Archive for Giving Back/Charity

Mother’s Day 2013 Charity Gifts

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 17, 2013
in Family Stuff, Giving Back/Charity, Holidays, Parenting, Uncategorized

This is a paid post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Our family enjoys giving when we can, which isn’t as often as we use to give. We feel it is an important aspect of our parenting and beliefs to give back. That is why giving charity gifts during the holidays has appealed to us. It helps us take the focus off ourselves and what we get onto others and what we can give. Usually the season of giving is Christmas for us. We never really thought about too many other holidays to be honest. Have you?

I know I wrote a little Mother’s Day 2013 Wordless Wednesday post the other day, but motherhood is a wonderful enough blessing (and challenge, I might add) that’s worth mentioning again. Most of us in North America are not as challenged as mothers in third world countries. We haven’t had to see our child struggle to survive because there isn’t enough food. Nor have we had to see our child battle health issues because there is no doctor available to help diagnose what is wrong with our child. We have access to health care, food, clean water and educational resources. Does that mean other mothers don’t care? No. It’s because these things are not readily available to them for their families. That’s why I wanted to share an idea I never even thought about – giving charity gifts in celebration of Mother’s Day 2013 to help other mothers provide these things to their families.

Unicef offers a variety of charity gifts to give back. Perhaps you have yet to send your mom a gift – you could send her your gift and tell her you also gave a gift in her honor for Mother’s Day. Or maybe you would like to send a gift of your own in celebration of your own motherhood to help other mothers in need.

For a glimpse of the charity gifts offered, here’s a list:

- Mother’s Day Measles Vaccine to protect 100 or 200 kids
- Mother’s Day Family Water Pack
- Maternal Health Kit
- School-in-a-box
- Therapeutic Food
- Pencils
- Story Books
- First Aid Kits
- Footballs
- Bicycle
and more…

You can check out all the Mothers Day 2013 giving opportunities at this link provided.

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Johnson & Johnson Donate a Photo Plus Giveaway

Posted by Theresa Gould on April 13, 2013
in Baby Products, Community Issues, Contests, Coupons, Giveaways, Giving Back/Charity, Personal Care Products, Uncategorized

This is a compensated post by The Motherhood and J&J. I also free J&J product for my participation.

Everyone is familiar with the Johnson & Johnson brand and probably use at least one of their products, if not more, in your home. Well, they are running a campaign right now called The Donate a Photo, using The Donate a Phone app. The campaign is encouraging people to donate a photo and for every photo donated, J&J will donate $1 to one charity of your choosing.

The campaign kicks off with three charitable partners to choose from:
Keep America Beautiful: One photo helps restore a community park.
Save the Children: One photo helps a newborn get medicine to thrive.
Safe Kids: One photo protects seven children from a preventable sports injury.

The Donate a Photo app is available for download in the App Store and Google Play. Be sure to head over to HealthyEssentials.com and register to save on J&J products. J&J coupons will be available in newspapers and online starting on Sunday, April 7, which was last week.

The app is really easy to download and use. Very user friendly. All you have to do is sign up for an account, click the buttons through to donate a photo and voila! you are done.

Here is an excellent video about how to use the Donate a Photo app. Video below, direct link here – http://youtu.be/SoNv_BGxfyk

Donate a Photo is a fun way to help give back to three great causes. I just donated my first photo today but plan to donate more over the next week or so. Johnson & Johnson has curated a list of trusted causes, and you can donate a photo to one cause, once a day. Each cause will appear in the app until it reaches its goal, or the donation period ends. If the goal isn’t reached, the cause will still get a minimum donation.

J & J Giveaway

You can also enter to win a box of assorted J&J products – valued just over $100.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

No purchase necessary. Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia, Eighteen (18) years of age or older. Sweepstakes end May 20, 2013. Prize(s) provided by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Company Division of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc. Void where prohibited.

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Charity Outreach and Jumping into a Frozen Lake

Posted by Theresa Gould on January 4, 2013
in Giveaways, Giving Back/Charity

You all know that I love to help in charity outreach when I can. But I really don’t think I’d be willing to jump into a frozen lake during the dead of winter.

