Help Girls Score!

Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Started in 1987, it brings attention to the positive influence that sports participation has and to how it advances equality. The Women’s Sports Foundation encourages moms to get more involved with their daughter’s sports. Their website, womenssportsfoundation.org, gives lots of advice on how to get involved, prevent discrimination, and increase participation, along with information on coaching issues, clinics, funding, and more. Sports can be a huge help with young girls’ self-confidence, skill, determination, and inner success, all of which can carry through into their later years. If you succeed in sports, you lead in life. 

Pass Along Self-Esteem

Donate “once in a lifetime” clothing such as old bridesmaid dresses or even your wedding dresses. Many people cannot afford formalwear for special events and if we are done wearing them, why keep them? Keep your own memories alive through pictures, and pass the dress or suit along to make someone feel happy and special for their big moment.

Author and all-around-good-person Lara Starr offered this tip: “I’m a huge fan of Image for Success and the work they do in San Rafael, California. Image for Success provides men and women who are transitioning to work with two-week professional and casual wardrobes so they can embark on their new lives feeling like a million bucks! Clothes and how we present ourselves can have a huge impact on our self esteem. Giving these folks the time, attention, and resources to look and feel their best means the world. And the thrift shop Image for Success runs is one of my favorite places to shop. The staff and volunteers always make shopping fun! Their tidy shop with well-chosen, quality items is a great place to score designer finds on the cheap!” Visit the website at imageforsuccess.org.

Celebrate World Teachers Day

Teaching others is hard work and can be a thankless job. Whether you are a student or have kids in school, approach a teacher and tell them what a great job they are doing. AdoptAClassroom.org goes to the head of the class in my book for the good work they do: it gives teachers a hand by providing needed classroom materials so that students can succeed.

It is estimated that more than 15 million children don’t have the resources they need to do well in school. Teachers spend more than $1 billion a year stocking their own classrooms due to a lack of funding in schools. Supporting K-12th grade students in public, private, and charter schools, AdoptAClassroom.org makes it easy for donors to provide funding to classrooms throughout America. Teachers register their classrooms and needs online; donors discover classrooms through simple search tools, and make targeted contributions. Their goal is to connect donors with every classroom in the country. A-plus!

Open Your Home

    The gift economy is a really helpful concept for the budget-conscious, and it can help you, too. It may be time to reexamine everything you thought you couldn’t do and see if there is another way. Vacationing is a good example- you can trade homes and explore what you could not afford before, while offering the same in return. This free accommodation exchange will give you a really unique and much more personal view of a new place as well as a way to connect with people who live there. The idea is not new; Servas International (servas.org) was founded in 1949 and is recognized by the United Nations as a hospitality network. Check out the wildly successful and well organized CouchSurfing (couchsurfing.org) and Hospitality Club (hospitalityclub.org). And take time to look around the web; there are  many similar, smaller initiatives online catering to the budget traveler or people wanting to take a volunteer vacation in another hemisphere.

Help Girls Score!

    Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Started in 1987, it brings attention to the positive influence that sports participation has and to how it advances equality. The Women’s Sports Foundation encourages moms to get more involved with their daughter’s sports. Theie website, womenssportsfoundation.org, gives lots of advice on how to get involved, prevent discrimination, and increase participation, along with information on coaching issues, clinics, funding, and more. Sports can be a huge help with young girls’ self-confidence, skill, determination, and inner success, all of which can carry through into their later years. If you succeed in sports, you lead in life.

Help Girls Score!

    Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Started in 1987, it brings attention to the positive influence that sports participation has and to how it advances equality. The Women's Sports Foundation encourages moms to get more involved with their daughters' sports. Their website womenssportsfoundation.org, gives lots of advice on how to get involved, prevent discrimination, and increase participation, along with information on coaching issues, clinics, funding, and more. Sports can be a huge help with young girls' self-confidence, skill, determination, and inner success, all of which can carry through into their later years. If you succeed in sports, you lead in life.