How do you give back - The Community Service Thread

[BeMyDeputy]

Two years ago I housed two homeless veterans (my cousins; I'm only SO giving) for a month or so. I learned that, at least in California, there are a ton of resources for veterans who need help, but that most of them don't know what's out there. But the best way to find out about these is to look them up on the internet, which is harder to access when you're homeless.

While giving them granola bars is totally awesome and wonderful, you might also want to suggest that they hit a local library for the internet access, and to get an appointment with a social worker at the nearest VA. Of course, VA's are everywhere around here, but not everywhere.

Of course, that doesn't help the fundamental problem that we have a stream of soldiers coming home to no jobs, or the fact that when people leave the military they don't always have the resources to land on their feet and don't know what's out there to catch them if they fall.

But it's something.

[BlondCavalier]

I love s and dogs!

I give to Delta rescue and volunteer at the animal shelter.

Just went to the zoo, love all kinds of animals!

[Finey_McFine]

We do too! We give to the ASPCA and also do volunteer work at the local Animal Rescue Center. In fact, my daughter's Girl Scout troop did a fundraiser last year, raised about $700, went shopping and bought them all kinds of stuff. Dog/cat food, collars, litter, cleaning supplies, etc. They also did a toy drive and personally delivered the toys to Texas Children's Hospital:)

Some great lessons in giving for the girls.

[JustSkipIt]

Well this is a little about my giving back but mostly about someone else giving back. Many of you know Jenny B or BeneathmyWillowTree. She is very giving and very generous. Amazingly so.

A few weeks ago she told me that she really wanted to give me something and that I should think about it. I said please just donate to hungry people but she wanted to do something that would really contribute to me. Then I suggested getting transit maps for Asher because he really loves them. She said yes to that but still wanted to do more. So last night I asked if she would want to pay my registration fee for the Austin Livestrong Half-Marathon TeamLivestrong. She said yes right away and voila. As of last night, I'm registered for the half-marathon next February. I did the half-marathon last February and raised over $900 for Livestrong.org. This year I would like to beat that by a few hundred dollars.

I can't believe her generosity but even more so, her generosity will allow me to raise money for a cause I truly believe in. Thank you, Jenny B for your inspiration and love.

And if anyone wants to contribute, you are welcome to do so at my personal page. It's a long way off so there should be plenty of time to fund raise. I think this year I will really encourage everyone to give even if it's just $5 or $10.

[BeneathMyWillowTree]

Deb - Again I must say thank you. I was truly touched by your words. It makes for a deeper connection between to souls. I value our friendship very much. In saying so I value you as a person. With much love and respect always.

Since I'm here I'll add that I went to see my peeps at the Red Cross today. I had been on hiatus from donating platelets since December 2010. I couldn't believe it had been that long. I was happy to donate after all this time. Of course I didn't miss the physical feeling of it after. Yet at the risk of knowing how I may end up feeling doesn't stop me from doing it. In my book it's a small price to pay. It's the end result that counts. It always counts.

[BeMyDeputy]

Deb & Jenny B: That's totally awesome. I hope the half-marathon goes great.

Not everyone has a lot of time or money to give back. They always seem to be in short supply. But I bet that everyone reading this has access to a computer.

Enter Folding@Home, one of the most painless ways you can make a contribution to medical science. It's a way I give back every day.

Folding@Home is an attempt out of Stanford to let the public help solve computational biology problems. Biologists have collected tons and tons of data about how proteins fold, but don't have the computational power to sort out what it all means. So the Folding@Home project uses people's home computers to crunch numbers and report back.

For the user, the experience is extremely simple. You go to the Folding@Home website and follow the links to download the client. Pick a user name, join a team (might I suggest the Nerdfighters Team, 201140?), and let the program run. It runs in the background and uses computational power your computer has free at the moment to do it's thing. If you drop the program in the Startup folder (Windows), you never have to think about it again: every time you boot your computer, it'll start up. When it's done with one data set, it'll phone home and get a new one. You can even set it up on a PS3.

Understanding how proteins fold is a really big deal. Lots of diseases, including Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, and Parkinson's disease, are thought to involve mis-folded proteins.

I participate in this project because I know how important it is. I'm not part of any lab that benefits directly from this data, but I can say that the processing power donated by the public through this program is hugely valuable. It makes a real difference. And that difference is aimed at some of the scariest problems biology faces.

[JustSkipIt]

Katie - very cool. There was aproject like that to figure more places of pi.

[JustSkipIt]

For many of my friends's birthdays or anniversaries, I make charitable donations. I think most people appreciate it (I do when people do it for me). Two of my friends have birthdays at the beginning of July and usually I donate to the local food bank for their birthdays but this charitystruck me. These two guys are running in an event that covers 500 K (314 miles) over 10 days from Tennessee to Georgia. Like in the crazy hot, starting tomorrow. Anyway, I read a blog from one of them saying he notices how runners will complain if there are only 3 water stops rather than 4 or if it's on the wrong side of the street but that people in Africa can literally die from lack of water or women and children walk hours and hours for water every day. Sometimes they are subject to violence while traveling to get water just to try to stay alive. Anyway, these guys want to raise $5000 for a well. Needless to say I donated for my friends's birthdays and sent them e-mails with the link.

