Sunday's Question of the Day - Aug 24, 2014

Happy Sunday everyone! Yesterday I got nominated for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by a friend, so I promptly obliged and made a donation and video and nominated 3 more people who are loathing me pretty hard right now. This is my first time doing anything specifically for ALS (though I'm told the idea is to either donate or do the ice bucket video challenge... how is a cause helped when all you do is splash yourself with water? maybe a cheapskate slacktivist told me that... ).

What are some causes, charities, or organizations that you support or are near and dear to your heart? Doesn't matter if you support them financially, physically (volunteering), or if you just spread the word and think theirs is a cause worth others' support too - maybe others with the time or money will see it fit to lend their support to it too!

I know quite a few of us are still doing the daily kibble/litter questions too!

I donate money and items to our local no-kill shelter on a regular basis. I don't give to any human charities.

I donate to the children's hospital and heart and stroke foundation. I can't say no when they ask in stores after having a premature daughter that spent 2 months in the hospital. I lost my dad, both of my grandpas and my husbands grandpa to heart attacks and my mom and husbands other grandpa both had strokes.

I am also currently saving my daughters old clothes to donate to the women's shelter. I have a bunch of cans of formula that I plan on donating too if I don't use them with this baby (I am hoping not to use any of them). So far, I have 6 sample cans, 3 packs of ready to feed formula and 4 cans of the second stage Walmart brand formula. 

i donate cat foods to our local shelter, but only when i have some that my little girl (picky eater) isn't going to eat.

catlover19 said:

 
I donate to the children's hospital and heart and stroke foundation. I can't say no when they ask in stores after having a premature daughter that spent 2 months in the hospital. I lost my dad, both of my grandpas and my husbands grandpa to heart attacks and my mom and husbands other grandpa both had strokes.

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My family is the same way - we lost our grandfather to cancer, and my sister-in-law lost her grandmother to cancer too, so my whole family is very invested in it. My brother's wedding favours were replaced with a donation to the Canadian Cancer Society. Whenever the Canadian Cancer Society does nearby events like the Relay for Life and Stair Climb for Cancer, I jump at the chance to join in.

Winchester said:

 
I donate money and items to our local no-kill shelter on a regular basis. I don't give to any human charities.

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mickNsnicks2mom said:

 
i donate cat foods to our local shelter, but only when i have some that my little girl (picky eater) isn't going to eat.

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This is such an underrated and easy way to help - sometimes I hear people complaining that they paid for a food their pet doesn't eat, so they plan on just throwing it away. I buy Friskies in bulk packs that have too many fish flavours for my cats to eat alone, so I do this with some of the shredded varieties and fish varieties they're less likely to eat much of. Same with blankets, towels, other easy things that we often don't have use for: homeless animals could definitely use them!

I'm not financially sound enough to donate to any sort of ASPCA or HSUS organization like I would like to. I do, however, try my best to encourage people to "Adopt, Don't Shop!".

I also do my best to advocate for Pit Bulls as they are absolutely the most misunderstood breed. I am always reading articles and spreading the word to try and rid them of their bad name. Here's a great article by Cesar Milan:  How Did Pit Bulls Get Such A Bad Rap
 

Other than that, elephants are my favorite animal. I try to speak out about the ivory trade and trophy hunting. Nothing pisses me off more than people hunting animals for nothing other than to mount them on their wall or, in the case of the elephant, use their tusks for profit. And, on the other hand, it always warms my heart to see poachers arrested, ivory confiscated, or elephants being rescued from bad environments. 

The heart fund and cancer society. My father died of a heart attack at the age of 42 and we have seen so many losses to cancer. Also it means a lot after my recent surgery for colon cancer.

