome organization that provides a diverse range of assistance for both refuges and immigrants including housing and education. We are going to be focusing our donations on their underfunded child care program.
Women are so integral to changing the community and the world, but without education they can't do that. IRCOM has great programs for education, but what's standing in the way for women is child care. With their children cared for on site this will enable more women to be educated and contributing to our community.
What else should you know:
We are raising the funds here to get this project from concept to concrete! Canada Day, 2018 will be our premier pop-up at the Osborne street festival. What a perfect opportunity to take advantage of an National event and the crowds it will draw! We are also working on securing a spot for us to drop our box at the forks for two weeks in September to host workshops and participate in Nuit Blanche.
The funds raised here will go towards the purchase and modification of the shipping container including: metal work to create new doors, electrical, insurance, mural artists, as well the furniture to go inside. Every dollar counts, please don't feel that any amount is insignificant. The main thing is getting involved and feeling like YOU are making in making a difference in our community.
In order that we can continue to provide these kind of events and opportunities in the community we will be taking a maximum of 25% of the funds raised to go towards our professional developement. (*Revised from 10% to 25% as of 11/02/2017, no further revisions will happen on this front, nor will this percent ever be raised.*)
Sponsor opportunity
For companies or individuals who are looking to make large donations we are having a sponsor board on one end of the container that will serve as advertising for your company. We expect a lot of publicity around this event, so it's a fantastic opportunity to be seen both by our community and nationally.
Our video was put together by David Griesman. Check him out at www.davidgreisman.ca
Thank you all for reading and we hope we've moved you to take action in welcoming and helping new refugees in our community!
