Making Sure She Has a Night to Remember

Did you know that many teen girls long to attend their high school prom but end up missing out on the tradition simply because a fancy dress is not in the family budget? Help these girls out by visiting glassslipperproject.org.

Donate your old prom dress and shoes to the delightful folks at the Glass Slipper Project, a nonprofit organization that gives free prom dresses, shoes and accessories to high school juniors and seniors. Generosity can be very glamorous!

Throwing Shade: Trees Are Good For Us

    Encourage community management of forests. If there are common property lands nearby you that are degraded, work with local communities and environmental NGO’s to establish sustainable community forestry that benefits everyone. Get involved at treesforthefuture.org and meet your fellow tree huggers!

How You Can Spare the Air

Here are some things that you can do starting today:

• Support our scientists by letting our elected officials know we need fossil fuel alternatives-wind power, solar power, and wave power.
• Choose more Earth-friendly transport, which also reduces smog-causing emissions.
• Recycle, conserve energy, and support the work of Environmental Defense and other environmental organizations.
• Go to environmentaldefense.org and get involved.
  

World Suicide Prevention Day

    I think the tragic passing of transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn reminded us all about the need to be there for people, however we can. Volunteer for a crises center or suicide hotline. So many people are in need of help, guidance, and support. Find a cause you are passionate about, or maybe even have a personal connection to, and spend some time actually helping with it. Volunteer Match (volunteermatch.org) takes your interests into consideration and matches you with a charity. We are all needed. Make it count.

Mother Ocean Day

    Look into volunteering to clean up your local beach. With pollution in our water and in the sand, help make these local hot spots safer for future visitors to the beach and the environment! If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out All One Ocean to see when you can help: alloneocean.org/community-meeting-beach-clean-up. 

Make Beautiful Music

    If you're a musician living in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Nashville, or Miami, you can volunteer through the nonprofit Musicians on Call (musiciansoncall.org) to deliver live, in-room or virtual Zoom performances to patients underdgoing treatment or unable to leave their beds. With so many people in hospitals because of coronavirus, why not bring some good-hearted tunes back into their lives? Add a dose of joy to a healthcare facility by bringing the healing power of music to people who need it.

The Healing Power of Touch

    Be a baby cuddler. Once restrictions are lifted and hugs are okay to do again outside of your household, start looking for opportunities to do this necessary task. According to this excellent guide for volunteers at volunteer guide.org/service-projects/baby-cuddlers, "Baby cuddlers are needed in orphanages, neonatal hospital units, group homes, nurseries, and wherever else there are babies and young children who may not have adequate human contact early in life to begin developing social interaction skills." What could be better than helping a baby survive and thrive?

The Best Kind of Social Networking

    Help the elderly with their devices. Many senior citizens aren't tech-savvy, but given that we live in a technologically advancing society, learning how to use a computer or the Internet can be very helpful. Volunteer your assistance to a senior who has a cell phone or computer and needs help using it. Be email buddies with your new friends, too!

A Mission of Importance

    When I lived in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco, I drove for a food bank for AIDS patients in my rusted-out little car that I brought all the way from West Virginia. I had arrived in the mid-eighties, which we may all remember as the height of the AIDS crisis. One early morning, I was walking to the Church Street MUNI station and there was the food bank, with giant pink letters announcing itself as a place to lend a hand for the AIDS crisis. I went in and within two minutes had a shift and assignments for the week. Everyone in there seemed extremely cool to me. They were not grim at all, but seemed to have a mission of importance. It seemed such a small way to help during that scary time. I learned that regardless of what you can give, large or small, it is important to give of yourself. And it all does add up!

    Feeding America is the largest hunger relief organization in the United States and they need you.  Please visit feedingamerica.org to find your local food bank or hunger organization. Get involved- you'll make a difference and you'll make friends along the way. I sure did, and they remain my friends to this day.