My friend and fellow blogger Jen from Life With Levi is competing with a local PR rep to raise money for Haiti Outreach by jumping into a frozen Minnesota lake next weekend. That’s dedication, eh? To help spread the word, she’s giving away $20 PayPal cash to one lucky winner! She’s even pre-written tweets you can send out in exchange for entries.

By the way, she loves to win that’s why I’m reaching out to you to help her out! So in the name of charity outreach and jumping into a frozen lake…brrrr! Please support her effort!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received a link back in exchange for sharing this post.

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Operation Christmas Child #OCCGiveBack

Posted by Theresa Gould on November 6, 2012
in Family Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giving Back/Charity

Years ago at a church we attended we participated in Operation Christmas Child with our two older children, they were wee things, but I don’t think we have done it since. The past couple of years one of our daughters has been asking to do up shoe boxes for children but we just have never got around to it….shame on me! Then BlogFrog sent out an invitation to participate in this year’s Operation Christmas Child shoe box campaign. Of course I had to do it, if only to hold myself accountable to get it done! I still found myself getting the shoe boxes and contents for it together at the last minute due to my tooth issue and the fact that I never put it on my Google calendar. I had it on my blog calendar and BlogFrog’s calendar but not mine, which is the one I use to send myself reminders of events, important posts coming due etc. We finally took a trip out one day last week to gather enough items to do four shoe boxes – 2 boys and 2 girls. I paired up our children so they could all participate in putting a box together for a child.

The shoebox campaign is a wonderful way to teach our children kindness, compassion and generosity! At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I love opportunities like this because it helps us instill these values in our children by doing not just saying it.

Our Shoe Boxes

As I said before, I decided that we’d do four shoe boxes because I thought it would mean more to the children if they were able to pair up with a sibling and do some of the gift selections and shopping on their own…with a little guidance and a few parameters.

We chose a few things from our school supply stash and then we went to Dollar General, Family Dollar and Walmart for the rest.

Here is a video of the children as we put the shoe boxes together:

Our older boys were probably the least enthusiastic and our older daughter had to take our youngest son out of the room before we even started because he was trying to eat the treats we bought for each shoebox!

Junior was after all the treats for the shoe boxes so my oldest had to take care of him while we did up the boxes! Then he got into a tube of toothpaste. Never a dull moment around here.

I am never for sure how much the younger children take in on projects like this, but I do know from raising our older daughters giving back projects eventually means a lot more to them than it did. That’s why I like doing special compassion projects to make them aware of other people’s needs and put them first instead of themselves.

We are already planning on participating in putting together shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child next year! We thought we’d start right away so we could give more shoe boxes – my second oldest’s idea.

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Funk Buddy and Breast Cancer Awareness Month Plus a Recipe

Posted by Theresa Gould on October 2, 2012
in Books, Giving Back/Charity, Health, Health and Nutrition, Recipes

Do you know anyone battling breast cancer? October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast dancer in a lifetime and 289,000 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in US women in 2012. Incredible and sobering. I just went to a seminar on hormones this past weekend and according to the speaker (who has seen NO breast cancer patients in his practice) low progesterone may be the cause of breast cancer in some women. So keep that in mind as suggestion to loved ones and friends, and if they do want to look into it and get their progesterone tested it should be at 10 or above, even if the test says 5 is normal because labs averages are skewed in a major way. Labs throw out the first and last 100 and make the middle numbers their average. Just something I learned at the seminar.

I wanted to help share the news of Funky Buddy and Breast Cancer Awareness Month by sharing a couple of other resources with you.

Funky Buddy

Funky Buddy is simply a buddy program created by Dr. Kristi Funk of Pink Lotus Breast Center in Los Angeles. It’s purpose is to pair newly diagnosed patients with patients she had already treated.

Best Friend’s Guide to Breast Cancer Book

Food is Medicine: The Best Friend’s Guide to Breast Cancer has an appendix of 30 tried-and-true family recipes! I am featuring one of those recipes below that I am really looking forward to trying – have to get zucchini and blueberries first!

