50 for 50 Day 42: Boys and Girls Club
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 42 (the jersey number of the great James Worthy of the LA Lakers). Here’s what’s going on: because I feel so lucky and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
Another local opportunity – if you have a Boys and Girls Club in your community, and you probably do, they can certainly use donations of time and money.
I spent the afternoon at a Boys and Girls Club the other day. It was really inspiring – kind of controlled chaos run by mostly young, enthusiastic staff, with opportunities for kids to do everything from play basketball to do homework to make art. Everyone seemed happy and well cared-for and busy.
From their website:
In every community, boys and girls are left to find their own recreation and companionship in the streets. An increasing number of children are at home with no adult care or supervision. Young people need to know that someone cares about them.
Boys & Girls Clubs offer that and more. Club programs and services promote and enhance the development of boys and girls by instilling a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and influence.
Boys & Girls Clubs are a safe place to learn and grow – all while having fun. It is the place where great futures are started each and every day.
Here’s the donation page. And the volunteer page, which you should thank me for linking to, because their site navigation is so bad it took me about 2 minutes to get in exactly the right spot to be able to click on the menu.
Previously featured organizations:
Your Local Food Bank
Girls for a Change
Operation Smile
Wheels for Humanity
National Security Archive
Books for Africa
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
50 for 50 Day 41: Your Local Food Bank
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 41. Once again, let me explain: because I feel so lucky and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
I have tried to keep these posts mostly national in scope and confined to highly rated charities. But in my search for good charities, it kept coming up over and over – local food banks are among those doing the most good with the least money and overhead.
So no links today. You probably already know who runs your local food bank, and you probably know that they are always looking for donations. Food is good, but money is better, because they can buy in bulk to get deals you can’t, and they know exactly what they need most at any given time.
But if you feel you must donate food, keep one word in mind: protein. People who need food assistance get calories where they can, which often means lots of carbs. They can use some protein. Peanut butter will do it, but they probably already eat a lot of peanut butter and beans. So if you can send them some tuna or canned meat, they would probably give you an extra special thanks.
Go. Feed the world. Hugs.
Previously featured organizations:
Girls for a Change
Operation Smile
Wheels for Humanity
National Security Archive
Books for Africa
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
Me, the futbol player and the shopping cart
Do you ever feel like the rest of the world has some special knowledge that you lack? Like there was a required class that everyone else went to, but you had a dentist appointment that day? And then no one ever thought to catch you up, because, well, everyone knows that.
Shopping cart in a tree. In my neighborhood.
Yeah. So. The grocery store where I shop for my mom has three kinds of carts. There’s the massive kind with the plastic car thing on front, so in case you have young children you can annoy the hell out of the other shoppers by blocking the aisle (because you need more stress when you are out shopping with one or more young children).
There’s the regular giant fatass American-sized cart that is made out of some grey or tan honeycombed plastic type of material, usually festooned with several sheets of month-old store ads stuck together with what appears to be melted and dried ice cream. It is large and ungainly, perfect for the six 12-packs of soda, the giant-sized carton of Hot Pockets and the bale of 48 double rolls of toilet paper that everyone seems to need.
And then there are the petite wire carts. These are small carts, the exact size for the few items I need for mom, and nimble and speedy enough to zoom around all of the other store traffic, which I must do, because I Am So Super Important.
They are also cute and look like something a chic French woman would use while she was out selecting the perfect charcuterie and cheeses to offer her date, the hot championship soccer player, whom she will seduce as the sun sets after a perfect summer evening of snacking and drinking Vouvray on a balcony. She will see the ripple of his perfect abs under his shirt as he leans forward to touch her face and…
-CUT- Back to the damned grocery store.
The only problem is that there are about four cute wire carts, and no one can tell me where they come from. I mean no one. I have asked almost every store employee “Where do you get those carts?” and they look groggily at me as if they are waking from a dream before shaking their heads and saying “Gosh, I don’t know.”
They don’t know. Where the carts IN THEIR OWN STORE come from or go to.
However, EVERY SINGLE TIME I am in the store, I see people shopping with those carts. They all know where to get the carts. But they can’t tell ME. And I missed the class, apparently.
I have asked them where they found the petite wire carts and they always wave their hand in the direction of the other side of the store and say “Over there somewhere.” None of the cart areas ever have one, but other people somehow manage to find them.
One time – once – I found a petite wire cart out in the parking lot, its front wheels stuck in a planter to keep someone from having to walk it the 15 feet back to the cart corral helpfully placed in the parking lot to keep people from having to walk the 50 feet back to the front of the store and thus perhaps burn a calorie or two.
