Filed under: Inspirational Thoughts, Volunteering | Tags: change, community, President Obama, service
By Cheryl Mahoney
In my efforts to be a conscious citizen, I try to keep up with President Obama’s weekly Saturday morning addresses to the nation. I thought he had a particularly good message this week, one I’d like to direct a little attention towards. This is not a political blog and I have no intention of it becoming one, but the president’s message this week about coming together and valuing service is a truly bipartisan one.
Beginning with a discussion on the disaster and relief efforts in North and South Dakota and Minnesota, President Obama moves into a broader statement about the value of service, commending all the individuals who volunteer to help their communities, in this particular situation and in all situations.
Let me share my favorite quote from the address:
“It’s also a reminder of what we can achieve when Americans come together to serve their communities. All across the nation, there are men, women and young people who have answered that call, and millions of other who would like to. Whether it’s helping to reduce the energy we use, cleaning up a neighborhood park, tutoring in a local school, or volunteering in countless other ways, individual citizens can make a big difference.”
You can view the entire address on The White House Blog. He moves into a more general discussion of service about halfway through, around 2:38.
Feel inspired? Make a difference.
Filed under: Giving, Inspirational Thoughts | Tags: community, Exploratorium, random acts of kindness, San Francisco, sharing
By Cheryl Mahoney
I experienced a random act of kindness recently that I knew I’d have to come home and write about.
This weekend, my parents came into San Francisco for a visit, and we decided to go to the Exploratorium. While we were standing in line, a woman came up to us to tell us she had four extra tickets and would we like to have them? She wasn’t scalping them, she didn’t ask us for money–she just somehow had extra tickets and chose to give them away to three strangers in line.
She had four tickets and there were only three of us; she gave us the lot, and asked us to give the fourth one away to someone else. So we were able to commit our own random act of kindness, and give a ticket to another family in line. We were the happy recipients of a stranger’s gift, and the family we gave a ticket to seemed very happy and touched too. Such a small thing, really, but it’s in the small ways we touch each other’s lives that can make all the difference.
As we headed into the museum, I said to my mom, “I think I’m going to have to write a blog post about this…”
Feeling inspired? Want to give a child a trip to a museum? You can commit a random act of kindness too.
Filed under: Fun Ways to Give, Giving, Inexpensive Ways to Give, Poverty | Tags: free ways to give, geography, internet games, water needs
By Cheryl Mahoney
Just the other day I stumbled across a great way to give, for free. I found FreePoverty.com. Similar in concept to FreeRice.com, mentioned in an earlier post, you play a knowledge-based game, and correct answers mean giving to someone in need.
FreePoverty.com’s game is geography-based, and allows you to give cups of water. I found the game rather addicting! A city and country (sometimes a landmark) pops up at the top of the window, and you have a limited amount of time to click the correct location on the map. A flag then drops onto the page to show you the exact location, so you can see how close you got.
One aspect I love to the game is that you can get partial credit. Perfect answers donate ten cups of water, but for close answers smaller amounts are donated, amount varying on how good your answer is. You can keep playing until you get five answers completely wrong. In a single game, you can give hundreds of cups of water to people in need, while honing your geography skills. How can you go wrong with that? And you can play as many times as you want.
Over 1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water. But here’s a fun and easy way to help. So far, FreePoverty.com has given over 90 million cups of water!
Looking for other ways to give involving water? Click here.
Filed under: Give to Children, Giving, Inspirational Thoughts, Poverty, Social Change | Tags: community, generosity, good luck, sharing, winning
By Cheryl Mahoney
A few posts ago, I wrote about a story of giving from the Great Depression, of one man who gave, not large amounts, but a little bit, helping others where he could. I thought it was an inspiration for our time.
Recently, I saw another article, about someone who, probably not consciously or knowingly, has picked up that inspiration and carried on the work B. Virdot was doing. Recently, the Half Moon Bay Review wrote an article about Susan Donahue, who has just founded the Coastside Angels Network.
The story is simple enough: going to Las Vegas, Susan and a friend talked about what they’d do if they hit it big. Susan said she’d start an organization to help people. Well, she didn’t win millions–but she won enough to be able to help in small ways–and as I’ve said again and again, the seemingly smallest ways can be so big in someone’s life.
Susan Donahue plans to write a monthly column in the Review about the giving projects she undertakes. You can read about last month’s story here.
One thing that jumped at me was the comment on one example of a small thing she’d like to do: buy shoes for a child. That same example came up for B. Virdot and his work, eighty years ago in a different economic crisis. Some things don’t change–people’s needs, and the value of reaching out to help them.
Feel like giving a child shoes? You can do it too.
