Charitable Gift Giving

We surf the Web to find good products that help out a great cause.

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Barat Cheese that is delicious and supports a great cause

April 19th, 2008 · Conservation, Cooking.Com

igourmet 8-oz. BaratIf you’ve never been to the beautiful area of Dutchess County, New York, you’re missing out. While everyone thinks of New York as skyscrapers and business, this area is a quiet, beautiful, bucolic place. You see beautiful fields, quietude, and yes, happy cows.

It’s these happy cows that produce this igourmet 8-oz. Barat cheese. Barat cheese is a cheese that not many people know about, as it hasn’t been mass-produced like Cheddar or American. But it is an amazing cheese that has a delicious, nutty taste. It’s very much like cheddar, only intentionally drier. It’s the perfect compliment to white wine, light ale and cider.

 What’s great aobut this cheese is that it supports the educational programs run by the farm that produces it, Sprout Creek Farm. This farm doesn’t just produce dairy products, it provides young people the opportunity to enjoy a fun and educational time at a real working farm, taking care of animals, cooking in a fully-equipped kitchen, relaxing with crafts, or working in their organic gardens. For more information on Sprout Creek Farms, see here: 

http://www.sproutcreekfarm.org/education/education.html

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Yellow Bracelets from Lance Armstrong

April 16th, 2008 · Cancer, Discovery Channel Store, Lance Armstrong Foundation

Lance Armstrong Live Strong Adult Wristband Set of 10
You’ve seen people wearing these wristbands all over the place. Here’s the one that started it all.

The Lance Armstrong Live Strong Adult Wristband Set of 10 is a low-cost way for you and 9 other people to show your support for the fight against cancer. All proceeds benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation to help young people with cancer live healthy, happy, and strong.

Be careful where you buy these things. As amazing as it sounds, some less-than-reputable stores will sell these–and pocket the proceeds for themseves! So be sure to go through a reputable store like this one (the Discovery Channel Store) when you buy these.

Each wristband is made of strong silicone rubber, and comes in youth and adult sizes. It makes a fantastic party favor, gift for clients, or way to share Lance Armstrong’s message with your family and friends.

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Life is Good – A Book from Deen Koontz's Dog

April 13th, 2008 · Amazon, Canines for Independence

You’ve heard of Dean Koontz, you may have even read some of his suspense novels.

Life is Good is a book by Trixie Koontz–Dean Koontz’s golden retriever. It’s a cute gift not just for Koontz fans, but for dog fans in your life.

Cute, touching, and beautifully done without being corny or sappy, it’s a book of “tips” on how to live life from the point of view of Trixie Koontz. It’s a great reminder to live every moment of your life with joy and wonderment. There are even “edits” in the margins of the book where Trixie wrote her passing thoughts.

Best thing about it–all of the proceeds of the book goes to Canine Companions for Independence.

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The Body Shop Daisy Soap

April 10th, 2008 · Domestic Violence, Fair Trade, The Body Shop

The Body Shop soapThe Body Shop Daisy Soap is a fantastic moisturizing soap from The Body Shop. It contains glycerin, which is a powerful moisturizer which helps improve softness and maximize hydration, and shea butter, which moisturizes and helps soften the skin.

It not only makes your skin feel great, it helps TWO great causes.

First, proceeds from every bar of Daisy Soap will go to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, helping women who are the victims of domestic violence and empowering them to end this terrible scourge.

Second, the soap contains daisy extract and Community Trade shea butter from Ghana. Shea butter is one of the best moisturizers in nature. Women in Ghana have used it over the generations to protect their skin from the dry winds of the Sahara desert. The Body Shop works with the Tungteiya Shea Butter Association in Northern Ghana, which is an association of around 400 women from 10 villages.

Under “fair trade” principles, they ensure a fair price for their product, allowing the women to dramatically change their lives with water pipes and wells saving hours of water collecting, better housing, medical care, food, and self esteem. They are also able to give their children, particularly their daughters and the chance to go to school.

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Container gardening drainage discs for the bottom of flower pots and planters

April 7th, 2008 · Amazon

If you know someone grow plants in containers, this is a must-have!