Last week for some other friends's wedding anniversary I donated to Mica 6 of Austin. it's a group that they are involved with that feeds and attempts to clothe homeless people near campus. It's named for Mica 6:8: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God"

[JustSkipIt]

Yesterday I donated to a friend's ride for Tour de Pink. Actually he's my brother-in-law's brother (in Yiddish Mechtuna - in English - relative's relative). It wasn't a lot but I always say that I'll donate to any ride/run/walk someone asks for a donation for unless it's like the NRA or Focus on the Family or something. Then I made a donation for the local food bank for my brother's family. They have been very generous with hand-me-downs for many years and Sunday evening they had an entire car's worth for us. We could have even gotten a loft bed if we had the space for it. I texted my brother and said that we would like to make a donation and would they prefer the food bank or humane society and he said food bank.

Today I will donate blood at our work blood drive if my iron is high enough.

[JustSkipIt]

Yay.my iron was high enough that I could donate blood today.I wanted to donate a double but it turns out there is a height limit and I am barely too short.

[JustSkipIt]

My nephew turned 14 yesterday. We sent him an itunes card and made a donation to oxfam for famine relief. It really puts things in perspective to think about hundreds of thousands of people who may literally starve to death.

[nimloth]

My baby nephew offered me a half trampled upon wild flower growing on the side of the road. He then wrapped his small chubby arms around my leg for a few seconds hugging me affectionately.

He gave love.

Love towards one heart is sufficient for creating love within a whole community.

[JustSkipIt]

Vi - How lovely.

The past two years my work has taken a collection of things for an organization that collect school supplies for homeless students. All the stores here run specials on notebooks and stuff that are limited to 6 per visit or whatever so whenever I was at a store, I bought the maximum. Some were for our family supplies but the rest I took to work and put on the pile for the donations. I think the people at work coordinating it dropped them off a few days ago.

[JustSkipIt]

One of my co-worker home burned to the ground this weekend in the massive fires in Bastrop county. He and his family are staying in a hotel in a nearby town. He was able to open his gates and hope his chickens and other livestock survived and they have nothing. Many people who were evacuated answered the door and were told to leave now. Not take 3 minutes to get an album or phone charger or computer backup. Pick up your kids and leave. Now. Over 500 houses are gone and the fires in some areas are 0% contained. Another co-worker has 20 relatives and their pets staying at her apartment right now as they have all been evacuated.

I'll be donating cash to buy gift cards for the coworker whose house burned down and making donations to the Red Cross later this week. If you are so inclined organizations in Central Texas needing donations include Red Cross of Central Texas, Austin Pets Alive, and Austin Humane Society.

Also, any prayers for rain would help.

[Finey_McFine]

I just made a donation to the local Red Cross here in Houston to assist with the people displaced by the fire in Magnolia. I also signed up to volunteer if necessary.

They literally saved my life after Hurricane Andrew back in 1992. We lost everything and had it not been for them, we would have been living in our smashed up Geo Metro with six cats and a dog under an overpass. Every little bit counts!

[JustSkipIt]

We made a donation to the Austin Human Society this week to help with relief for the animals affected by the Bastrop complex fires. Each of the kids volunteered to donate $3 of their money and we added more (of course). My sister also sent me an e-mail that she made a donation to the same organization for my upcoming birthday.

Finally I have a close friend who is leading a volunteer effort of Belly Dancers called Glitter gives Back to make bags of supplies for women who are displaced by domestic violence. I made a donation yesterday to sponsor a bag or two and sent her an e-mail saying how proud I am of her work.

[JustSkipIt]

It's not me giving but my birthday is tomorrow and my brother and his family made a donation to the local food bank in my honor. While I didn't do the giving, I will say that I have worked hard to encourage people to give me charitable donations rather than "real" birthday presents. Yay - they took the advice.

[BeneathMyWillowTree]

Stopped by at the Red Cross on September 16th for a platelet donation. On the 24th I went to donate blood. I thought I'd drop a pint instead of having one.

[Ariel]

Blood is a real gift of life, so is food . . . damn! I've been hanging in the Buffyverse all right! I'm seeing Spike chowing down at Giles' house!

Me, I give money to a charity in Fresno, Povarello House, they provide meals, clothes, showers, drug rehab and clinic care of the poor and homeless. Beautiful energy. Also to a school and to the REACH program which helps poor folks pay for their gas and electricity.

