Hi Everybody,

So it’s been another good month for the Newton Pens Scholarship fund raising, with good notebook and postcard sales at the Arkansas Pen Show and online, and several hundred raised from the pen auctions.  We raised $673 in March.

The winner for the monthly pen give away (to say thanks for supporting the scholarship fund) is Michell Z!  Thanks so much to all of you for your donations to the scholarship fund.  We’re getting scholarship applications in the mail and will be reading essays and figuring out what students will be getting awards very soon.

Deadline for applications is April 14th.

If you want to win a $225 pen credit, all you have to do is purchase some notebooks or postcards, or just make a donation, write a note in the paypal payment form so we know what you’re doing, or you can send a postcard in the mail for a free entry to

Newton Pens Give Away
PO BOX  6084
Hot Springs, AR. 71902

Be sure to include name, contact info, and “Free entry to monthly give away” written on the card, or the entry won’t count.

I’ll be putting up more auction pens very soon, keep your eyes open for them.  I’ll post on Instagram and Facebook when they’re live.

As always, if you have any questions just send me a note – [email protected]

Thanks!

Shawn

We had a great time at the pen show this year.  We raised some money for the scholarship fund, sold a few pens, met some great people, and brought our boys for their very first show!  Holden and Corbin got got a couple notebooks, Holden got a custom nib ground from Jim at the Franklin Christoph table, and they each will probably get a Metropolitan from Vanness this week in the colors that weren’t at the show.  🙂  I got to meet a few pen makers, too.  Troy Breeding and Jim Hinze.  Both really great guys with some pretty cool work.

The show grew from last year so we had to move into a second room where I was at.

Dromgoole’s was there with some incredible urushi pens.  There were LOTS of great vintage pens.  I picked up a sweet first year Doric with an adjustable flex nib for under a hundred.  That nib is SWEET.  Elizabeth picked up a really great corn cob pen from Troy Breeding.  On the way home Saturday night she mentioned it a few times and was determined to get it first thing Sunday morning.  I got there first, asked him to put it aside, and reminded her that she better get to it before somebody else does.  She went and asked, he said he was sorry but somebody else got there first.  She cheered up when I handed it to her.

Pics are mostly from Sunday when I had time to walk around.  It was a really good show.  Lots of foot traffic.  Lots of fun hanging out at the Vanness Open House Friday night, and Pen Show After Dark on Saturday.  I’ll be back to work tomorrow and will put up my inventory on the website soon.  I’ll get on to commissions this week and next, and get back to making inventory for the Chicago show coming up the first week of May.

Hi Everybody!  It’s time to give a pen away!  Every month we give a pen away as a thank you to people for donating to the scholarship fund and this month, we had 27 entries, raising $135, and using random.org to pick a winner, #1 got picked!  Congrats to Seth E!

Seth, I’ll send you an email to get the ball rolling.  You get a $225 credit, free grind, and free shipping.

Thank you all so much for supporting the scholarship fund!  You’re all helping to make a difference in the lives of some high school students going to college.

Speaking of, it’s time you kids should start filling out our scholarship application.  If you’re a senior, or you know any seniors, please tell them to come by and apply.

Learn how to apply for a scholarship, or support the fund here.

Last month was really great for the pen auctions, too.  We raised $563 on pen auctions alone!  Thank you all so much for participating and for the donated items.  If you have any pens or stationery items you’d like to donate to the fund please send me an email – [email protected] – right now we don’t have anything to bid on but I can get those items up as soon as I have something in hand.

Thanks!

Shawn

First thing a bit of news and updates and reminders – Feb 26th is coming up fast, so if you want to bid on something from this batch of auction pens better get in there quick.  You just bid by commenting at the bottom of each page.  Remember, all the money raised from this goes into the Newton Pens Scholarship and Endowment funds (from here on out all income is split 50/50 to endowment and yearly scholarships, unless you specify otherwise).

And the main news this time around-  The show is at the Crowne Plaza which is really nice.  If you’re traveling and want to visit, but the price of the room puts you off there is an America’s Best Value (across the street) that’s cheaper.  And there’s lots of food in fairly easy walking distance, but it’s a pen show, you’ll probably meet up with a bunch of other cool cats to walk with, or car pool.  🙂

And of course there will be after show events Friday and Saturday and the hotel food was really good if I remember right.

The 2018 Arkansas Pen Show

Friday 10am to 6pm
Saturday 9am to 6pm
Sunday 9am 4pm

Good news everyone!  (that’s a Futurama reference for you this month)

We received 32 submissions in January, through sales of postcards and notebooks (what few we have left) and donations and free entries.  This month the random.org number picking machine picked number 22, so our hilarious postcard making friend Rich DLT won the raffle this month!  Thanks for all your entries!  I love those postcards.

From all the donations and the pen auctions, we raised $625 this month!  That puts us at about $17,595 for the year!  (if you read a different total earlier, I did my math wrong – it’s fixed now)  You’ve all raised that much money in just 7 months!  Thank you so much!!  Of course a huge chunk of that is going to the endowment fund.  Speaking of which, I’m going to call and schedule an appointment to get that set up.

I’m also going to start getting the word out to high school seniors to start applying for scholarships!  Apps are due in April.