@pinkdagger -- most of our extra cat food came into being because although snick is a very picky eater, her brother (mickey) was not. mickey would happily eat the foods snick didn't like or wouldn't eat much of. this worked out well for both cats, and snick ate more of a variety of canned cat foods. since our mickey crossed the bridge, i've been working cans of these less desired brands/flavors into snick's food rotation here and there but snick was never going to eat all of the cans we had. and now that i've switched snick over to eating freeze dried chicken treats with just a few kibbles per day (we recently had blood work come back with borderline diabetes), we're using only a fraction of the small amount of dry cat food per day that we were using. so i'll be donating the last of the less desired canned cat foods as well as at least two 2 lb bags of natures variety instinct duck/turkey flavor dry cat food to the local shelter in september. i know the cats at the shelter will have some good meals from these foods, and i'm happy to bring them some joy while they're waiting for their furever homes.

I have to much on my plate to give money or time but I do spread the word about low cost options of where to get cats done.  My local vet is actually very cheap IF you tell them from the start you want nothing added JUST the spay or neuter.  The regular quote is for fluids and pain meds but they have a basic rate.  And then if you have more then a few to go to one of the clinics that is a bit farther but worth it.  I currently try and get freebies or nearly frebies for a family I know in really bad times. 

I donate money to a local group that helps the homeless and a couple of times a year to St Jude Children's Hospital.  When I was a kid many many years ago I had a cousin who developed leukemia.  That was back when leukemia was usually a death sentence and his parents didn't make a lot of money, no health insurance.  He was treated at St. Jude's, survived and is still alive today.  Their parents never got a bill so that part from their advertising is true.

I donate food, litter and toys to a no kill shelter here.

We donate monetarily to several ministries and a few missionaries for work inside the US and abroad.  Some work in medical relief and some work with children and impoverished communities.  Our church does a meal once a month at a local homeless shelter.  My parents are very involved with the cooking and serving.  I can't go personally because I can't bring kids there; but I can help fund the food or donate actual food.  We do also donate food, clothing and baby items to different groups or when I hear of someone in need.  One of our local radio stations has a facebook page just to post things you are giving away or things you might need.  

One thing that I really like doing annually is the shoebox drive with Operation Christmas Child.  It's something even young children can help with and it's a good way to introduce the idea to them that other people do not have the things they do.  You can also track your box and you'll get an e-mail later to find out what country your shoebox went to; which is also a nice opportunity to talk to my kids about it again.

We do other things as we see needs come. 

First is the local rescue that we got Cocoa from - Summit Animal Rescue Association.  I donate to them periodically throughout the year.  I also donate to the Tocamo Humane Society. even though I'm totally across country from them.  One of the people who foster kittens for them, is pretty well known (The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee) and, she's done amazing work fundraising and spreading awareness.

Then, there is a bunch of other human charities that I give to.  Doctors Without Borders, 14 Plus Foundation (builds schools in Africa, one of the people in my office is affiliated with them), just donated to Tamron Hall's (Today Show co-host) charity to empower those who have suffered domestic violence, and several more health related ones.  I'd be hard pressed off-hand to list them all. I do what I can afford for as many that touch me in one way or another.

I donate clothes and stuff to poor people, and I donate to the shelter

I donate to the Humane Society of the US through Survey Monkey. They donate .50 to them for every survey I do. Every bit helps. Our local branch of the Humane Society (where I got both cats and the dog) has a thrift store here in town. They get all of my donations of clothing, household goods, etc. I also donate to them through Amazon Smile.

MoochNNoodles said:

One thing that I really like doing annually is the shoebox drive with Operation Christmas Child.  It's something even young children can help with and it's a good way to introduce the idea to them that other people do not have the things they do.  You can also track your box and you'll get an e-mail later to find out what country your shoebox went to; which is also a nice opportunity to talk to my kids about it again.

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This makes me so nostalgic. We always did Operation Christmas Child in elementary school, but back then we didn't get notifications and such. As we got older, they phased it out. My friend is a kindergarten teacher... if her school does this, I need to get in on it and send a box in with her class!

Great to see so many people are able to reach out and help parts of their community!

Whenever I have object donations that can't be used at humane societies, we call up the Diabetes Association, which works with Clothesline Canada to sell donations to Value Village stores for funds towards diabetes.

