Supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through the Boston Marathon

I just wanted to quickly share this fundraising page started by my cousin's sister-in-law who is running the Boston Marathon and raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. As of right now she has raised $3,615 which puts her at 72% of her of goal of $5,000. She only has $1,385 left to go (at the time that I'm writing this) and I think she can reach it!

I felt compelled to share this not only because of her story about why she's running (which you can read on her fundraising page), but also because I have a family member who is in remission from leukemia. Cancer can affect anyone, and we need as much help as possible in finding a cure.

Links to check out:

• Lauren's fundraising page
• Team in Training - if you're interested in fundraising like her
• The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society official website
• The Boston Marathon site

That's all for today - I'm in the midst of writing something a little more fun for those of you who received a very special Christmas gift this year... (you'll see).

Having a charitable Christmas!

Remember my post about St. Jude's hospital advertising? How I said I've been running to the mailbox every day while waiting for a few Christmas gifts to come in? They're finally here and I'm really excited about them! I ordered two t-shirts from HIS Home for Children; one for my mom and one for my grandmother. When my grandfather passed away in July, we asked that all donations be sent to this organization. I thought that for our first Christmas without him, these would be thoughtful gifts for them.

I heard about this charity because a woman from my town is very involved with them and so news about it has made it's way into our newspaper and local television news. She delivers formula to the children there at the orphanage in Haiti - I believe her last trip was in October, and I think there's another one coming up soon. Anyway, my mom contacted her at one point about buying some formula to donate and ever since then HIS Home has been a charity that we support when we can. I was really excited to buy those shirts because each shirt purchased provides a school uniform for a child at HIS Home! It's really nice to give a gift that you can feel good about. 

I've also been anxiously awaiting their arrival because I've really been wanting to write about them on here with the hope of raising some awareness about them and maybe even getting some people to support the children there.

HIS Home for Children is...

• Located in Port au Prince, Haiti, with a U.S. office in Ohio
• Home to approximately 140 children - some are orphans, some have been given up to the home by parents who are unable to provide for them
• A provider of meals, vitamins, medicine, and purified drinking water 
• A school for children age five and older, which teaches in both English and Creole (and French for older children), with four-year-olds attending pre-school, and Sunday school on Sundays followed by worship led by a Pastor who is also one of the founders of HIS Home (wow, that was definitely a run-on sentence...)

You can help them by...

• Praying - the first thing on the list of needs on their website is prayers, for both the children and the staff
• Donating (monetarily) - the annual rent for three homes is $38,500! They also need money for food, clothes, etc. You can donate through their website.
• Donating (items) - Formula, vitamins, cloth diapers, etc. are expensive and/or hard to find in Haiti. Click the "Our Needs" tab on their website for more information about the items they need.
• Sponsoring a child 
• Donating to the milk money ministry

There's so much more about them, their Earthquake Relief, photos of the children, etc. that you can find on their website and I definitely encourage you to look into it. 

(all information above was found on hishomeforchildren.com)

Bloggers Paying it Forward

Blogs provide a really powerful platform for reaching out to people - that's why I started this one. It's great to see people using this platform for a good cause just like Mama Laughlin is right now. She started a holiday "pay it forward" movement and has featured several families in need on her blog which you all can help! Christmas is less than one week away - what better time to spread some love to the less fortunate? You can go here to read about the holiday pay it forward and check out her blog for the stories of those whom you can help. 

And paying it forward won't stop with the holidays - she's going to be featuring one story per month in order to keep the love going all year - what an amazing way to use your blog to improve the lives of others!

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While I'm on the subject of Christmas coming up soon, I also wanted to bring some attention to Compassion's Christmas Gift Catalogue. Compassion International is described (according to their website) as "a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults." 

Their Christmas Gift Catalogue has so many options for donating and gives you a really wide price range - their options range from $4 to $5,000. For as little as $4 you can protect a child from parasites. Just $4. Ten dollars can provide a family in Africa with garden seeds, $13 can feed a malnourished child, etc. It's so affordable and so easy to do something for them. It seems like $4 isn't a lot, but if it can protect a child from parasites then it's value is a lot more than you'd think.

Those are just a few of the small gifts you can give - you can click here for the full catalogue. It's definitely something to feel good about this season.

Sandy Hook Elementary School

It's taken me a few days to write this post because I honestly didn't know what to say, and in some way I still don't. No words could ever express how horrific last Friday was. While nothing will be able to heal the families of those who were affected by it, I wanted to write about what you can do to help.