Also do an Earth Day clean up and a few odds and ends. Should do more. There are some very big hearts in this community! *smile*

Ariel
How I Met Your Mother

[JustSkipIt]

I donated platelets today (double). It was my first donation since December of January. Last year I set the goal to donate 20 times and I think I made it. But this year I haven't been as good because it's really hard to get time off work. Anyway, I did a double today. It took like 88 minutes but I'm glad I did it.

Also, I donated $20 to a friend's juvenile diabetes walk this week.

[JustSkipIt]

I'll be running the 2012 Austin Livestrong Half-Marathon with Team Livestrong again this year, trying to raise $1000 to fight cancer. If you'd like to sponsor me I would appreciate anything you choose to give.

By the way, Jenny B paid my race registration through her own giving back.

[CrazyTaraWitch]

In the past, some of my family on my mum's side have given donations in each others' names for birthdays and Christmases, and one year I gave a donation to Planned Parenthood for my sister and stepmum's Christmas present, but it's never been a consistent thing I hadn't given anything significant in a couple of years. Last night I saw a video from back in March that David Tennant, one of my favourite actors and heroes, made for Red Nose Day, an annual UK comedy relief event to raise money for charities, and it inspired me. The event's focus for this past year was on the poor health of Ugandans, particularly cataracts and malaria and how they affect children's lives. I had wanted to donate a whole 150 pounds as that's the cost of one cataract removal surgery for a child, but it was a bit beyond my means at the moment so I calculated $10 for everyone I would otherwise buy a Christmas present for or who has a birthday in the next couple of months that I would normally give a present and came up with $150, so I threw in a few bucks for myself and donated 100 pounds; not a whole cataract removal surgery for a child, but alternately it could be 3 such surgeries for an adult or 20 mosquito nets to decrease the risk of malaria. I wish I hadn't spent so much money recently on fun stuff so that I could have done more, but it feels good to know I did *something*.
Plus now I don't have to worry about Christmas shopping, score!

For anyone who would like to see the video, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb3KEw9VE1M

[JustSkipIt]

Jas - That's awesome!

Asher and I are going tomorrow morning to volunteer at a half/full marathon locally. It will be his first time to volunteer and he's quite excited about it. We'll be at the finish line handing out medals or directing the full marathon folks where to run next.

[JustSkipIt]

I got an email that the A+ blood supply is low in town so I made an appointment to go donate tomorrow afternoon. I just ate some salmon. I hope my iron is high enough.

In other news, I've raised $804 of my $1000 goal for Team Livestrong to fight cancer. (hint, hint...)

[JustSkipIt]

My iron was 39 so I was able to donate blood today.

[BeneathMyWillowTree]

Showing my love to the Red Cross fosho!

On January, 5th I donated platelets.

On January, 19th I donated platelets.

Today I donated blood.

This year I am trying to reach the max amount of times I may donate for both blood and platelets.

Very important note it's still not too late for y'all to drop some dollars down Deb's way. She's been training very hard. Doing her thing for a very worthy cause. Every little bit helps believe that. You heard it from me.

Mucho paz y amor!

[JustSkipIt]

Jenny B - Thanks so much for the shout-out. Awesome job donating blood/platelets. I'm confused though. Wouldn't doing platelets every 2 weeks maximize your donations more? Now you can't donate either for 8 weeks, right? A few years ago I did platelets 20 or 22 times in the year to meet my own personal challenge but it really took time and commitment.

My friend Becky's father passed away last week. Rachel and I went to the funeral on Sunday to support her and today I made a donation to the food bank in his memory.

[JustSkipIt]

A Team member on Livestrong posted that she was $6 short of $1000 so I fulfilled that.

Wednesday at work the guy who sits in the next cube said "can I ask you something?" I said yes and he said "you do a lot of charity work right?" Then went on to say that he wants to get more involved in making a difference and what do I recommend. I kept thinking, "am I that person?" I hope so! I hope I am the person that does enough charity work (I wish I did more) that people come to me for advice. I basically said to think about his strengths, his interests, and what is important to him. I think he is going to start with the food bank. You can't really go wrong that way.

[BeneathMyWillowTree]

I am super stoked that I was able to donate platelets today. I ended up giving a double unit. I plan on stopping by the Red Cross again in 2 weeks maybe even 1 week to do it again.

Deb - As I'm sure you know you can donate platelets up to 24 times in one year. You may donate every seven days. I tend to go every 2 weeks cos the process has it's effects on me at times. They monitor my red blood cell loss count. If I reach a certain amount within a certain time then I'll be deferred for weeks.

[JustSkipIt]

Jenny B - It sounds like the rules there are a little different from here. Here you can give platelets up to 24 times a year also. If you donate platelets, you can donate them again 10 days later (still only up to 24 times a year) or you can donate blood 10 days later. BUT if you give blood, you can't give either blood or platelets again for 56 days. So I donated blood in January 8th so I can't give either platelets or blood until March 8th.