I know it's not always best to chat about it, but rather just to do it..

But what charity or charitable activity do you do that makes you feel best?

I did Habitat twice and I'm just too dim for some of that work.. I likely will try it again...

My favorite one is ever since 1994, wherever I work I con my employer into "adopting" a few families each year around Christmas... Some local or county health or social services groups will be really forthcoming with basic lists of people in need in your area. Then we get a general demographic of each family, or request special interests or wants (usually also arranged through the social services group) and get everyone in the company to rally together to provide.

Sometimes the requests are just heartbreaking. Socks, underwear. Some fathers just request "any small gift I can give to my son" or something really basic.

So when we show up at either the social service group to meet the family (sometimes - moreso lately - it's anonymous) or go to their door to deliver the amazing goods (tons of food and food gift cards, craploads of basic human clothing needs, and then over the top fun clothes or games or music) they are so happy. It's like one of those eXtreme Makeover shows but it's more tangible 'cos you're right there...

Anyway...

I also con my company into cooking meals from time to time at Ronald McDonald house.. Holy cow, those places are sad, and happy, and hopeful. I don't think I *got* what they were about before I went and toured it..

Also, if anyone in the Cinti area is interested in joining me for some regularly (maybe monthly or more?, or heck - just a once off would be fine too) scheduled guest stints cooking at Ronald McDonald, or homeless shelters, or something with Project Connect (the group that makes sure local homeless youth stay in school and try to give them some perspective and meaning), let me know via PM.

Lately, I've been volunteering with Give Back Cincinnati. We recently did some stuff around Findlay Market which was fun.

Funny story: Back in high school in Philly, I was part of a club, Community Service Corp. The school would connect us with a charity or org., and we'd go there and volunteer. I ended up volunteering at Christ's Home (a community of foster families/children's homes). Every week I would go to this one family's house and fold laundry for a couple hours. And that was it.

I didn't realize it until a couple weeks in (perhaps because it was arranged by the heads of the home, and not by the foster parents) but I'm pretty sure that the foster mom thought I was doing this as some sort of punishment. She didn't really talk to me, and when she did, it was things like, "So, how long do you have to do this for?" and "Did you get to choose where you'd do your community service?" After a while, I think she realized that this was a choice, not a punishment for, say, getting caught smoking pot in the girls' bathroom.

Not that I ever did that.

I worked with Habitat down in Georgia... one of the best experiences of my life. Helping build homes to be presented to folks on Easter Sunday.
We were supposed to meet Jimmy Carter, but he had to fly to the Philippines unexpectedly, and so we took a tour of his estate in Plains, Ga. I would love to work with Habitat again.

Also, over the course of 3 years on my spring breaks, I helped with an organization called Hephzibah Children's Home. We saw this place come alive from the ground up. I can still see the looks on the kid's faces when they saw their new facility, which was built entirely from donations and volunteer workers. It was such an amazing experience to be able to interact and play with the kids... they had almost nothing, and they were so happy to have a place where they were cared for.

When I moved to Cinci, I wanted to get involved in some type of charity... so thanks Bruce, for reminding me!

i enjoy going downtown (wherever i'm at) and meeting homeless people and taking them out to lunch. no organizational strings attached, just me, perhaps a friend, and someone (or 2) we met on the street.

always great to get to know people.

Both my church of now, and my last church give aid to all sorts of needy people all through the world, so for the past few years, that is where my charitabla contributions have been going to.
Of course this will probably change a bit when I have more money. There are so many orgs out there I want to give to.
But also, I like to do what Josh just mentioned - finding a homeless person and sharing myself and my time with them - and any food I happen to have with me.

I've done Stepping Stones, Give Back Cincinnati and the Cross Town Helpout. Most of the Give Back things are on Saturdays and I work so it's difficult for me to participate unless I request off. Since I work 70 hours a week it's hard to do anything anyway so I have contributed to World Vision, the non-profit I work for, and to a local inclusive theater group. I'd rather go out there and do instead of give money. But I guess I do give back to my community through my full time job...I'm just getting paid for it.

Kylie, you should check out Give Back Cincinnati. It's a lot of fun!

Can I just try to change my small corner of the world?

Great topic, Bruce!

I've found over the years that I've had to pick 1-2 charities each year or I end up trying to say yes to everyone.

When I was in high school, I had a friend who passed away from leukemia, so I did some work with the Leukemia Society. When I was in college, I was president of my school's BACCHUS chapter(sort of like SADD for college students)(and the largest chapter in the country). When I lived in Florida, I did the Florida AIDS ride twice(bicycle ride from Orlando to Miami).

For the last 3 years I've been involved with the Lance Armstrong Foundation Peloton Project(see my signature). I've been into cycling for some time, and I've had several family members, including both of my parents, who have gone through some sort of cancer in recent years. Its only seemed natural that I get involved with that.

I'd love to do Habitat, and I've emailed them looking for something close going on, but so far there's been nothing. Hopefully over the summer there'll be something. I've also thought of hosting an exchange student, but I guess trying to do that as a single woman would be difficult and weird. Oh well. I'll just keep going hard with the LAF.

you know,

this is convicting to me. not that i will necessarily act on that conviction. besides, i am still unsure how to view the word conviction and both what it means and what it has come to imply.

anyways,

almost without fail, it is so much easier to just write a check for a charity or a program you believe in. it takes only a few minutes and you don't have to put yourself out on the line.

I have so much respect for folks who act in service in this way, and bruce i think it is awesome that you push these things at work.

Love Luke

i've mentioned this in the past, but i'll promote my good deeds again.

after college, i did a 10-month service program called americorps*nccc
after that, i did a 12-month service program called vincentian service corps

both of which led to me my most recent educational stint, public health.

i'm not doing any direct service right now, but i'm considering it when i get to my next destination (which will most likely be washington, dc). i struggle with direct service, sometimes, thinking that government programs like americorps rely on cheap labor to "get things done" (a quick fix?) that perhaps should be more fundamentally addressed by governmental programs or community-wide interventions.

public health struggles with this as well -- since funding dollars come in for whatever hot topic du jour (obesity, bioterrorism, health disparities) and sometimes must be spent quickly, a more upstream approach isn't possible.

i don't mean to be down on volunteering, since i am pretty much devoting my life to it (in one way or the other), but there are criticisms i think might be important to think about. i know i'm not great at saying things that convey fully what i mean!



edited to add: the public health link has a link to a computer game i worked on! it's called "outbreak at watersedge" and is meant as a learning tool for jr/sr high students to learn about the field!

Cool! I want to try that game tonight!

Has anyone ever done a "Worldgame"? It's a 3-hour global simulation workshop. I always was interested, as I've read more Buckminster Fuller books than any other author.

Worldgame.org site

Cool, I just found this thread.

I haven't volunteered for some time now, but my latest stint was helping convicted felons study to get their GEDs. I worked one night a week for 14 months helping teach basic english and math skills.

The probationary type of work was directed toward first time offenders and those with sentences of 7 yrs or less, so I was never working with any murders or rapists (that I knew of!) just drug and theft crimes mostly.