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Strollerderby
A little boy set out on his bike, with one goal in mind: “I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti,” seven-year-old Charlie Simpson wrote on his JustGiving page.
His goal was to raise £500 for UNICEF UK. To date, he’s raised £168,793, or $273,884 U.S.
Want to help Haiti? Give money. That’s it, nothing else.
That’s the message aid organizations want us to understand. They know we want to help, but helping in the form of sending old clothes, shoes, toys, drugs, and household goods actually hinders their progress.
They know we mean well, but when thousands of people mail goods to disaster areas, it clogs things up. It wastes aid workers’ time sorting through piles and piles of stuff. Not only that, in the case of prescription drugs — and yes, people have sent them — it can be dangerous.
The pictures of post-earthquake Haiti leave us feeling helpless, and the scope of the damage won’t be known for days — if not weeks. But it’s already clear that there’s a desparate need for help in Haiti today. Clean water, shelter, food, medical care — these are all urgent necesseties, especially for those struggling to care for young children.
With today’s technology, giving has never been easier. On his blog, Chris Sacca outlines six ways to help, two of which involve no more work on your part than tapping out a short text. Here are his suggestions:
The Grinch is alive and well and living in suburban New Orleans, it seems. One or more people threw a cement block through the window of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Violet, broke in, and stole 60 Christmas presents the parishioners collected for needy children.
Not only that, but they ripped off the wrapping and left it piled around the altar. From the story linked, it doesn’t appear that anything else was taken although the thieves attempted to break in to several lockers. Continue reading »
6-year-old Justin Martin of Bridgewater, NJ may only weigh about 50 pounds, but his heart is the size of Santa’s. The pint-sized teddy bear fan asked his dad if everyone owned one of the cuddly stuffed animals that he so adores. Dad replied in the negative and an idea was born: not only did Justin give away his older bears, but he decided that he would make 1,000 at Build-A-Bear and give them away to kids who don’t have one to call their own.
As much as we may try to shield our kids from our financial worries, they know what’s going on. And this time of year, as cash-strapped parents struggle to provide the basic necessities for their families, kids are looking to Santa for help. Reports from Santa’s lap indicate that instead of iPods and laptop computers, worried children are asking for eye glasses and socks. And jobs for their unemployed parents. Continue reading »
You expect things to be thrown at hockey games – usually punches. Not eight thousand teddy bears, all thrown onto the ice in the middle of the first period at a Ontario Hockey League game.
The bears – eight thousand two hundred thirty-two to be exact – were being chucked at the players after the first goal was scored as part of a tradition. Continue reading »
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