Lemony Blueberry Zucchini Loaf (Source: The Best Friend’s Guide to Breast Cancer)

Zucchini is a good source of vitamins A, K, and B6, as well as vitamin C, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Another bonus: it’s rich in the minerals potassium, manganese, and magnesium, which help with immune function. This loaf packs an even greater nutritional punch thanks to the blueberries, well-known as one of nature’s most potent cancer fighters. To top it off, the hint of lemon tingles the tongue and gives a boost to the blandness of the zucchini.

The loaf is hearty enough for breakfast and handy for snacking, too. Because it’s not too sweet, your friend or loved one will find that it’s mild enough if she’s queasy, and the ground ginger will soothe her churning stomach as well. I’ve found that it’s easy to get down when most food isn’t appealing. Of course, it’s a tasty treat when she has her appetite, too!

You’ll need:

1 cup of blueberries
2 cups of peeled, shredded zucchini
3 eggs
¾ cup of vegetable oil
1 and ½ cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of lemon extract
2 and ½ cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of nutmeg
¼ teaspoon of ginger
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)
Crisco

1) Heat oven to 350°. Grease only the bottom of two glass loaf pans with Crisco.

2) In one bowl, beat the eggs, then add vegetable oil, sugar, and lemon extract until well blended.

3) In another bowl, sift the flour, salt, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, and baking powder.

4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well-incorporated, then fold in the zucchini, then blueberries and walnuts. Pour into the two loaf pans.

Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

A portion of proceeds (20%) from sales of the book is going to support Pink Lotus Petals.

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Shopping Box Tops for Education with Jingit App #CBias #Social Fabric #JingIt4Edu

Posted by Theresa Gould on September 13, 2012
in Giving Back/Charity, School, Shopping, Uncategorized

School is back in session, your children may or may not still be at home depending upon their age, and if you homeschool or not. You can now support your child’s school or the school of your choice even more by shopping Box Tops for Education with Jingit app. If you are fans of General Mills, then you can shop for specific General Mills products today through Saturday and earn Box Tops for education for your child’s school through the Jingit app. Jingit helps you earn cash from brands you love by watching videos, answering a few questions after the video and finding your favorite brands in-store.

Several years ago we actively participated in Box Tops 4 Education for missionaries friends in Mexico. They taught in a school there and were able to participate in this program and earn much needed money for their school. We know it meant a lot to them to receive the box tops. For us, it was a blessing to be a part of helping others. It was pretty easy to save box tops, put them in a bag and send a full envelope of box tops to them regularly. We stopped due to the missionaries leaving the field (Mexico).

Shopping Box Tops 4 Education with Jingit App

My daughter and I went shopping (follow link for my Google+ photo album) Box Tops for Education with Jingit app last night and purchased a few things for Box Tops 4 Education. We chose a school in Chicago, Catherine Cook, knowing that many of those public schools are in need of more support. It always amazes me that government funded schools still need more money to provide a quality education. Regardless, Box Tops 4 Education helps fill in the gap, so we picked up a few necessary things on my daughter’s list and a few extras. So much for sticking to my list! Then we made our way to the cereal aisle.

The Box Top products we purchased were Honey Nut Cheerios, Nature Valley granola bars (ones my husband likes), Fiber One Brownies and Yoplait yogurt. Three of the four items we bought are products we’ve tried in the past, but have not been purchasing regularly due to our journey to better eating and cost factors. We tend to make homemade goodies and purchase packaged items when we are traveling.

Out of curiosity I visited Walmart.com to see if Jingit is mentioned or an option when you shop online and I couldn’t see anything while browsing General Mills products. However, if I click on shop Walmart on Jingit’s app page, it will take me to this Walmart page and allow me to shop using Jingit online.

I think the app is great, but as you will note in my Google+ story of our shopping experience, it has its quirks. Technology is amazing.

Support Your School

To support your child’s school and participate in Box Tops for Education start by signing up at Jingit . Then download the Jingit app here for your Android or iPhone.

You can also follow Jingit on Twitter use the hashtag #JingIt4Edu if you mention this app and Facebook as well.

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Jingit #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.’

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Back to School With Boys and Girls Club of America (BGCA)

Posted by Professor on August 10, 2012
in Community Issues, Education, Family Stuff, Giving Back/Charity, News Worthy

Back to school season is here! I know we are in full swing around our house! The children have gathered and packed their school supplies in anticipation of the first day of school…and today we finally got our teacher assignment!

