change the world, twenty minutes at a time

I know it’s a tad late for Christmas shopping, but my children received wonderful charitable gifts from some dear friends of ours, and I’d like to share the source with you.

Our friends purchased the gifts, some wonderful handpainted tops and an embroidered backpack, from www.thehungersite.com. With each purchase, a donation is made to any number of charities, including animal welfare, breast cancer, feed the hungry programs, and others. Their selection is wonderful and includes an assortment of fair trade and handmade gifts.

In addition, folks can log on daily and click on tabs, resulting in FREE donations to the charities listed. Via this site, making a daily impact takes far less than 20 minutes, although if the shopping bug hits (and it may well), it could take much more.;D

http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1&link=ctg_ths_home_from_ars_thankyou_sitenav

Feel free to bookmark it and click away, and indulge in some shopping, too!

From what I’ve been hearing, the blood supply is dangerously low, so I’m glad I took the time to donate. Only one needle stick this time, and no bruises. Two finger sticks, though, thanks to a quirky first-read on my iron level.

When I returned to work, there were still thirteen tags on the Wishing Tree, so I grabbed one more for good measure, a wish belonging to a 10-year-old girl, not entirely unlike my Ruth. Anyone know what a Diva Diary is, or how to find one? It looks like tomorrow’s twenty minutes will be spent finding and purchasing one.

I had a feeling that would get your attention. ;-)

It’s that time of year again. The firehouses and banks and grocery stores have their collection boxes out for holiday donations. After speaking with someone who manages annual gifts-for-kids programs in several urban centers, I got a little inside info on gift choices, so I thought I’d share it here for those who are interested.

He said that no matter where he has gone, the top choices have always been sports equipment, specifically basketballs and footballs in the Northeast, but also baseballs and gloves, soccer balls, etc. The other high-demand items are art supplies, from paints to markers to drawing paper. Craft stores have those $3 art kits that they advertise as loss leaders to holiday shoppers. Those kits are fabulous because throw in a sketch pad and a kid has everything it takes to create art in a portable kit, whether that child is in a shelter, a foster home, a cramped apartment, or on the road.

When we think of buying for gifts-for-kids programs, it’s easy to forget the 12-16 crowd. Many of these kids “get” that presents take money, something of which their family has little. Many have already become cynical about the holidays, or at least resigned to the realities at hand. Most of the kids I work with, tough as they can be out of necessity, would give up gifts for themselves in a heartbeat for a younger sibling. Gift items like balls and art supplies are great because they are giftable to a wide range of children, including older adolescents. They also create opportunities for action, a healthy outlet for kids who desperately need one.

Thus endeth the lesson.

My 10 year old daughter found $20 yesterday outside the grocery store. This was a big find for her, and she reacted with the expected glee. With no real way to trace the money’s owner, she viewed it as hers, and it didn’t take long before the possibilities for spending it began to amass. My first reaction was “finders keepers” and I let her go on planning her spree. But then it occurred to me that this was a teaching moment, a moment in which to demonstrate ways in which she could make a difference with this found cash. So I proposed, gently mind you, it was her money after all, a few alternatives to buying music, clothes, or even holiday gifts. We discussed starting her own kiva account, or contributing to a heifer donation on the part of the family (donation matching!). Then we turned the discussion to what causes are most important to her. Immediately and vehemently she stated “animal welfare.” I admit, I know little about animal rights or welfare groups. But I have friends who do. So the next step is to research charities that speak to Ruth’s own sense of activism, her views on the changes needed in the world, and then to decide how this found $20 can make the greatest difference. Twenty minutes, and a crumpled twenty, and my daughter is in on this goal.

I was walking by the reception area at work today, and on the lowly artifical tree in the corner, instead of ornaments, were teardrop shaped tags. There was no prior announcement of this tree, no fanfare, just this lowly, unlit tree, standing in the corner, covered in slips of paper. On the tags were written holiday gift wishes from what I guessed were local urban children. I work closely with these very youth, so I am no stranger to their need, their challenges. But seeing their wishes scrawled on paper hanging gingerly from the branches of a Christmas tree touched me on this day in a way I can’t explain. My family and I have always donated to charity, Toys for Tots, or the local food bank, as many others do. But seeing a child’s need, their heart’s desire, so clearly spelled out this way had a profound effect. Here was an actual blueprint for building joy, albeit on a very small scale, if only for a few moments, days, or weeks. Creating a moment of much-needed happiness on a holiday so fraught with cynicism was as easy as following directions on a teardrop. I pulled a slip of paper from the tree, and before putting it in my pocket, I read it. In careful child handwriting it said, “Legos, and mittens.”

Despite the manageably small increments, this really is an enormous goal. There are so many aspects of the world we can change, that need changing, and change can have myriad faces. After all, the oil and mining companies are changing the world, as are politicians, and certainly not for the better. So, unpacking this goal a bit, we are looking to change the world for the better. Improve the world, twenty minutes at a time, really. Or enhance it. It seems we’ve begun with a dual focus on the environment and poverty, which is appropriate, I think. But I, myself, need to be mindful of the other ways our world needs changing, improvement, enhancement. The enormity has my head spinning, in a good way. Today: twenty minutes as a start on what “change” might look like. That’s after reading today’s team posts on this goal (thanks, Calissa), turning out the extra lights my family has left on throughout the house, and choosing a Kiva loan to fund for tomorrow. Baby steps. baby steps.

we should invite others to join this goal as a team. This way we can share our progress. Or just invite others….

The weather was gorgeous today, so we took our kids on a walk around the neighborhood, bags in hand, gloves on, with the goal of cleaning up our own little corner of the world. It started, actually, on an even smaller scale, with the raking of leaves in our own front and side yard. Normally, we rake our leaves into the forest behind our house, spreading them around so they will decompose naturally. But this time we discovered quite a bit of garbage mixed in with the leaves, no doubt blown in from the street, so we separated the paper, cans, and assorted detritus. We were all pretty saddened, my 8 and 10 year old perhaps more than anyone, by the amount of inorganic garbage in our own yard, the invasion of others’ thoughtlessness into our little habitat. So we decided to venture out to see what trash lay obscured by others’ leaves, what difference we could make outside our own little yard. We each brought a grocery-sized bag, and after about half an hour we had to stop because all four bags were filled to overflowing. We will return, with larger bags and a bit more time. It took us about an hour and a half all told, and we only made a small dent, I’m sure, in the overall trash burden of our neighborhood. Perhaps the best part of all this was the number of neighbors who stopped and asked what we were doing. In explaining our actions, our goal, we enlightened a number of people, our own informal version of community organizing. The hope is that we stir others to stop and think about their neighborhood, those areas no one feels are their responsibility. The hope is that we stir others to take notice, then to make a difference. Either way, it felt good to “walk the walk” as we “talked the talk.” Action, right Dave?

Appropriately enough, 90 minutes divided by four is just over 20 minutes per person. Now, for tomorrow….