The 'Day' is fast approaching!
 

We believe the birth of Alizée and Gregoire's baby is only weeks if not days away. We've purposely avoided the subject in the forum because she's superstitious and the fear we might jinx things, but at this late date, hopefully that is no longer a concern.

As with the wedding gift, we'd like to send a card and a gift. A few of us have been discussing a gift via pm and we felt a gift certificate at a store in Ajaccio that sells baby, clothes, toys, etc, would be best. I contacted Blanche at the Chez Paulo restaurant who has a few young grandkids of her own and who is probably very familiar with stores of that type to recommend one and she said Chonchon (chonchonajaccio@gmail.com), would be a good place. This place is not far away from A&G's place.

So if others approve this, we'll start working on the nuts and bolts of the plan. If anyone wants to donate, we won't mention in the forum or on the card who donated. We know some members are not in a good position to donate and sometimes the cost of getting a donation to us can be more than the donation itself. If someone wants to announce how much they are donating that's up to them. We won't post a list, but we may post a total of money donated. Ways of donating will include Paypal and Google wallet and other ways members might find convenient for them.

We may include on the card either member's nicknames or real names if they choose or as we did with the wedding card, we just listed the names of the countries our members are from. This would include everyone who wanted to wish them congratulations and not just people who donated.

Good Idea, count me in.

I am all for it. I think a member should be a collection point for the donations, and I nominate you. :)

I think PayPal is pretty much universal and almost everybody has an account, so what about using PayPal?

I would not post the PayPal email address on the forum, but a member wishing to donate should contact who is collecting the donations by PM and request the PayPal account information.

We should have a date range for when the collection starts and ends. Since Alizee is due this month and we don't know exactly when, I think the gift should be sent in December. There will be a lot of commotion in their household after the birth for a week or two, so we should try to avoid sending the gift during that time so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Then there is Christmas, and we should avoid that as well.

So, I am just going to throw out some dates for starters and we can adjust based on consensus.

Collection dates: November 11 - December 9
Gift sent: December 16

perhaps its an opportunity to encourage her to make a movie?

(at least we'd have her attention)

A card sent by first class mail would probably take a week + or minus a couple of days to get to Corsica.

It's a nice idea. I'd be happy to participate

That's fine with me. At the two autograph sessions I went to, getting 60, then 80 autographed cds, I had been notified by members who wanted one, but I paid for the majority of those cds myself, then collected payment once I got back to the states and all I asked for was the cost of the cd +shipping, which I think shows I can be trusted . Shepherd I think is one of our longest active members here and I think he'll vouch for that.

So to get this ball rolling, I'll give 100 euros. I'll probably add more to possibly round off things when we are done. Again, there is no need to mention how much you are donating.

I'm definitely in! Thanks, Scruffydog, for agreeing to be the PayPal holder-of-the-funds. I feel completely confident in your trustworthiness! And I agree that, rather than you posting the PayPal address here, anyone wishing to contribute should PM you for the info. You will be hearing from me soon!

CleverCowboy, you make a good point about the dates, relative to how busy things will be after the baby is born, plus with the holidays coming up. I would suggest we wait till after the first of the year. A gift will be every bit as much appreciated (maybe even more so) once all the fanfare has died down a bit and, as you say, it would be less likely to be overlooked. I would say maybe collection dates from now till Dec. 30, then the gift sent on January 15. What do you think?

If the baby comes soon, I'd rather have it done before the end of the year, but if this runs into late November, with Christmas the following month, then yes it would be better to wait until after the first of the year. Of course with baby clothing, there's a constant need for larger and larger clothing so in that regard, at any time it's received, it should be appreciated.

I absolutely do vouch for Scruffy. It never occurred to me not to trust him. He accepted the responsibility to collect all the autographs for everyone on his last visit to Alizee and took the responsibility of returning them to each member who participated. I never heard any complaints.

I agree with the idea that sending the gift after Christmas would be best. It might even take Alizee by surprise. :)