Sunday, February 28, 2010

First Book

First Book is a 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization that provides books to children in the United States and Canada who lack access to age-appropriate books. You'd probably guess, and guess correctly, that these children needing books live in lower-income communities, where literacy rates are at their lowest. The First Book Web site provides a page of literacy resources you can browse to better inform yourself of literacy issues and find sources to help get kids reading. You can't learn to read if you have nothing appropriate to read. First Book provides "new books to children in preschools and after-school programs, mentoring and tutoring programs, shelters and day care centers, and beyond" in order to empower teachers and mentors. High-quality books help educators and leaders provide higher quality education.

If you were lucky enough to have books in your childhood, you likely remember your favorites, or even what book got you hooked. Every child should have a chance at a bigger world, one simply and easily found in books. If it hasn't already popped in your head, like the Reading Rainbow theme song says, "I can go anywhere . . . I can be anything. Take a look, it's in a book. . . ." Few scenes are more hopeful, heartening, and soothing than a roomful of children reading. For sure this is a sentimental paragraph, but it doesn't mean it isn't true.

So how do you help? You have a few options. You can make a monetary donation on their Web site (which also provides a mailing address if you prefer to send a check). $10.00 buys 5 books. You can buy gifts that benefit First Book. You can start a Books for Kids, Books for Keeps fund-raising Web page. If you're a qualifying organization, you can buy books from the First Book Marketplace. You can spread the word by sending an e-card or by placing a First Book link on your Web site. The "Get Involved" page also provides information on volunteering, keeping informed, and offers special opportunities for companies and organizations.

Education is the cure for many - if not all - of society's ills. Reading is the beginning. Every child deserves a bedtime story.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Heifer International

If a child comes to you with a scraped knee you have a few ways to help: put a bandage on the scrape, put a bandage on the scrape and retie the untied shoelaces the child tripped on, or put a bandage on the scrape and teach the child to tie his or her own shoelaces. All are valid solutions, but the longest-lasting solution is the third option. Though totally unrelated to scraped knees and shoelaces, this is the idea behind Heifer International: giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief.

If you've never heard of Heifer International, give yourself a minute to get over how adorable it is, because it is adorable. You can buy a flock of chicks or ducks for a family, bunnies, a llama, a cow, a pig - I dare you to think about this and not think, awww. It's okay; go ahead.

Now, usually when something is adorable it doesn't bother trying to be much else since it can get by on its adorableness. Heifer International bothers to be more. The animals aren't pets. According to Heifer, "We refer to the animals as 'living loans' because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal’s offspring to another family in need." Animals provide milk, wool, power, eggs, meat, and offspring, commodities for self-sustenance and market. Nor does Heifer simply drop a cow off at a door and say good luck; they provide training and organizational development. Their aim is to build communities and secure futures.

The online gift catalog offers animals such as heifers, sheep, water buffalo, goats, and bees, and it also offers seeds and trees. The cost of the gifts range from $20 for a flock of chicks to a heifer for $500 to $10,000 to support their Women in Livestock Development. Obviously, the gifts range from an individual contribution to a group fund-raiser contribution. If you've encountered Heifer International before, it was likely presented to you as a group fund-raiser. You can help fund a project, set up monthly giving, or set up a gift registry. You can also make an online monetary donation of any amount that will go where it's most needed.

Other ideas: Buy it as a gift for someone who doesn't want gifts or who doesn't usually like your gifts. For birthdays request that all gifts come from Heifer. In lieu of favors at a wedding reception, baby or briday shower, etc., give guests a note on cow-shaped or colored paper that informs them that the favor money was spent at Heifer International instead. I'm sure you can come up with even better ideas.

Heifer International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization accredited by the Better Business Bureau.

Heifer International
1 World Avenue
Little Rock, AR 72202.
1-800-422-0474.
www.facebook.com/heiferinternational
www.twitter.com/heifer


Heifer isn't looking to replace the necessary bandages and shoelace tiers but instead wants to make sure bandages and shoelaces are always available and that those who own them know how to use them. And come on, the ducks are so cute.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Because it's Valentine's Day

In past Februarys I've spent the month writing love letters to people and things who or that make my life better. This is actually a lot of fun to do and I'm a little disappointed I forgot about it this year. But since it's Valentine's Day (and not yet Lent so I can talk about myself to excess), I feel like sharing a few things in my life that deserve a valentine:

Public transportation, bakeries, organizations that give away free Broadway tickets, my rain boots, television, Twitter, Netflix, coffee, my iPod, Hugh Jackman, online ordering and grocery delivery for their convenience and for reducing any need for me to interact with human beings, sarcasm, irony, greenmarkets, Sarah Palin, local news, e-editing, coupons and discounts and happy hour, public parks, beers, gossip blogs and the celebrities they birth and nurture and neglect and manslaughter, the D.E.N.N.I.S Method, uncurtained windows I can look in, and Cheetos.

Happy Anna Howard Shaw Day!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

For Lent

Though Lenten sacrifices aren't as emphasized for United Methodists as they are for Catholics and perhaps members of some other protestant denominations, the period before Easter is recognized appropriately by Methodists as a time of reflection, simplification, and mourning.* In recent years my home church, Park Terrace Community United Methodist Church, has started a great Lenten practice they call Give It Up 4, for which four charities (local and worldwide) are chosen as beneficiaries to whom parishioners can donate money during Lent, the idea being that churchgoers give up some habit in their lives on which they spend money and instead give that money to one of the four charities. For example, if you spend $10.00 a week on delicious cupcakes, during Lent Park Terrace encourages you to instead skip the cupcakes and give that $10.00 to The Heifer Project, or Sky Lake, or Mom's House, or Henderson Settlement, for example. This combines the traditional Lenten custom of sacrifice but goes a perfect step further to include giving.

So why am I talking about this (besides to give a shout-out to the church I grew up in)? Because my Lenten observation is an adaptation of this idea. I haven't blogged a whole lot lately, but when I do I usually blab on about myself. Starting Wednesday (which is Ash Wednesday) I will not write about myself and instead write a blog post a week bringing attention to some organization, charity, cause, etc. that is working to make the world better.

This may not seem to you a great sacrifice or a great benefit, and God bless you if you think this because this actually will be a weighty sacrifice for me; I am, much of the time, insufferably egocentric (which stems from pride, which stems from insecurity, most likely.) See? I'm talking about myself right now. That my blog posts will be beneficial is more arguable, but I'll try. Lent as I see it is ultimately self-serving in that it provides opportunity for self-reflection, soul-searching, and spiritual betterment, which in turn benefits the world as a whole, and my Lenten practice follows this pattern, and hopefully on some level will succeed.

I could use this space to encourage you to do something similar, but what do I know? Do what works for you (and then share it with others).



*This is most certainly a layperson's personal description of Lent in her chosen denomination and not a statement on behalf of the United Methodist Church. Because I'm so widely quoted in very important publications, I feel a disclaimer explaining that no, actually, I'm not the top expert of all proclamations UMC is necessary.