Award-Winning Book and Keepsakes

Win-Win Fundraising Opportunities

• Girls and women organizations
• Schools – public and private (click here for article)
• Sports and academic teams
• Youth groups

Bringing Heart and Hope to the Classroom
Chaska’s Guardian Angel’s School raised more than $1,400 to support their technology needs through a one-of-a-kind educational and inspirational fundraiser with author Janae Bower.

Janae, a local Twin Cities, first-time author, recently published the award-winning book The Little Girl Who Found IT: A Story of Heart and Hope. It is a simple, beautifully illustrated story about a little girl’s life-long journey to find IT – the thing in life that will bring joy, meaning and love. As a little girl Janae dreamed about growing up and writing a book that would inspire hope in others. IT has!

The book was selected as the 2003 winner for the Self-help/Psychology category by the Midwest Independent Publisher’s Association. A matching, handmade doll of the book’s character was created by a woman inspired by the story. Other keepsakes like the doll have followed. Another way the story inspires others is through fundraisers with nonprofit organizations. Organizations sell the book with its and matching keepsakes and then receive a significant portion of the proceeds from the sales. It is a win-win partnership – the organization raises money for its important causes and Janae shares her story with many people.

The fundraiser is designed to fit each organization’s needs. Janae partnered with Father Larry Johnson, Principal Nancy Ronhovde and her staff to customize their vision. The first part of the fundraiser started with a kickoff event at the PTO meeting to inspire the parents. Janae’s message included how family plays a special role in making their children’s dreams come true. She shared how her:

• Parents taught her how to find IT
• Father-in-Law generously donated his time and talents to illustrate the book
• Her husband supported her – especially financially as they invested $10,000 upfront to get the book published
• “Adopted father,” Fr. Larry Johnson, continues to provide opportunities like this one to share her dreams with others (he was pastor of her church while growing up in Rush City, MN).

Families of Guardian Angels like Kristen Vidmar, mother of two boys, were touched by her story and the book’s message. "The Little Girl Who Found It" made such an impact on me that I just knew after listening to the author talk about how the book came about, I had to buy it for every woman close to me. Whether that was a sister, sister-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, niece or friend. The book portrayed everything a young girl needs to learn and the older ones NEED to remember throughout out their lives....it doesn't matter what age you are, the message comes across strong! When you get the chance to read a book with such a heartfelt message you can't help but want to pass it on!!”

The families that chose to be part of the fundraiser made a commitment to sell at least three books and then each of them received a free book signed by the author as a thank you. A total of 60 families participated. The second part of the fundraiser had Janae spending the next day in the classrooms meeting all the students as the “artist in residence.” She spoke with pre-schoolers through eighth graders sharing with them her experiences of being an author and the story’s message.  “This was a great opportunity for us was to have our own one day ‘Author in Residence.’

For students to see the book, meet the author, and even better, have her share her life with them was a valuable learning tool and positive modeling experience,” according to Nancy Rondovde. Students learned about the process an author goes through to write a book from the initial idea to the actual publication. They viewed various artifacts from her seven-year journey to publish the book: sample illustrations, a market research survey, the first draft of the book, different book designs and then finally the finished product. They also discussed the importance of finding IT.

Janae shared how faith carried her though the seven years it took to finally publish the book. “Many times I wanted to give up or publish it pre-maturely. My faith reminded me that God graced me with IT and that IT would be ready in His time not mine.” The day Janae spent in the classroom with these 300 students was one of her fondest moments. “It was one of those moments that I knew this was IT - an important part of God’s purpose for my life. I felt so blessed to work with Guardian Angels and was excited for future opportunities to do the same thing with other organizations.” Students were also affected in different ways. Some vowed never to lose IT and others were inspired to live their dreams of writing and illustrating: “I want to be writer like you when I grow up.” “Your father and law is a good grayer – I want to do that too.” The students noticed that the book is part of “The Little IT Series” and were curious what the next book of the series would be.

Janae received many suggestions for the next book including one that she’ll never forget from an insistent little boy in 4 th grade. “I think you should write about the little dog who found IT – the dog was once a cross dog and then it became nice.” Janae confirmed that the next book in the series is going to be about the little boy finding IT inspired by the recent birth of her son, Gavin. “But you never know after that, the next book God leads me to write could be about the little dog.”