Letting Nothing Drop

    Sign up to volunteer with the anti-dropout program Communities in Schools (communitiesinschools.org), which helps vulnerable students in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Let’s help get this to every state!

Blanket the World With Love

Do you remember Linus of the venerated Peanuts cartoon? His love for his blanket shows how universal that love for just the right soft cloth can be. My mom and aunts are amazing quilters. They can seemingly take anything and make a gorgeous, collectible quilt from it. Even if you, like me, lack that “quilting gene,” you can blanket the world with your love and good intentions by collecting them for donation. I put a call out and got a ton of nice comforters to donate to Project Linus, at projectlinus.org. This nurturing organization sends cozy quilts and oh-so-warm blankets to kids in shelters, hospices, hospitals, and wherever the cloaking comfort of love might be needed. My mom recently made a quilt of some of my crazy outfits from the eighties, so I can only hope that the beneficiaries of Project Linus have a good sense of humor and a love of neon colors!

Good Night, Moon, Good Morning, Sunshine!

    I have to agree with the lovely people of the Pajama Program (pajamaprogram.org) that the sweeter side of life comes from warm, snuggly PJ’s so I love their mission- to provide pajamas and a book of bedtime stories to children who need them. Need I say more?

Be a Good Citizen

    Rich Chin’s family lived in New York City, pretty far away from any large expanse of wilderness, but that didn’t get in his way. Rich shares his experiences that first made him see how he could be a good in the world: 

    The Outward Bound Youth at Risk Program really helped many troubled teens get back on the “good citizen” road. I was one of those Outward Bound instructors that volunteered to teach in this life-changing experiment for inner city kids in the late seventies and eighties. It changed my life as much as it did those kids. I saw firsthand that if so-called “bad kids” were given a chance to learn how to respect others as well as themselves, they could contribute very positively and be part of our bright future. 

    Kurt Hahn founded Outward Bound (Outward Bound.org) on this assumption: “In genuine service to the benefit of others, one best expresses on a day-to-day basis his reverence for life itself.”

Ring Your Bells

    Ring bells and help raise money for people in need. The Red Kettle Christmas Campaign enables the Salvation Army to provide food, toys and clothing to over six million people during the Christmas season and helps more than 34 million Americans recovering from all kinds of personal disasters nationwide. The Red Kettle campaign, first started in San Francisco in 1891, has traditionally been the Salvation Army’s most prominent fund-raiser.” For more information and to find out where you can volunteer, go to ringbells.org.

Support Diversity in Education

    New York-based Folk Arts Rajasthan (folkartrajasthan.org) and India-based Lok Kala Sagar (LKSS)-meaning “local folk arts society”- are nonprofit organizations joined since 2005 by a shared vision of a thriving and just future for The Merasi people and their unique musical culture. The Merasi of northwestern India carry a powerful legacy of 38 generations but they also carry the burden of the still-enduring caste system. To reclaim an identity as storytellers, the Merasi of Jaisalmer have shed the derogatory caste label Manganiyar, meaning beggars. The name Merasi, instead means musicians, and is a symbol of self-determination. The FAR-LKSS collaborative approach recognizes that education, preserving this intangible cultural heritage, and achieving social justice for a continually marginalized people are mutually dependent goals. In the face of obstinate hierarchical norms, FAR and LKSS are together nurturing a generation of ambitious and capable youth with their programs. Significantly, two FAR scholarship girls, Sitara and Mobeena Khan, participated in a 2014 US-based international science conference, after their project won awards at both local and state level in Rajasthan. In February 2015, a troupe of Merasi youth traveled to Mumbai to play in the prestigious Kala Ghoda Arts Festival and exchange cultural activities with students at a variety of schools.

World AIDS Day

    HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has become one of the world’s most serious health and developmental challenges. In the United States alone, 1.7 million people are estimated to have the HIV virus. According to aids.gov, 33.4 million people are living with the HIV/AIDS virus globally and more than 25 million deaths resulted in the virus worldwide since the first reported cases in 1981. Educate yourself and your family about this epidemic, promote safe behaviour, and consider volunteering some of your time toward helping those infected. AmfAR’s “Countdown to a Cure for AIDS” is a research initiative aimed at finding a broadly applicable cure for HIV by 2020. “Countdown to a Cure” is designed to intensify amfAR’s (amFar.org) cure-focused HIV research program with plans to strategically invest $100 million in cure research over the next six years.