When you donate for notebooks or postcards, or just donate cash, you will get one raffle number for every $5 donated.  Hopefully we can move the rest of these notebooks and postcards quickly this way.

I’ll be getting another bunch of auctions started up -BUT- when you bid DO NOT bid in a reply.  Only write in new comments so that I can see them easier.  From now on I will not acknowledge replies to other comments.  Always write a new comment.  Thanks.

Here are the new auction items.

So if you want a chance at winning a credit for a custom pen, up to $225 with a free nib grind and free shipping, pop on in and pick up some cool stuff, or just donate.  You can also donate for free by sending a note or postcard to me at

Newton Pens Scholarships
PO BOX  6084
Hot Springs, AR. 71902

But you must include your full name and an email address and write that it’s a free entry to the scholarship raffle, or I will not enter it.

As always, if you have any questions, please holler.  [email protected]

Thanks so much!

So the site design has been bugging me for a while.  I found a theme I like yesterday morning and last night had the bright idea (finally) to add a shopping cart to make buying inventory pens easier.

Store.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Hi Everybody-

What’s new in the news?  This has been the best year in fundraising so far!  I’ve been told we still have money coming in from different sources going to the endowment fund, but right now, our bank account shows $16,870.67.  I’m constantly blown away by your generosity and support of this project.  I don’t think I ever expected this when I first started raising money back in 2012.  I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Every month, as a way of saying thank you to folks who donate to the fund, we give away a credit towards a custom pen.  This month, from 53 entries, number 50 was picked.  Congrats to Eric A!  I’ll be sending you an email soon.

To contribute to the scholarship fund you can buy some post cards, notebooks, or simply make a financial contribution.  You can also donate your old pens and other writing instruments to us to auction off.
Scholarship Info.

This month’s auctions are listed here- AUCTIONS.

We have 7 pens and a Tibaldi scraps custom pen up for grabs.  To bid just leave a comment in the comments section of each page at the bottom.  If you can’t see the comments section, try a different browser, device, or clearing your cache.  Auctions end January 30th at 6pm Central US time.

It’s also time for you high school seniors to start submitting scholarship applications.  If you are a senior, or you know a senior, let them know to apply.  Scholarships range from $500-1000 each!  It’s easy to apply.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything at all.

Thanks!

Shawn

Good morning world!

It’s been a really great month for fundraising.  You all have helped  raise about $1,482 and some change through the pen auctions and your purchases of notebooks and postcards, and generous donations.  There’s more coming in as people pay for the pens they won in the auctions.  So far we have $13,467 in the bank!

Speaking of the auction – I’m not really happy with how the software is working.  Winners are getting dozens and dozens of notifications telling them they won.  There’s no option to turn this off that I can see.  I’m going to look for different auction software, but if I can’t find anything we’ll try something else.  Keep your eyes open over the next couple of days when I make that decision with a load of new auctions going up.

Every month to say thanks for all the support we give away a credit towards any custom pen (or pen in our inventory), and this month, out of 37 entries, number 5 won.  Congrats Chad V!  I’ll send you an email soon.

I also want to try to make ordering notebooks and postcards simpler as well – so I’m going to work on that too when I have time.

Alright, I need to get back to work.  Those pens don’t make themselves.  🙂
Thanks!

Hi Everybody!

Don’t forget I have a 10% off sale going right now for Fountain Pen Day until midnight tonight.  After that all prices are as listed on the site.

https://newtonpens.com/current-inventory/

I’ve also listed the Fountain Pen Day pen from Krusac Pens up for auction, and you can see that here.

I’ve also just finished up a brush pen for the first time.  I’ll be experimenting with more brush pens and even making my own later on.

Price will depend on the brush we use, but these will be $275 to start.

Hello all of you pen users and pen lovers and collectors and everything else!

It’s been another successful month raising money for the scholarship fund this October with 58 entries.  Wowza thanks!

So like every other month for the last 5 or so years (wow!) we picked a winner using random.org to pick the number – from 58 entries, #6 got picked.  Congrats to Tim F!  Thanks to everybody who participated.  We raised $1357 through paypal and $4357 from cash donations like the Fountain Pen Day and Krusac Pens contributions for the Newton Pens Scholarship Endowment fund we’ve started.  Thanks so much to everybody who’s supporting this program.  I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am to all of you for all the support you’ve shown over the years.  From $2,000 in the first year to $6,000 this last year in awarded scholarships, we’ve given away $26,000 in all.

We’re starting to run low on notebooks and postcards.  Once those are sold out we have some more great images to make new postcards with.  We’re going to do another contest for a notebook cover (just 1 this time) and something new, a t-shirt art contest.

Using https://cottonbureau.com/ we’re going to make and sell t-shirts with all profits raised going towards the Scholarship and Endowment fund.  Please go ahead and start submitting your art ideas to me at [email protected] and in a couple of weeks I’ll take votes from everybody on their favorite design.  The winner will get made into a t-shirt!  Fountain pen themed art would be cool but not necessary, and include “Newton Pens Scholarships” in there, even if it’s hidden in the artwork.

If you have any questions send me an email – [email protected]

Thanks!