Starbury is a line of clothes started by NBA star Stephon Marbury, in association with athletic clothes company Steve & Barry’s.
Unlike companies that slap a NBA star’s name on a line of clothing and jack up the price many times, Starbury is aimed at keeping high quality athletic clothes affordable so that real fans and the community can enjoy it.
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This coming weekend on Long Island, the Guide Dog Foundation will be having its annual Bike-a-thon. I love to bike and this event is only a short drive from my house, so I’ll be participating with my sweetie Lisa and her brother.
This will be Lisa’s first major biking event since undergoing major surgery only a few months ago, so it’ll be an exciting day for us. And we’re both excited about petting the dogs at the end of the ride than the ride itself 🙂 I’ll try to post some pictures here of the event.
If you’re looking for a great charity to donate to for a tax deduction as the year comes to a close, and if you enjoy this blog, please consider a donation to our donation page:
http://www.active.com/donate/GuideDogFoundation10/LHsieh
Your donations will help two great causes:
The Guide Dog Foundation raises, trains, and provides guide dogs, at no charge, to those who are visually impaired or have special needs. Guide Dogs can be trained to help give these people independence, mobility, companionship, and vastly improve their quality of life.
America’s VetDogs also trains dogs to become guide, service and therapy dogs for disabled veterans throughout the country.
If you’re interested in a great gift, consider going to their online store, where you can get t-shirts, caps, sweatshirts, holiday cards, stuffed animals (like the cute little golden retriever to the right), tote bags, pins, and other great gifts with the Guide Dog Foundation logo.
Thanks for your support for this cause and event that has special significance to me!
UPDATE: here are some pictures from the event!
Lisa and her brother Jack biking for Seeing Eye Dog Foundation. She did great!
Greeting the adult dogs in the kennels
Greeting the adult dogs in the kennels.
The moment I was waiting for all day: Puppies!
Sleepy puppy!
Happy Puppy!
Pensive Puppy!
The day was beautiful, and the turnout was pretty good. We biked around the neighborhoods of Smithtown where the Guide Dog Foundation is located. Afterwards, we were brought on a tour of the Guide Dog Foundation’s facilities. We saw the housing area where people who are adopting guide dogs stay to get trained on how to work with their dogs. We heard about the incredible process it takes to train these dogs, and then saw a bunch of adult dogs-in-training in the kennels, who like all good dogs were very happy to see us. And then the highlight of the day were the PUPPIES! They were the softest, cutest, most adorable creatures I’ve ever seen. They were a little tuckered out (two tour groups had gone before us), but after they shook the sleep from their eyes they were excited and savored the puppy petting almost as much as the humans did.
The bike tour itself wasn’t as polished as others like the MS 150 bike tours, but I didn’t mind that one bit. It just meant that more of my registration money went to help train guide dogs, as opposed to providing bells and whistles for the bikers. I learned that to train just one dog to be suitable to be a guide for a disabled human or a returning veteran, it can cost upwards of $50,000! While they get some donations from corporate sponsors, they also rely on donations from us. Consider clicking on the link above to leave a donation of your own. Do it for the puppies! 🙂
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Oopsy Daisy too Transportation Growth Chart is one of several pieces of wall art for kids that also doubles as a growth chart. This is not your run-of-the-mill paper grow chart. It’s produced by Oopsy Daisy Fine Art for Kids, a San Diego-based company that sells beautiful wall art perfect for households with kids.
Oopsy daisy donates a portion of sales to charities that help to improve kids’ lives, such as The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation, K.I.D.S and ZERO TO THREE.
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Imagine if in your neighborhood, you heard that the little baby girl of your neighbor next door was dying of dehydration because she had diarrhea but her parents didn’t have any clean water in the house for her to drink. Or, that the little baby boy of the neighbor across the street was suffering from pneumonia, but his parents couldn’t afford to drive him to see a doctor for antibiotics.
Let’s say you just bought $10 of bottled water. Or that you filled the car with $10 of gas. And let’s say that was the difference between life and death for these childred. Would you hesitate to give that water away, or to drive that sick child to the hospital?
If you’re reading this, chances are you don’t have to deal with situations like this. Thank God, we, and our neighbors, and our neighbors’ kids are all quite healthy. We don’t have to worry about dying after a bout of diarrhea, or that the cold we catch will become fatal. And yet every day, 24,000 children in the developing world die because of diseases which in our part of the world are easily treatable. That’s 24 thousand a day.
Not all of us can hop on a plane and fly to a country like Bangladesh, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mali, or Malawi and do relief work. And even if we could, most of us wouldn’t have the proper healthcare training nor language skills to be of very much help.
