Okay, after discussing with a brother who did a tote bag before. The conclusion is with the budget we have we will end up doing one color printing.

So, it boils down to what slogan to print on the bag.
Text will be: HalfDate.com Recycle Drive
then a slogan: … so suggest your slogans.
Please choose your three most favorite slogans:

Allah’s Messenger (peace and prayers be upon him) said: “Removing a litter from the road is charity.” -Sahih AlJamea

“This [student learning about recycling video] makes me feel good! Very good!” -Hadayai, Atlanta, Georgia

“This [recycling drive] is exciting, MAshaa’Allah. May Allah reward you for putting these together, ameeen.” -Umm Zahidah, Anchorage, Alaska

“I am a senior in high school. I recently started a youth group called the Youth Muslim Fortress. My mom showed me your e-mail and this task looked very interesting. Insha’allah my group will take responsibility for this task. Thanks for this opportunity and hope there will be more to come!” -Zuhra, Bloomington, Minnesota

DateDrive of Muhharam 1430/Jan 2009
Type of DateDrive: Non-monetary

What: Benefiting Muslims organizations by recycling unwanted your mobile phone, ink cartridge, etc. while saving the environment from toxic waste!

DateDrive Goals: Have 20 masjids/schools as collecting points

Collection Points:
So far, the following fine organizations are participating in the collection, may Allah reward them. (See comment section for their address and contact, if you don’t find the address, post your question as a comment)

1. Bait Salaam, Atlanta, GA
2. Maidah, Atlanta Food Consortium, GA
3. Ella Johnnaber, Pine Lake, GA
4. AlMaun Fund, NJ
5. Muslim Community Bloomington, IN
6. AlMadinah school, Los Angeles, CA
7. North Hollywood Islamic center, CA
8. Masjid Quba, CA
9. Girl Scout, Raleigh, NC
10. Millennium Pharmacy, Brooklyn, NY
11. Life Maker at Foundation for Islamic Education, PA
12. Life Maker at Devon Mosque, PA
13. Temple University-MSA, Philadelphia, PA
14. The Bridge @ Baabun Nasr, PA (address in the comment section)
15. George Mason University MSA working with the Mustafa Center, VA
16. AlHuda Masjid, Worcester, MA
17. Youth Muslim Fortress/BuildingBlocks @ Masjid Ar-Rahman, Bloomington, MN
18. BuildingBlocks @ Masjid Dar Al-Farooq, Minneapolis, MN
19. BuildingBlocks @ Islamic University, Robbinsdale, MN
20. BuildingBlocks @ Mesjid Al-Huda, Minneapolis, MN
21. BuildingBlocks @ Masjid Abu Bakar al Sadiq, Minneapolis, MN
22. Dawah Institute, St. Paul, MN
23. Masjid As Sabr, Portland, OR
24. Masjid Bilal, Portland, OR
25. Masjid Beaverton, OR
26. Halal Market in Tigard, Portland, OR
27. Muslim community of Anchorage, Alaska
28. STTAR Consultancy Services, Lewiston, ME
29. Evelyn Roberson, Atlanta, GA

What’s in it for you:Rewards from Allah, in-sha-Allah for benefiting women shelter and needy Muslims with recycling income. Also, you are protecting the environment and cleaning your house

Also, HalfDate is giving away Amazon gift certificates.

1. $57 for the most collected items (according to Baitul Salaam evaluation)
2. $57 for the most number of participants (how can we tell? Ask them to post a comment with the masjid/school name, or send activity pictures)
3. $57 for media coverage by your local media

And the winners are….