You Don’t Have to Adopt to Make an Impact

    Adopting an animal is a serious commitment. For those who aren’t able to adopt, but still want to make a difference in the life of an abandoned animal, fostering is an excellent alternative. There are many foster programs that give at-and-dog-lovers the chance to provide interim housing for displaced pets who have yet to find their forever home. Many of these foster programs cover food and medical expenses, meaning all you have to worry about is giving your furry guest a safe and loving place to stay. And who knows? You might just fall in love.

Pens Are More Powerful than Swords

Raise money for Pencils of Promise to help build a school in an impoverished country. For more information, visit their website: pencilsofpromise.org.

Give Someone’s Grandfather or Great Aunt What They Always Wanted

Grant a wish to a senior citizen. Volunteers for the Twilight Wish Foundation fulfill requests by donating items (like a home computer requested by a grandmother who wanted to email her grandkids) or by contributing their time. Learn all about it at twilightwish.org. Some wishes-like one from a retired postman who wanted to go over his old route one last time-require planning instead of money, and volunteers tend to choose items or actions that most speak to them.

Teach at Citizen School

    Teach yoga, gardening, and more to middle schoolers. Reducing dropout rates by getting kids excited about learning is a major goal of Citizen Schools (citizenschools.org). Subjects covered in the 90-minute, 10-week after-school, volunteer-taught classes have included journalism, yoga, and architecture, with a focus on being “very interactive,” says Stacey Gilbert, Director of Media Relations. “Volunteers are encouraged to teach what they’re passionate about.”

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

    Overcoming wilderness obstacles-rushing rivers, steep hills, avoiding wild animals builds confidence and helps under-resourced kids better handle inner-city obstacles. All of this is why Big City Mountaineers pairs adults with disadvantaged youths on weeklong backpacking and canoeing trips. If you don’t live in the regions where the organization primarily operates (Northwest, West and Midwest), check out Summit for Someone, a program that makes walk-a-thons look restful; participants fundraise for Big City Mountaineers by soliciting sponsorship for major climbing trips.

Letting Nothing Drop

    Sign up to volunteer with the anti-dropout program Communities in Schools (communitiesinschools.org), which helps vulnerable students in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Let’s help get this to every state!

Good Night, Moon, Good Morning, Sunshine!

    I have to agree with the lovely people of the Pajama Program (pajamaprogram.org) that the sweeter side of life comes from warm, snuggly PJ’s so I love their mission- to provide pajamas and a book of bedtime stories to children who need them. Need I say more?

Be a Pre-cycler

    Try to recycle all the product packaging that an item comes in, from the cardboard box to the plastic sleeve. Buy fewer, but better-quality, products to ensure you won't end up with a makeup drawer filled with stuff that doesn't live up to its promise. And finally, check out companies like TerraCycle (terracycle.com) that offer recycling programs for things like mascara tubes and lotion bottles. I am very proud that on my business card, alongside my title of "Publisher," it also says, "Office Composter" because I set up a full-scale recycling and zero waste program.

Be a Fixer-Upper (Plus Weeding is Good Therapy)

    Assist seniors near you with tasks like raking, shoveling, or doing minor home repairs through Volunteers of America's Safety of Seniors Handyman Program (voa.org). I pull my 98-year-old neighbor's weeds and it is a good exercise for me, it benefits the neighborhood, and she appreciates the weekly attention she and her yard enjoy!

Be a Good Citizen

    Rich Chin's family in New York City, pretty far away from any large expanse of wilderness, but that didn't get in his way. Rich shares his experiences that first made him see how he could be a good in the world:

    The Outward Bound Youth at Risk Program really helped many troubled teens get back  on the "good citizens" road. I was one of those Outward Bound instructors that volunteered to teach in this life-changing experiment for inner city kids in the late seventies and eighties. It changed my life as much as it did those kids. I saw firsthand that if so-called "bad kids" were given a chance to learn how to respect others as well as themselves, they could contribute very positively and be a part of our bright future.

    Kurt Hahn founded Outward Bound (OutwardBound.org) on this assumption: "In genuine service to the benefit of others, one best expresses on a day-to-day basis his reverence for life itself."

Love Lifts You Up

     If you have a frequent flier miles you are not planning to use because of the pandemic, give them to service members who have been injured in the line of duty and need to be flown to proper medical treatment. This can also enable family members to visit them as soon as it's okay to fly again. Check out fisherhouse.org to discover all you need to know about Fisher House Foundation's Hero Miles Program. Love has an enormous power to heal, so sharing your unused miles stretches your love a mighty long way!