Oh, it was lovely, shopping with the petite wire cart. I sped, I weaved, I turned on a dime…ah, but our time together was too short, and it has never been repeated since. I remember it fondly as a golden day. Almost as golden as that afternoon on the balcony with Javier…
50 for 50 Day 40: Girls for a Change
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 40. I’ve never been so happy to get to 40! Let me explain: because I feel so lucky and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
Through my relationship with Clever Girls Collective, I just found out about a great organization – Girls for a Change
From their website:
Girls For A Change (GFC) is a national organization that empowers girls to create social change. We invite young women to design, lead, fund and implement social change projects that tackle issues girls face in their own neighborhoods.
Our Mission:
GFC empowers girls for personal and social transformation. The program inspires girls to have the voice, ability and problem solving capacity to speak up, be decision makers, create visionary change and realize their full potential.
Our Vision:
Through GFC, girls develop the voice, ability and problem solving capacity to speak up, be decision makers, create visionary change and realize their full potential. We seek to address the very heart of issues confronting girls – increasing confidence in their own voice and convictions, developing life-skills, and improving the ability to identify paths and resources within their communities that can contribute to positive change and break cycles for a lifetime.
Sounds cool! There’s few things I feel more strongly about than empowering girls and women. Here’s the donation page. You can also bring Girls for a Change to your community.
For even more fun, Clever Girls is holding a Twitter party on June 29 at noon Pacific, 3 pm Eastern to benefit Girls for Change. If you RSVP, you’ll be in to win some great prizes, and other stuff will be given away at the party too. RSVP http://bit.ly/mwbFlP #CleverChange
This is not a sponsored post.
Previously featured organizations:
Operation Smile
Wheels for Humanity
National Security Archive
Books for Africa
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
50 for 50 Day 39: Operation Smile
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 39. Let me explain: because I feel so lucky and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
How could I have gotten to Day 39 and not featured Operation Smile yet? I follow them on twitter and love to get their updates about how many “smiles” (operations to correct cleft palate and facial deformities) that they have made possible in their missions around the world.
Cleft palate is a serious issue. Children with this congenital condition often have a hard time eating and talking. They are often shunned or treated as freaks. Here’s a video that will bring tears to your eyes (just warning you…)
From their website:
Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided free surgeries to children around the world. As one of the most prominent children’s charities in the world and with a presence in over 60 countries, we are able to heal children’s smiles and bring hope for a better future.
Thanks to the generosity and spirit of volunteerism shown by our supporters, we heal thousands of children per year and, today, more than 160,000 girls and boys have a new chance at a new life because of our work.
Here’s the donation page. They are also looking for volunteers.
Previously featured organizations:
Wheels for Humanity
National Security Archive
Books for Africa
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
50 for 50 Day 38: UCP Wheels for Humanity
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 38. Let me explain: because I feel so lucky and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
There are so many unused wheelchairs in the world, and so many people who need them who don’t have them. Wheels for Humanity seeks to bring those two parts together.
From their website:
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in North Hollywood, California. We refurbish donated wheelchairs and hand fit them to children and adults with disabilities in developing nations. We then partner with international health-care organizations to identify those in greatest need. With a team of volunteer health care professionals, each recipient is individually fitted to the wheelchair that best fits their needs.
Many factors contribute to the great number of the world’s disabled, such as spinabifida, cerebral palsy, polio, landmines, war, natural disasters, spinal cord injuries and lack of adequate and timely medical care. In many developing countries, if you can’t walk by yourself, you must crawl or be carried and are forced to live a life of confinement. UCP Wheels for Humanity is proud of our work to bring the freedom of mobility to thousands across the globe.
Since 1996, UCP Wheels for Humanity has helped more than 50,000 people with disabilities in more than 68 developing nations gain increased mobility and dignity. We will continue to do so with the help of our many generous supporters.
The donation page is here. They are also looking for Continental airlines OnePass miles.
Previously featured organizations:
National Security Archive
Books for Africa
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
50 for 50 Day 37: National Security Archive
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 37. Here is what is going on: because I feel so lucky and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
Governments love secrecy. And those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it. Two truisms, one organization that deals with both.
The National Security Archive, despite its official-sounding name, is an independent organization located at George Washington University. From their website:
An independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive also serves as a repository of government records on a wide range of topics pertaining to the national security, foreign, intelligence, and economic policies of the United States. The Archive won the 1999 George Polk Award, one of U.S. journalism’s most prestigious prizes, for–in the words of the citation–“piercing the self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in the search for the truth and informing us all.”
The Archive obtains its materials through a variety of methods, including the Freedom of Information act, Mandatory Declassification Review, presidential paper collections, congressional records, and court testimony. Archive staff members systematically track U.S. government agencies and federal records repositories for documents that either have never been released before, or that help to shed light on the decision-making process of the U.S. government and provide the historical context underlying those decisions.
As you can probably figure, this collection is important for journalists, researchers and academics who can draw from it to assist their work. For instance, they recently released background documents related to the release of the full Pentagon Papers that add context and depth to the papers themselves.
You can donate here. If you know a student who is interested in foreign affairs, they also have internships.
