CarryON! (Here’s an excellent crowdfunding opportunity for you.)

St. Francis House is an incredible place.

Day in, day out, the wonderful people who work there take care of the everyday needs of Boston’s poor and homeless – breakfast and lunch, a change of clothing, a place to take a shower, medical care, counseling, hangout room to get in out of the weather, someone to talk to, someone who’ll listen. It also takes care of their longer term needs, helping folks find what we all want: a place to call home and meaningful work.

The motto of St. Francis House is Rebuilding Lives.

One way in which it’s trying to rebuild lives is through its subsidiary, CarryON.

A social enterprise, CarryON employs guests of St.  Francis House to make bags and housewares out of materials that would otherwise be thrown away, namely burlap coffee bags, awning canvas and other repurposed materials…

At CarryON, we know that the homeless aren’t hopeless, and we want to prove that there are ways to employ the chronically unemployed.

For the last few weeks, they’ve been selling their wares at the Summer Street Art Market at Boston’s Downtown Crossing (between the shell of Filene’s which – hallelujah! – is at long last a construction site, and Macy’s a.k.a. the ghost of Jordan Marsh past).

This is on my beaten path, so I have naturally stopped by and gotten a few things.  And will be stopping by again. And getting a few more things. (Yes, friends and family, you do have CarryON products to look forward to.)

In addition to the stand, CarryON has some wholesale business – so they’re definitely on their way.

When I’ve stopped by the stand, I’ve also gotten to meet a few of the CarryON employees, who are excited about having good work to do, and proud to be making such high-quality products.

But start ups cost money, and CarryON’s expenses include:

• Bobbins
• Thread
• Vendor booth rentals
• Website hosting
• Sewing supplies
• Workshop rent
• Salaries/worker stipends
• Sewing machine maintenance

The other day, CarryON launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

So, here’s your opportunity to do some good.

I can assure you that these are not the Kobe beef jerky jerks I blogged about the other day – the yahoos who got kickstopped.

This is the real deal, and a great opportunity to help get CarryON off the ground.

Note to old geezer readers: you get big time social cred for getting involved in crowdfunding. This is way beyond Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s beyond Twitter, and Instagram, and Pinterest.  Crowdfunding: it’s hip and happenin’, kids.

So carry on. Go forth and crowdfund.

Here’s the link.

CarryON!