What are some of the things you do to prepare your children to head back to school?

I know we are a fortunate family in being able to clothe and supply our children for the upcoming school year. But we also remember that there are those less fortunate than ourselves and as a family have always participated in programs that assist unfortunate families during the back to school season.

There are many local, national, and global organizations that you can pick from to help the less fortunate…but Boys and Girls Club of America (BGCA) is a great organization that assists children in need.

This year Boys and Girls Club of America (BGCA) and Disney have partnered to launch the Tools for Back to School initiative. This initiative features a pop-quiz style game, where supplies are donated to BGCA for every correct answer you score.

This is a fun way to give back to the community without leaving your home…plus the kids can play too! Here is the link: http://www.bgca.org/backtoschool/Pages/Landing.aspx

I just played the trivia game and got all the answers correct! Can you beat my score? Reminder that each 5 correct answers = school supplies for a club kid!

The BGCA has also partnered with JCPenney – and in August you can join JCP cares and round up your purchase at the register to benefit BGCA. So…take a trip over to your local JCP, get the kids some back to school clothes and a free hair cut (JCP is giving away free haircuts in the month of August). Visit JCP website for more information: http://www.jcpenney.com/dotcom/jsp/browse/marketing/promotion.jsp?pageId=pg40013300014

Well I hope you are getting yourself and your children ready for the start of a new school season! Whether your children are home schooled or attend a traditional school remember that the BGCA website offers different educational content and tip sheets for parents to download and utilize. You can find them on the left hand side of the BGCA site under the ‘Get Ready’ header. You can find these handy tools here:

http://www.bgca.org/backtoschool/Pages/Landing.aspx

BGCA has really outdone themselves with tips for parents and children. I especially like the time management tip sheet that they have available. Do not forget to check the Get Ready section and see if any of the materials can work for you!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Boys and Girls Club. I received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

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Over The Moon – The Broadway Lullaby Project

Posted by Brande on July 29, 2012
in Books, DVDs & CDs, Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giving Back/Charity, Kids Stuff, Music, Parenting, Pregnancy and Birth, Reviews, Shopping

My daughter and I went on an inspiring and peaceful musical journey with Over the Moon – The Broadway Lullaby Project and I invite you to join us. This book and CD are not only fantastic for bed and nap time, it is very calming for adults also.

The Book – Over the Moon - The inside cover says it best…

It’s often said that “a picture speaks a thousand words,” that “music is the universal language,” that “all the world’s a stage,” and that lullabies fill the special place where babies and those who love them come together.

I’ve never read such a true statement. This 48 page hardcover book is beautifully illustrated and written by many artists, each donating their time for the Over the Moon Book and CD. The CD is attached to the back of the book.

The CD - Pop this 2 CD set of 13 songs each in your player. Sit down and close your eyes and let the music take you on a voyage. The calming flow of the music will take you and your little one away on a mini vacation. All the artists on the CD have beautiful melodic voices, including Vanessa Williams.

As is said earlier everyone has donated their time for Over The Moon-The Broadway Lullaby Project, which will raise money for breast cancer charities including the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Yound Survival Coalition.

Visit the Over the Moon Website to purchase your collaboration today! You can also visit them on Facebook and Twitter.

This is such a wonderful book and CD. My daughter and I have listened to the CDs many times and we have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of them. Perfect for a new baby or baby shower gift!

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Back to School Supplies #BagItForward #CBias @Elmers @Walmart

Posted by Theresa Gould on July 19, 2012
in Education, Giving Back/Charity, Uncategorized

We are only a month into summer but school will soon be starting back up again as back to school sales indicate. Most show their teachers appreciate at the end of the school year. Some may not even show their appreciate at all! For shame! But if you forgot to do it a month or two ago, I am going to share a way you can easily do for this back to school session.

As you know, we homeschool, and just like any other family purchasing school supplies is a little like Christmas around here. New glue sticks, new markers, new crayons, new pens and pencil and erasers you can actually find, are a source of rejoicing in our home. Seriously.

