31 days of goodness

I spend at least a few minutes of every day being thankful. When 1 in 8 people in the world do not have access to clean or safe drinking water, that I sit and clack away on my laptop is not lost on me.

Our family adopted a family this year for the holidays. A family in which the children are asking for bare necessities as gifts instead the usual barrage one might expect; it is as telling as it is affecting. But it is a reminder that hard luck can hit any family, and that kindness and generosity can be easily shared. It is not the amount that is given, it is the act of giving itself. So many people donate, contribute, and volunteer to causes throughout the year; I think it is outstanding to see human kindness in action.

And now with the turn of December, there are an abundance of opportunities for every person to contribute. It’s the 31 days of goodness, and easy exercises (and many of them free) to put a smile on someone else’s face as well as your own. And to lean over that blade of grass and whisper: grow, grow.

FREE GOODNESS:

1. Get involved. A super easy website: http://www.dosomething.org can help you find service projects in your zip code. They also encourage you to engage your teenage family members to get involved in philanthropy. Their aim is to inspire the next generation of “doers”. You can also find local events/charities/nonprofits to support at www.dogoodchannel.com

2. Mentor/coach/tutor a future John Grisham, Louisa May Alcott, or Stephenie Meyer at http://826national.org/ which is 7 nonprofits working to celebrate and advance creative writing in students age 16-18.

3. Go to your book case and clean it out. Instead of donating to the library, take those books to a local literacy program.

4. You can also join http://www.booksforsoldiers.com for free and send them to troops.

5. Give blood. To find a local blood bank: www.givelife.org

6. Send a holiday card for FREE to a soldier abroad through a Xerox sponsored program www.letssaythanks.com

7. Save all of your magazines from the month and donate them to a local women’s shelter.

8. Call a local retirement community and schedule a visit. You can spend an hour or two calling bingo. We have done it and it is a total hoot. One of the elderly ladies won and yelled “OH SWEET JESUS”. I crack up now thinking about it. (You can also take your sassy OPI or MAC nail polish instead and do some fun manicures. )

9. You can donate baby blankets, stuffed animals, and children’s books to http://projectnightnight.com/ which helps homeless children.

10. Donate your old cell phones to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Go to www.ncadv.org and look under Take Action and then Donate.

11. Donate shoes (you know you have more than you can ever wear!) to www.shareyoursoles.org

12. Mentor an at-risk teen online at http://icouldbe.org

13. Become an online reading mentor and penpal for kids in 3rd – 5th grade at www.in2books.com (They do a background check: Use promo code: SAV2449 so it won't cost you a cent.)

14. Volunteer at a National Park. www.nps.gov

15. Donate your unused airline rewards miles to Salvation Army, Make A Wish, or others.

16. Play www.freerice.com and every correct vocab word you identify, 10 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Program

17. You can also go to www.freekibble.com and for every answer, you send 10 pieces of dog food to an animal shelter in need

18. Donate gift cards you won’t use to www.plasticjungle.com

19. If you knit, you can send squares to www.warmupamerica.org. The squares will be knit into afghans and donated to battered women’s shelters.

20. Sign up to volunteer at www.keenusa.org and become a one on one volunteer to teach kids with disabilities about noncompetitive sports.


SMALL DONATION RELATED GOODNESS

21. Every dollar donated to www.roomtoread.org promotes children’s literacy.

22. Donate a minimum of $10.00 to www.pajamaprogram.org which provides jammies and books for kids in orphanages, group homes, and shelters.

23. Buy some gourmet bean dips, salsa mixes, or spice rubs (among other things) from www.womensbeanproject.com which provides jobs and job training to homeless women. And they just celebrated their 20th anniversary.

24. Lend $25.00 to www.kiva.org which takes your loan and helps woman all over the world start businesses. You can choose your cause and the money will be paid back.

25. Give $25 to Puppies Behind Bars: a program teaching inmates how to train puppies to be service animals.

26. Buy beautiful handmade jewelry from http://www.madebysurvivors.com/ which is combating human slavery and trafficking by providing training, job skills, and life skills to women freed from sex slavery.

27. A $35 donation to Sleeping Children Around the World www.scaw.org provides a BedKit that consists of a mat or mattress, pillow, sheet, blanket, mosquito net (if applicable), clothes outfit, towel and school supplies for a needy child.

28. Give a $35 Gift of Hope to women and children rescued from Sex Slavery and Sex Trafficking at www.sharedhope.org.

29. $35 dollar will also feed a needy child for one month with Share Our Strength at www.strength.org

30. Make an online donation to www.doctorswithoutborders.org which provides aid in almost 60 countries to people suffering from abuse, neglect, famine, malnutrition, lack of health care and natural disasters. $35 will provide 35 vaccines.

31. And finally, because there are so many people on this Earth without clean and safe drinking water, you can donate $20 to http://www.charitywater.org/ and give one person drinking water for 20 years.


Have a beautiful December!