Donate to charity

My six year old explained that his class bought a cow for a village in Kenya. Wow. That’s a significant thought for a six year old. They are gathering more cash to buy a few more animals. As of early May, the school has bought 7 goats, 4 pigs and 1 cow for their adopted village. He also explained that there was only one more day to contribute. I gave him $25 which was all the money in my wallet. A check might have been easier for taxes and I was a little worried that he would loose the cash, but involving him in the process seems as important as making the contribution.

Now that the weather is warmer, we pulled out our summer clothes and set up a pile to donate to St Vincent de Paul. We’ve got sandals and water shoes that are too small, shorts that no longer fit and bathing suits that were never really favorites. Every year we buy less and donate more. This year we also donated several pairs of too small boots and gloves.

I took my daughter and two friends to see Mama Mia in New York last week to celebrate her birthday. At end of the show (which was great!), the actors announced that this was a sold out show and they were collecting money to help New Yorkers with AIDS, breast cancer and cervical cancer. I gave each of the girls a few dollars for the collection which surprised them since they knew I had already spent a small fortune on this birthday trip. I knew that our good fortune should include spontaneous contributions to worthy causes, even at the end of a long day and without the benefit of a tax deduction.

The library has a book sale every year. They collect book donations and a team of volunteers sorts the books into category then sells them for very little. It is as much of a community recycling program as a fund raiser. I usually drop off kid videos and pick up cookbooks. For this sale, I cleared out several dozen romance paperback that our nanny left here 4 years ago, some cookbooks, many videos and a shelf of books on real estate investment. Clearing out these shelves also cleared the mind: I should not buy a second house when so many do not even have a first house, I do not need an entire cookbook of ice cream or popcorn, the nanny has visited twice in the past four years and retrieve all of the books that are important to her and video format will be long extinct before we have grandchildren to entertain. Better to pass move these forward and make space for new hobbies and new adventures.