The other night my two older daughters and I went out to Walmart at 11:30pm to shop for quality school supplies at low prices for Elmer’s simple service project, which is a campaign supporting teachers by offering a donation of buy 2 school supply items and Bag It Forward to the teacher of your choice. My daughters were tickled to be out a midnight with mom shopping and we had fun.

To help with our shopping experience, I downloaded Elmer’s 1st Day App, which is also available at the school supply list holder. I simply went to the website clicked download and it was quickly downloaded to my iPhone. It is an app to help parents and children to capture the memories of the first day of school. It is available for a free download here. Using the 1st Day App will actually help drive donations to the Kids in Need Foundation which provides funding to teachers and ultimately kids.

We shopped for notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, more notebooks, glue, glue sticks and more pens and pencils.

Our donation gift is not wrapped in pretty paper or anything because our teacher is very practical and did not want wrapping paper or a gift bag wasted when the school supplies were just going on shelves.

This is going to be very weird and out of the norm for me in the giving back projects I usually participate in. My daughter was suppose to write this for me but she slept in! But here’s it is…we chose me as the teacher.

I admit my family doesn’t take time to officially show their appreciation at specific times of the year for all I do, other than Mother’s Day and my Birthday. However, there are little ways all throughout the year they thank me – my husband surprises me with big and little gifts when I least expect it or my oldest daughter will say she’s so thankful she’s homeschooled and will share that gratitude with me. There’s never been a time when we’ve taken our children on a field trip or another place that our children haven’t thanked us. So this simple service project was a way for us to get a jump start in purchasing school supplies for our eight children, as we go through a lot of school supplies. We are very grateful for this opportunity and privileged we have the option to homeschool.

My children woke up to the bags of school supplies yesterday and cheered, “Mom got school supplies!” And were soon asking for new markers and crayons to color.

I am still deliberating over who we could share a bag of school supplies with, as it just doesn’t feel right that we gave to us! Maybe I can call an elementary school and see if there’s a family in need of school supplies and give back that way.

Be sure to visit Bag It Forward on Pinterest, Elmer’s Facebook and Twitter. The Pinterest board has some very creative ideas!

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Elmer’s. #BagItForward #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.”

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Post Bowls of Hope SIMPLE Service Project #PostCFK

Posted by Theresa Gould on July 6, 2012
in Giving Back/Charity, Uncategorized

Last week we went shopping at Walmart for Post Bowls of Hope SIMPLE Service Project #PostCFK. You can see all the photos of my shopping trip here. We purchased two boxes of Post Original Shredded Wheat for our family and Post Honey Shredded Wheat for our local food pantry. We also reached out to our church, homeschool group, food co-op and family. We only had a couple actually respond Due to time constraints and distance, I did give people the option of just donating to their own local food pantry so they could help people in their own towns. Therefore, there may be more who donated but just didn’t let me know. It’s a little disappointing that more are not open and willing to give to those in need. I understand money being tight etc., but we are talking about a donation of less than $5. How many pay that in their Starbucks coffee or a trip to lunch at a fast food restaurant? Give those up for a day and that equals a box of cereal, know what I mean?

We donate to our food pantry several times throughout the year. I have had a box set aside to donate since our last Champions for Kids event. This project gave me the opportunity to finally take those boxes over. My husband and I went over and discovered it was closed due to it being July 4th. I would have thought they’d still be open as the needy still need to eat on the 4th of July too. They have such unique hours – 9-3 on M, W, F – that without a car during the day, it’s hard for me to get over there unless my husband is off from work. Due to my husband not being a able to get home in time today, we are going to take the food over next week. We have a small box of personal care products and a small box of food items.

In the past when I have asked, the food pantry has stated that they have a need for protein, so I would like to add a few cans of tuna to our box to help with that need since I forgot to pick some up last week. We do have two small jars of peanut butter in our box, but that is not a lot. The food pantry just doesn’t receive a lot of protein.

So has this campaign motivated you to help serve those who may be suffering from hunger? If so, please leave a comment and feel free to connect with Post and Champions for Kids at the following links:

Post’s Facebook
Post’s Twitter Handle
CFK’s Twitter Handle
CFK’s Facebook

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.”