Saturday is the day we share your stories about giving to others.
Please write in and tell us about what you do for others. Do you spend time caring for aging parents or ill relatives? Do you volunteer in a soup kitchen, at a school, a nursing home, or a pet shelter? Work in your community garden, at your local library, clear litter from the side of the road? Add your story in the comment section in the upper right of this post.
Today, Becky Haugh reminds us about blood donation: a way to give without spending a dime.
She writes:
I’m… a big advocate of blood donation…. I’ve never personally been a recipient of a blood transfusion or have known someone close to need one – but since the husband and myself really can’t drop large checks to charity, we try to give in ways that aren’t monetary in nature. For me, it’s donating blood. If you plan it out right, you can donate blood up to 6 times per year. I’m going to try to hit 6 donations this year. Sure, it’s not much, but you can’t buy blood and so many people (in this country and abroad) need blood – especially when you are a funky O type like myself.
10 comments
Kellie Denoncourt says:
Feb 15, 2010
There are so many good things that we can do for little to no cost to us that help the needy! One thing that a friend of mine and I started doing last year during Lent (6 weeks between Mardi Gras and Easter) was a competition for our local food pantry. We are both avid couponers and are constantly overstocked with things that we got for free from our local pharmacies and grocery stores. What we do is keep track of all of the items that we can get for FREE during Lent and then donate all of the items to the food pantry. We add up the shelf price of everything and at the end of the 6 weeks, the loser has to buy (and SHARE!) a bottle of wine (probably the $3.49 Rite Aid stuff!) with the winner! Last year we donated over $400 worth of food, soap, and toothpaste to our local food pantry during Lent! Lent starts again on Wednesday and I am gearing up to win!! 🙂
Polly says:
Feb 15, 2010
I give back to the community by donating, and walking, in Making strides against breast cancer. This is a commitment that is dear to my heart, as I realize the impact of breast cancer funding for uninsured, and underinsured women and men. Many people don’t realize that men can get breast cancer-but it does happen.
This year, I am blessed to be giving back even more, with the sale of Miche Bags. I am a consultant, and Miche Bag has designed the HOPE shell, to raise funds for cancer research. $5.00 from each shell sold is donated by Miche bag to the Huntsman Cancer institute.
In addition, a percentage of my personal proceeds will be donated this year at the Making Strides event in my area.
I’m very glad to have the opportunity to give back more this year, than ever before!
Amy Richman says:
Feb 15, 2010
Well, what DON’T I give is a better question 🙂 I deliver Meals on Wheels twice per month to local residents and shut-ins, and I coordinate 60+ volunteers from my office to deliver meals the other days of the month I am not available to do so.
I volunteer for an average of three (3) events per year for Treasured Chests, which rasies money to fight breast cancer in the Minneapolis/ St Paul area. Anytime the National Bone Marrow Registry has a recrtuitment event (such as at Twinsfest 2010), I staff booths, hand out literature and do whatever other miscellaneous tasks they need done (my brother-in-law is the National Volunteer coordinator for that organization)
I am signed up to work with Chocoholics for Charity this year, which is debuting for the first time in Minneapolis this year; for the last two years and this coming year I willl be working with St Baldricks Foundation to raise money for children’s cancer research; this event is held around St Patrick’s Day.
I have also volunteered with the Alzheimer’s Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, NHL All Star Game, Republican National Convention 2008 and the Burnet Senior Classic, to name just a few. If they need a volunteer for something, I’m there!
Holly says:
Feb 15, 2010
I went through all my daughters clothes, and took out what she could not fit any more, and found a place to donate then, that helps Teen and single mothers who need clothing for their babies. I had so many clothes to donate, they would not even all fit in the back of the blazer! But I am glad to be able to help out other moms in need, because I too am a single mom.. of 3!!!
Jen Mason says:
Feb 15, 2010
My parents taught me that a responsibility to help others was not optional! Since my teens, I have done what I can to improve the world around me – *especially* when money was tight and I could give only my time. I’ve volunteered for almost 20 years with a shelter for battered women and children – from Board of Directors to direct client services to sending emails to let others know how they can help, I’ve done it all. Now that I have children, my first commitment is to them, but I still believe in giving time to help with class events, the PTA, raising money for local scholarships, and raising awareness about skin cancer. I want to continue my family tradition and teach my boys by example that giving back is a beautiful thing!
Marlana OSter says:
Feb 15, 2010
Growing up myself, I did not have alot of things but then I grew up realizing all the different ways I could get much for less or nothing at all. If I could get the stuff n grab alil extra, I too could help out others even if it was alil. That lil extra is what keeps most of us going. I go to giveaway events ( whatever it may be ) n grab a hand full of everything they got . . . that way I can go home n make bags full of goodies to whoever I know is in need of that lil extra help. There are times I make up bags n they sit for about a month but then lil by lil someone out there needs a bag I have made up n I pass it along. Its the little things in life that keep us all going.
Michele says:
Feb 16, 2010
A few miles from my home is a horse farm that only stables abused and neglected horses. The women who owns it cannot afford to hire help and depends on volunteers to help her feed, groom and exercise her 28 horses. So I go to the farm and volunteer. You get really dirty and you find yourself talking to horses, but if you weren’t there, this one woman would do all the work alone. So really, you help 28 beautiful animals get healthy again and one very generous woman with a huge heart!
kelly says:
Feb 17, 2010
I am a volunteer CASA — Court Appointed Special Advocate — and work with children who have been abused and/or neglected by their parents or guardians consequently ending up in the foster care system. It’s extremely rewarding, but heart breaking at the same time.
Each year, approximately 780,000 children IN THE US are caught up in the court and child welfare maze because they are unable to live safely at home. Imagine what it would be like to lose your parents, not because of something you did, but because they can’t—or won’t—take care of you. Now, into these children’s lives come dozens of strangers: police, foster parents, therapists, social workers, judges, lawyers, and more. CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. They stay with each case until it is closed and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence—the one adult who cares only for them. Last year, more than 68,000 CASA volunteers served more than 240,000 abused and neglected children through 1,018 program offices. CASA volunteers have helped more than two million abused children since the first program was established in 1977.
Being a CASA volunteer does not require any special education or background, simply the desire to help abused and neglected children find safe, permanent homes.
CASA is a wonderful organization, with chapters all across the country. I can’t encourage everyone enough to be apart of it.
Helping one another is good, but helping our own great! And I feel we all have a responsibility to look out for the children of our communities; there are far too many of them needlessly falling through the cracks.
Marita Mccarvy says:
Mar 5, 2010
I rather liked this blog post, it helped a lot! Thanks!
aarp insurance quote says:
Mar 14, 2010
Republicans want want failure, they want things like the insurance companies to continue to rake in billions and to keep the unwealthy at a disadvantage. The infrastructures portion was what we needed to get us going in advancing our country to come into the present but the old conservatives who want to go back to the “simpler times” (ie. slavery, and racial discrimination via lower education). Our country and everyday people need help due to bad financial policy and they are just not getting it. Who is getting it? Big business. God bless America.