Previously featured organizations:
Books for Africa
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
50 for 50 Day 36: Books for Africa
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 36. The background of this seemingly never-ending project: because I feel so blessed and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
This charity is all about my favorite subject: books! When I went to Mexico, I was shocked to see how expensive and prized books were there. Books cost twice as much or more as they do here, and the pickings were a lot slimmer.
So Books for Africa seeks to fill a need in an information-starved place by sending books to – you guessed it – Africa. They do a good job, too, with administrative expenses being only .3 percent of their budget. They could give some CEOs lessons in efficiency.
From their website:
Books For Africa. A simple name for an organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship, and distribute books to children in Africa. Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa.
Books For Africa is the world’s largest shipper of donated books to the African continent. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped over 24 million high-quality text and library books to children and adults in 45 African countries. Millions more are needed.
It costs $9,800 to send a sea container to most major sea ports of books and computers to Africa. Your donation will enable Books For Africa to send even more books to children in Africa who are hungry to read, hungry to learn.
You can donate here. If you have a special relationship with a specific African country, there may be a project you can donate directly to.
Previously featured organizations:
Seed Savers Exchange
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
50 for 50 Day 35: Seed Savers Exchange
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 35. Just over two weeks more. Crazy how time flies when you are…well, time just flies.
The background of this wacky project: because I feel so blessed and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. One thousand thanks.
This one is kind of selfish. I love food and I love discovering interesting vegetables and fruits, and Seed Savers Exchange is an organization that helps preserve our genetic food heritage.
If we want those cool old “heirloom” varieties, someone has to preserve them. Seed Savers facilitates gardeners exchanging seeds, but also grows and propagates them at their farm.
Once a variety is lost, it is lost forever, so I think this is important work. Even food varieties that aren’t great for eating can contribute other valuable genes, like disease or pest resistance, to new varieties.
Here’s what they say they are doing:
- Maintaining thousands of varieties of different plant types-from amaranth to watermelon-in one of the largest seed banks of its kind in North America.
- Regenerating seed in isolation gardens and storing them in ideal conditions.
- Documenting valuable cultural information on varieties and their histories.
- Distributing heirloom varieties to members and the public through the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook and the Seed Savers Exchange Catalog.
- Storing varieties in back-up locations at the USDA Seed Bank in Fort Collins, CO and at Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. These off-site deposits remain the property of SSE.
You can become a member, which gives you access to this amazing seed bank. You can also donate to support the collection.
Previously featured organizations:
MAP International
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
50 for 50 Day 34: MAP International
Teaching how to make buildings from plastic bottles. From the MAP website.
It’s my 50th Birthday Celebration, Day 34. Man, these posts are sneaking up on me faster and faster. I had an idea that I would do them all in advance and started with about 15 scheduled…now I’m barely getting them done in time to publish. Typical Suebobian planning.
The background, for those of you who have been trapped behind bars for the past month: because I feel so blessed and have pretty much everything I could ever need, I am asking people to get involved with charities, if they are so inspired, in lieu of any fabulous birthday presents you were planning on sending me (or not).
I am featuring a different charity every day for 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday to give you plenty of chances to get involved. I started on May 18. I wanted to give a voice to different good works around the globe. If you ARE inspired to take action, please leave me a comment and let me know that you did. This is all I want for my birthday – to spread some love and kindness. Thank you, my dear friends.
You wouldn’t think that a heathen like me would be promoting a Christian (gasp!) organization, but you’d be wrong. Because in addition to being an international relief organization, MAP International is one of my favorite things: incredibly tight with a buck. Check this out:
Ninety nine percent of the donated resources MAP receives go directly to our programs, and for every dollar donated, $75 in medicines and medical supplies is shipped to those in need.
I LIKE that. They are also highly regarded by Charity Navigator and are committed to financial transparency.
From their website:
In all that we do, we seek to act with integrity, openness, honesty and accountability. We recognize that the financial and material resources with which we work are not our own, but have been entrusted to us for use in alleviating the suffering of others. We value people as reflections of God’s image, and we strive for integrity and accountability in our relationships with donors, staff and partners. We commit to managing these resources with God’s direction to the maximum benefit of those we serve.
I think Jesus would approve.
Here’s the donation page. If you work for a manufacturer or distributor of medical supplies, they can use donations.
Previously featured organizations:
The Fresh Air Fund
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Arghand
Impact Personal Safety
Kristin Brooks Hope Center
Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund
Light Up the World Foundation
Planned Parenthood
Doctors Without Borders
Heifer International
Team Rubicon
Kiva
The Carter Center
Bikes Not Bombs
Friends of Maddie
ProPublica
Surfrider Foundation
Livestrong
United Through Reading
Operation Shower
The Liz Logelin Foundation
KidSave
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Kids Vs Global Warming
Help a Mother Out
Direct Relief International
WriteGirl
Accelerated Cure for Multiple Sclerosis
Women for Women
Epic Change
Amnesty International
Suebob's Red Stapler 