1. Most collected items: Weekend school of Islamic Foundation, 35 phones. 9 ink cartridges, 4 MP3 players and 1 camera.
2. Most participants: Weekend school of Islamic Foundation, about 40 students
3. Media Coverage: Temple University
4. And Extra Category, the most collection points: Building Blocks in Minnesota

Deadline: Jan, 31, 2009 (extended to Feb 10th for reporting purposes)

Action Required:

• If you are outside the US, simply send the link of this drive to your friends

http://halfdate.com/2009/01/01/recycle-drive/

To give an equal opportunity for HalfDaters outside the US to participate, we will accept their donations to cover part of the costs of the drive. Notice your donation will help promoting HalfDate in various communities, so we can do more in the future, in-sha-Allah.

Contributors to the costs of this dateDrive:

1. Fatimah, Singapore (new HalfDater, gave trice :p)
2. Clothing Store, Florida, USA (new HalfDater)
3. Ifrah, Ontario, Canada
4. Jamie, Massachusetts, USA
5. Rached, California, USA
6. Hannah, Cardiff, UK
7. Mohima, Essex, UK
8. Caynan, Oregon, USA (gave twice)
9. Abdalfattah, North Dakota, USA (new HalfDater)
10. Qamar, West Yorkshire, UK (gave twice)
11. Lina, Ontario, Canada (new HalfDater, gave twice)
12. Shazia, Ontario, Canada (new HalfDater)
13. Zabeen, London, UK
14. Nadia, Illinois, USA (new HalfDater)
15. Anisa, California, USA
16. Saira, Tuscany, Italy
17. Rahmah, Quebec, Canada
18. Hoda, Ontario, Canada
19. Cynthia, Romania
20. Aishah, Maryland, USA
21. Mustaque, Illinois, USA
22. Arif, Ohio, USA
23. Mohammed, Texas, USA
24. Latoya, Florida, USA
25. Tanweer, California, USA
26. A sister who wanted to donate, but the drive is closed

Total collected for the drive cost (gifts, printing, and tote bags): $469 – Paypal fees $23.21 – gifts $171 (3x$57) – $50 (pizza party for BuildingBlock for having the most number of collection points) = 224.79 left for designing tote bags.

• If you are in the US, talk to your masjid/school to be a collecting point (it’s a good way of developing relationship between organizations). Click here for instruction.
• If you have participated in the drive (volunteered or recycled), please enter your name and email.

Beneficiary Organizations (why only two? Because only two applied on time):

• Al Maun Fund (sadaqah fund for Muslim families)
• Baitul Salaam (women shelter)

More About Recycling/Fundraising

Your donation may be tax deductible. (ask your tax specialist).

Did you know that one cell phone can pollute up to 132,000 liters of drinking water. Your unwanted Cell phones and inkjet cartridges will be recycled in accordance with EPA regulations or Refurbished and reused.

Every time we throw electronic gadgets in the trash we hurt our environment. The casings do not biodegrade and the metals (lead, gold, lithium and others) eventually find their way into our ground water. Heavy metals in our rivers and creeks kill fish, plants and other forms of life causing an imbalance in nature. We can stop this from happening and support a worth cause at the same time.

This project is perfect for students and others who need to earn Community Service hours. It is also a good project for Girl/Boy Scout Troops, service organizations, masjid/Islamic centers and other places of worship. Each item donated is like cash to us. Please do not alter the shipping label. All the information is there for it to go directly where it needs to go and we (e.g. Baitul Salaam) get the credit for the shipment, insh’Allah.

If your employer has not contracted with someone to dispose of toner packs from copiers let us know right away, insh’Allah. We will contact them to show them how they can properly dispose of the toner packs.

How To Be A Collection Point?

As Salaamu Alaikum,

We recycle in Atlanta all the time.  Let’s keep it easy.  I am going
to lay out the steps for an easy recycling drive.

Step 1

Secure permission from the leadership in your community to collect
items listed:  old cell phones (can work as well as non-working),
empty ink jet cartridges and toner packs from copy machines, iPods,
mp3 players, game consoles, digital cameras, digital video recorders
and laptops. Get a large box and get some children to decorate it.
Give them some paper, scissors, bright color paper and let the have
fun.  Someone older can go over the box to make sure everything is
pasted on it is secure.