• This article on Mashable has a list of five ways to help through various campaigns. Three of which are taking donations specifically to go toward the school (which I assume would be given to help the families, but there is more information on the links that the Mashable article provides). Another is raising money to get security systems in place for Columbia Public Schools in order to "reduce the likelihood that a gunman can get in so freely," according to the Give Forward page that the campaign is hosted on. The last link is to a "wall of love" that's intended to show that there is more love than hate in the world. Sometimes donating monetarily isn't possible for some people, but the wall of love is something that we can all participate in.
• The United Way of Western Connecticut has set up a fund for support services to the families and the community.
• You may have heard that the Westboro Baptist Church were/are threatening to show up at services in Newtown. I don't even have to write about how ridiculous and disgusting this group of people is, I think everyone already knows this. There are a few petitions circulating with the hopes of doing something about them.  This one is to have them legally recognized as a hate group, and this one is to prevent them from protesting at Sandy Hook funerals. It really can't hurt to sign them both and hope that something actually comes from it.
• Visit the Emilie Parker Fund on Facebook. If you can't donate, at least take the time to read about one of these young victims. It's important to keep the victims as the main focus, and forget about the shooter. If you turn on the television, the majority of it seems to be focused on him. Let's forget his name and focus on who is important.
• Almost like the wall of love, Evergram is a way to send messages of support to the families. This way you can send a video, audio, or text note. 
• Pray! It costs nothing, doesn't take much time, and everyone can do it. 

If there are other ways of helping, please leave a comment. 

Tomorrow I will be participating in the blogger day of silence, but Wednesday I am hoping to have a post featuring a Pay it Forward campaign for helping a some families in need this holiday season.

There must be better ways to spend advertising money

There are less than two weeks until Christmas, which means every time I see the mail truck coming down my street I get really excited because I'm waiting for a few gifts that I've ordered to come in. When I checked the mail today the only thing I received was a letter from St. Jude Children's Hospital asking for money. There isn't really anything wrong with this, but as I read through it I couldn't help but wonder how many people received the same letter as I did, and how many of those letters would ultimately end up in the garbage.

If you have the money to donate, that's great. If you don't, however, that's okay too. It's the holiday season, and while it's a great time of year to be charitable toward the less fortunate, it's just not possible for some people to donate. And that's fine. 

I see the importance of sending out these letters to draw attention to your organization and maybe get donations from some people who otherwise wouldn't have thought about it. But on the other hand, I can't help but wonder how much money these charities could be saving if they cut back on some of their mailings. I mean, I've given money to St. Jude's before, but it was unsolicited and it was online. Any donations from me in the future will also be online. I have no problem with receiving mail from them, as they usually contain stories about the children there, and I think it's important to know who you're helping. However, if there are people who are receiving letters and putting them right into the garbage, there must be a way to cut back on their spending in that regard. 

Others seem to be in agreement. See this website for a few comments (both good and bad) on St. Jude's. Or just keep reading for a few comments that stood out to me:

• "More children could be helped if the administrative and fund raising expenses were lowered."
• "They should also spend less on fundraising. I can certainly do with fewer requests for donations and address labels. Think of the trees that could be saved."
• "I've given every year and begged them not to spend it on requests for MORE money but they won't stop sending mail. This year I've recieved over 200 pieces of mail asking for more money. Needless to say, I'm finding another charity."

The bottom line is that St. Jude's is a wonderful place; I think it's amazing what they do for children without charging the families. But I think smarter fundraising can go a long way. I, and many others, would like to help them without receiving a notepad, address labels, etc. in exchange. 

Here's an interesting article about the cost of direct-mail, though it doesn't address St. Jude's. If you'd like to donate to them, by the way, you can do so here. Regardless of the money (I believe) they waste on fundraising sometimes, they're a very worthy organization.

How much money do you think could be saved with some revised fundraising techniques? 

A Simple Introduction

Thanks for checking out this blog! I'll be as brief as possible in describing the motivation behind it... I've always enjoyed helping people and have had a strong desire to do so for quite a while. As a journalism major/writing minor in college, I took a class called Public Writing. I spent the entire semester working with a partner on various projects and activities for raising AIDS awareness, and since that class I have had a stronger desire than ever to be active in helping people however I can. But that was the problem: I wasn't entirely sure how I could help. Eventually I had the idea of starting this blog with the hope of providing a platform for at least raising awareness about certain issues and the charities that help them, and ideally getting more people involved in lending a helping hand.

Again, thanks for coming here and reading this, and I hope you'll subscribe or visit again!