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Thanks to our terrific volunteers!

It's Volunteer Appreciation Week, and we wanted to take a moment to honor and thank our many volunteers for their time and talents. This photo was taken during our most recent sock monkey sewing circle, and not all volunteers were present.

To our volunteers, thanks for all you do!

Adopt a sock monkey event at Pink Olive!

On Saturday, April 24, our friends at the Pink Olive Boutique are hosting a very special event to benefit fresh art. Drop by the Park Slope store between 12 and 4 p.m., adopt a fresh art sock monkey, and receive a complimentary photo shoot from Classic Kids Photography! You'll also enjoy sweets and beverages. Pink Olive is located at 157 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Hope to see you there!

You can help fresh art win a $5,000 grant from Pepsi!

The Pepsi Refresh Project is offering grants for great ideas, and fresh art is in the running. If we win, we'll be able to teach three sock monkey workshops to artists with special needs in New York City. We need your votes! Here's what you can do:

1. Check out our project athttp://www.refresheverything.com/freshartsockmonkeys.
   
   
2. Create an account so you can vote. (It only takes 2 minutes to join.)
   
   
3. VOTE! You can vote once a day during the month of April.
   
   
4. Tell your friends to vote using facebook and twitter.
   
   
5. Remember to vote daily until April 30, and please spread the word.
   

As always, thank you for your support!

And the winner is...

JENNIE!

Congratulations! Jennie is the winner of fresh art's first ever spring fling sock monkey giveaway*! To everyone who participated in our contest, thank you so much for all of your lovely comments. It makes us happy to know that fresh art's sock monkeys spread so much joy.

And don't worry if you didn't win--you can still get your very own sock monkey at one of these locations:

• fresh art's website
• Pink Olive Boutique in NYC's East Village or in Park Slope, Brooklyn
• Green in BKLYN in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
• Anthropologie online

We'll also be selling sock monkeys at the Fine Art & Designer Crafts Fair on Bleecker Street on Sunday, May 23. The fair is on Bleecker Street between Bank and Christopher Streets, and it is an annual fundraiser for the Greenwich Village Youth Council.

Happy spring!

*The winner was chosen using random.org.

Sock monkey giveaway!

To help ring in Spring after this long, snowy winter, fresh art is giving away this delightful sock monkey to one lucky reader! That's right... you could win this adorable guy. Hand-sewn by fresh art volunteer Randy, this monkey is sporting a colorful hand-knit scarf and hat combo, which he hopefully won't be needing much longer now that spring is almost here!

For a chance to adopt this monkey, just leave us a comment below. Please include your email address* in your comment. We promise we won't use your contact info for any purpose other than this contest!

The contest closes at midnight on Sunday, March 21 (the first day of spring!) The winner will be chosen using random.org. Look for a post announcing the lucky sock monkey recipient on Monday, March 22.

Thanks and good luck!

Love,
Your friends at fresh art

*hint: Spell out your email address using words so it's less likely to be appropriated by a spammer. For example, our email address would be "info at freshartnyc dot org."

volunteer spotlight

Every so often, fresh art likes to feature one of our many generous volunteers. This month, we would like you to meet Roberta Ehrenberg.



What is your name? Roberta "Bart" Ehrenberg
Where do you live? Just south of West Palm Beach
What is your profession? I’m retired. Nursing was my first career, being a mom was my second, and then I became a professional photographer. I did a lot of children's photography.
How long have you been a fresh art volunteer? About a year.
What type of volunteer work do you do for fresh art? I make sock monkeys. A friend and I were visiting New York and we came to a Monday night sewing circle to learn how to make them. Then I orchestrated a sock monkey-making party with women I met going to the pool in the retirement community where I live. Around Chirstmas time, I sold a lot of the sock monkeys we had made to my neighbors so they could give them as gifts to their grandchildren. Now I make sock monkeys by myself, especially during the football season when my husband is watching TV!
What is your favorite thing about making sock monkeys for fresh art? I really love going out and hunting for bright-colored socks at the dollar store. It's also a fun way to meet people. I was on a cruise recently and I was sitting by the pool, making a sock monkey. A woman came up to me to ask what I was doing. It attracts a lot of attention.
Do you have any other hobbies? I make jewelry. I use very brightly colored opaque glass to make beads, and then I string them into bracelets and necklaces.

Thanks for the great work you do, Roberta!