** Please use this flyer

Step 2

Check the box once or twice a week to make sure only electronic items
are going into he box.  When it fills, or close to filling or at the
end of the month (January 31) whatever happens first email
haleem1@aol.com (me) for simple directions on how to ship.  You will
receive postage paid labels from me to use (no cost to you).  Collect
some old boxes to ship (do not buy new ones).

Now if you are going to support both Al Maun and Baitul Salaam
organizations at the end of the drive check with Al Maun and see what
items they are collecting, insh’Allah.  Donate some or all of those
items to them.  We will take the balance, insh’Allah. Baitul Salaam is
collecting more items than Al Maun.

The main thing is to not over think it.  Keep it simple.  If you need
me to send you an annoncement that can be made to your community after
Salatul Jumuah, etc., will be glad to do so, insh’ Allah. Also if
people in your community need to talk to me directly fine they can
email me at haleem1@aol.com or call me at (404) 608-8649.

Thank you for wanting to assist.

May Allah continue to bless you.

ma salaam
Hadayai Majeed
Baitul Salaam Network, Inc.
www.baitulsalaam.net

You can earn the rewards of this hadith without having to do like this man!

Special Thanks

All praises and thanks are due to Allah, Alhamduillah. Having said that, we would like to follow the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and prayer be upon him) when he said, “Whoever did not thank the people, he did not thank Allah.”

So, on behalf of HalfDate family from New Zealand to Hawaii and from Alaska to Australia, we would like to thank all of you who participated as collection points, turned your unwanted eWaste into charity, chipped in for the expenses, posted pleasant words, spread out the words, created lesson plans to teach about recycling, uploaded pictures, involved your children or students, designed posters, created videos, or made Duas.

As always, we pray that Allah reward you all with the sweetest date in Jannah.

Drive Fruits:

• 27 entities including Masjids, schools and businesses are joining the drive.
• Over 107 students, teachers, parents, imams, business owners, and children are either recycling, learning about it, or teaching it.
• 15,478 people have noticed that we Muslims DO CARE about the environment (this number is an estimate based on YouTube, Facebook, comments, and email responses). This estimate does not include the free Facebook ad that was displayed over 24,000 times (thanks to br. Ahmed from Silicon Valley for free ads coupons).
  
• Temple University Radio covered the drive:
• A teleseminar to show how individuals and organizations can cover its utility bills by recycling.
• A lesson plan for teachers to teach recycling, with a sample video.

How to Turn eWaste into Charity: A Guide for Organizations and Individuals

Reporting Your Numbers:

To enter the contests, please submit a list of the items collected and a list of the volunteers (so we can send you certificates), if you have any pictures of the items collected or picture of collection activities please include them too. For contest number 3, you can send us the contact and the name of your local Muslim newspaper.

Email all your submissions by Feb 1st, 2009

As for shipping your items to AlMaun and Baitul Salaam, please email them (scroll down for their contact).

Al Maun is only collecting cell phones and empty ink jet cartridges. Baitul Salaam is collecting cell phones, empty ink jet cartridges, iPods, mp3 players, empty toner packs, laptops,digital cameras, digital video recorders and game consoles. Do an inventory of your collection: total number of each item. Decide how you want to split your collection. Then contact each group to receive further instructions. Warning: When you pack your items do not use air pillows, peanuts or other fancy packing materials just use newspaper. Please do not buy shipping boxes use old ones remember we are recycling. You will receive easy to follow detail instructions from the organizations. If you need a tax letter let them know in advance of them shipping you the postage paid labels. When the labels arrive use as instructed please do not alter (unless instructed).

If groups want to continue to collect on their own contact each group separately. Baitul Salaam recycles all the time and can give you tips on how to sustain a collection drive in your community. If a masjid wants to start recycling Sr. Hadayai will be glad to act as a consultant. She only ask that your community makes a donation to the Baitul Salaam Network, Inc. at least once a year, in-sha-llah.