But what we can do is give of our abundance. And a little bit will go a long way. Whatever you send can go towards training new healthcare workers, providing vaccinations, giving diarrhea medicine, setting up nets and medicine to prevent malaria, providing antibiotics for pneumonia, and providing packages for newborn care. It doesn’t have to be a lot. Even if you just text “GOODGOES” to 20222, you’ll be giving $10 for a package of newborn care so a baby can have a healthy start in the world.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Save the Children to join with many other bloggers in spreading the word about a new site of theirs called GoodGoes.org. It’s a site that spreads awareness of healthcare workers in developing areas who just need a little support to be able to save lives. Save the Children, of course, is a 4-star charity as rated by Charity Navigator, meaning that the maximum amount goes towards its programs. Even the marketing campaign to promote GoodGoes.org was provided pro-bono by BBDO. On this site, you can read all about how trifling amounts of donations from us can empower health workers to save lives and better lives in the world’s poorest regions.
He who is given much, much will be expected. Every cause on this site is a great cause, but there are few causes where so little will yield so much immediate help.
I don’t normally offer giveaways on this site, but as part of their blog outreach, Save the Children gave me a very stylish pedometer to give away to one random reader. You clip it onto your belt, and it’ll count the number of steps you take a day. It’s an item symbolic of the distances that local health care workers walk each day to take care of the poor children under their care.
To be eligible for this, just do one of the following:
1) Go to http://www.goodgoes.org/ and click “Like” on the bottom of the page.
2) Link to this post from your blog or Web site (http://www.charitablegiftgiving.com/2010/08/30/save-the-children/). As a bonus, put the link in your reply, which should give your site a little nice boost in the search engines.
3) Become a Facebook fan of GoodGoes.org at http://www.facebook.com/goodgoes
After you’ve done one of these things, come back here and leave a comment (be sure to leave your email address so I know how to contact you if you’re selected, it won’t be published!).
Good luck!
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On April 24, 1978, a secret military mission called Operation Eagle Claw was launched to attempt to save 52 American hostages being held by Iranian fundamentalists. The mission ended in the deaths or severe wounding of 9 Special Operations forces and tragically, 17 small children who no longer had a father and a provider.
It was this incident that started the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping the families of servicemen and women who have been killed or disabled in battle. This charity was rated 4 stars by Charity Navigator, meaning that of about 7% of all major charities, it’s one of the most well-run and fiscally responsible charities.
Since then, wars continue and brave American men and women put their lives on the line each day. Sadly, today, there are more than 800 children of fallen Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps special operations personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country who need your help.
Consider a direct donation to SpecialOps.Org, or visit their Web site to see a number of charitable gifts you can purchase to help the cause, from unique hats and T-shirts, to business services and books.
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It’s that time of year again! Gap
is having its “Friends and Family” promotion. Friends and family of Gap employees, Gap Card holders, and select customers will be able to generate coupon codes for you which will take 30% off any online purchase from August 26 – August 29. In addition, 5% of the purchase will go to a great non-profit organization.
If you can’t find someone to generate you a coupon code to buy online, you can get the same 30% off by visiting a Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Banana Republic Factory Store, or Gap Outlet and bringing a printed copy of one of these coupons:
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For a limited time only (until Saturday August 28, to be exact), if you go to Fuji Water Home Delivery, you can receive an additional 10% off their already discounted monthly recurring order rate for a total savings of up to 30% for home delivery.
As I mentioned in my previous post on Fiji Water, Fiji Water does a good deal for the economy and people of the island of Fiji. Aside from that, it’s really good water. I found myself buying bottles at my company cafeteria every day, and realized that by getting them delivered to my door through mail order I could save a boatload of money.
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Hank’s daughter Kellie was born with Down’s Syndrome. But when her father wrote his autobiography in 1999, Kellie proclaimed that she too wanted to write her autobiography. The result is Kellie’s Book: The Art of the Possible
Kellie’s Book is a great inspiration for anyone with developmental challenges, their families, extended families, providers, and educators. It shows that when children know they are loved & supported, there is no end to what they can achieve and give back by uplifting the lives of those around them. Part of sales proceeds are being donated to The Cedars of Marin, a facility for adults with developmental disablilties.
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When this album was released in 2005, it was very well received and reviewed, receiving Editor’s Picks awards from Time Magazine, NPR, Parenting Magazine, All Music Guide, and many more.
It’s a great album for adults and children alike. Peris’ voice has a high pitched folk singer quality about it. Proceeds have and will continue to go to benefit children’s charities.
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