Especially since I don't always have the money to give, if I can grab a few friends and shake them by their ankles, I'm super appreciative if others are willing to sponsor me. In the past, I've done Canadian Cancer Society events, Scotiabank's AIDS Walk for Life, and when I'm shopping at pet stores and they ask if I want to donate to a humane society (or sometimes even a human hospital) during campaigns, I always mindlessly say yes for $5 or something because I'm already there and chances are I've already spent like $40 on stuff for my animals. A few bucks for other animals or those in need won't break the bank.

If anyone has the time for a few extra clicks in their day, I always pop in with Greater Good (I've bought from their stores as Christmas gifts for people too - some pretty cool stuff! Some proceeds go towards specific causes depending on the store you buy from so I thought it was neat to be able to tell the gift recipients that their gift was helping a cause) and do a free click for each of the headings - Greater Good, Hunger, Cancer, Literacy, Rainforest, etc.: http://greatergood.com/

On my bucket list, I would love to participate in the WWF CN Tower Stair Climb and although I'm not religious, my aunt and uncle work with their church delivering socks, scarves, and hot meals to the homeless in the winter in the area I live in now that it'd be great to be a part of.

I donate what I can to the shelter, but not the Humane Society.  I do not like the Humane Society here.  I used to have a picky eater (Grey, RIP) and often had lots of canned food to donate.

If there is an opportunity to give flu shots and such, I donate my services.  There's lots of opportunities to participate in events for a good cause, like 5K runs, dinners, and etc.

I've been told that I have "sucker" tattooed on my forehead but I'm really just very tenderhearted.

Monetarily, I donate regularly to our local hospice, and to every kid who stops by my front door selling stuff (there must be some sign in my front yard that only kids can see).  Whenever someone we know well passes, I never send flowers (always a donation somewhere).

Materially, I donate food and old linens to our local animal shelter.  At least once per year, I make a big haul of unused/unwanted household goods and clothes to either our local Goodwill or Salvation Army.  At least 2-3 times per year, I clean out my pantry of food that nobody seems to like and donate to our local Red Cross food pantry (who gives to local families that are actively searching but can't find employment in our rural, high unemployment county).

Physically, I volunteer as a SCORE counselor.  We give free guidance and advice to people who want to start a small business or need help with their existing small business.  Each counselor has a specialty and mine is real estate, accounting, bookkeeping/QuickBooks, and IRS/State Revenue reporting.  It's very rewarding to help someone realize a long held dream. (And it doesn't hurt that I'm the only female counselor among of group of retired, older men!  So much personal attention!) 

I also volunteer as co-president of the maintenance association of a very old, local cemetery where my grandparents and other family members are buried.  The cemetery was never setup properly through the state when the plots were sold and because every plot is privately owned by an individual family, the maintenance association cannot charge anyone for anything.  We maintain well over 1000 grave sites and the interior private streets.  Through Easter and Christmas luminary donations and other fundraisers, we barely collect enough donations to keep the acres and acres of grass mowed.  If our local economy doesn't start improving, we may have dissolve our volunteer group and let each family go back to mowing and maintaining their elders' graves.  One big problem is that quite a few of the family plots are full and we cannot locate any remaining family members.  And don't get me started on the local younger generation!  The majority won't donate a cent to even mow their parent's or grandparent's graves!  Grrrr.... such disrespect!

Rant over....

I grew up on a farm in a very rural area and they put in a dam and large reservoir for flood control. This was when I was a small child and I am 58 now.   It was unreal how many small forgotten cemeteries were where the reservoir was going.  Many of the stones were illegible and no one remembered or would admit to remembering who was buried there.  When they moved those cemeteries there was nothing left in the graves, those graves were from the era of simple wooden coffins and no vaults.  They would take a little dirt from 6 feet down and move that small amount of dirt with the tombstone.

pinkdagger said:

 
This makes me so nostalgic. We always did Operation Christmas Child in elementary school, but back then we didn't get notifications and such. As we got older, they phased it out. My friend is a kindergarten teacher... if her school does this, I need to get in on it and send a box in with her class!

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In our area; many local churches act as drop off spots and i think some businesses may. You could always try their website to find out too.  To get the confirmation you pay for your shipping donation online and then print out a barcode to attach to each box.  It's definitely a fun project! 

I support the foot and mouth society and abused children