Whenever I’ve had potted plants, I’ve always used flower pots that had drainage holes.
I’ve actually never known what to do with pots that had no holes in the bottom of them. It wasn’t until recently that I learned that people put rocks or clay chips in the bottom of pots to help with drainage.

These PotHoles Drainage Discs for Flower Pots provide a perfect solution. Just put them on the bottom of planters, and the hydroponic filler provides the perfect amount of drainage and oxygen flow to maintain the right amount of moisture in plants and eliminate the mess of soil getting through drainage holes. They’re reusable too.

A portion of all sales will be donated to lung cancer research in honor of Christine Burge, inventor of PotHoles who passed away from non-smoking lung cancer in January 2007.

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Locks of Love Bear

April 4th, 2008 · Locks of Love

One of the charities these days with the most “buzz” (no pun intended, at least not one which I’ll admit) is Locks of Love.

This is a non-profit organization that helps disadvantaged children under 18 who suffer from hair loss, for example from the auto-immune disorder alopecia (which has no known cause or cure) or from chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

Many people donate their hair to Locks of Love. The organization will accept hair cut to a minimum of 10 inches. This hair is used to make hairpieces for children.

For those of us with shorter hair, Locks of Love accepts donations. These funds are used to defray the costs of making the hairpieces and distributing them to children who need them.

Another way to support the organization is by purchasing this cute little bear, a portion of which will go to support Locks of Love.

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Gift Book of Beautiful California Scenery

April 1st, 2008 · Amazon, Conservation

beautiful california scenery photographyCalifornia Wild is an amazing book filled with some of the most beautiful nature photography of California you’ll ever see. It makes a great gift for anyone in your life who appreciates stunning nature photography or the beauty of California.

The book is a large, 11 x 10 x 1 inch book, but as Signals said, it far transcends anything you’ll find in an ordinary coffee table book or book of nature photography.

The book’s photos and its writing take you on a tour of mountains and forests, deserts and seashores, grasslands, lakes, and rivers. It lets you view these beautiful vistas in all seasons, looking at the most beautiful views you’ll ever see from the highest mountaintop down to sea level with the Pacific surf.

A portion of the proceeds from purchasing this book is being donated to help preserve California’s wilderness areas.

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Write Letters to your Baby – a Great Gift for Moms-to-Be

March 29th, 2008 · Amazon, Our Little Haven

Here’s a great gift for the new mommy or mommy-to-be in your life. It’s called Mommy Journal – Letters to Your Child.

While a lot of new parents have grand plans for capturing every special moment in their child’s life in the form of a scrapbook or a detailed journal, the reality is that the work of just being a Mom takes up so many hours in the day that many scrapbooks are left unfinished and even unstarted.

The Mommy Journal is a perfect solution for Moms to record the special moments of childhood. Whenever a special moment happens, just take five minutes to jot down the moments you want to remember forever.

Cute illustrations of toys, hearts, and animals, as well as tidbits parenting wisdom, are on each page. There are also instructions for fun activities moms can do with their children.

It’s an amazing gift for yourself, as well as to your child after he or she grows up.

The author, Tracy Broy, is the mother of two and the president of the Purple Cat Company. A portion of the profits from The Mommy Journal are being donated to Our Little Haven, a foundation for children who have been neglected or abused, or who were born drug-addicted or with HIV.

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Loose Tea Leaves (Jasmine, Apple, and Green Tea)

March 26th, 2008 · Amazon, City Harvest

Loose Tea Leaves Nothing beats steeping loose tea leaves in a teapot. And these Loose Tea Leaves are extra special.

The leaves are a comination of jasmine, apple, and green tea. The combination of the sweet apple and jasmine bouquet combined with the freshness of Chinese & Indian green tea makes for a crisp and clean tea drinking experience.

20% of proceeds of sales for this product will go to City Harvest, a nonprofit organization that picks up excess food from restaurants, caterers, cafeterias, and others, and feeds the hungry and homeless.

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The Last Place on Earth

March 23rd, 2008 · Conservation, National Geographic

The Last Place on Earth Two-Volume Box Set
The Last Place on Earth Two-Volume Box Set is a remarkable gift set from National Geographic that documents one of the last pristine and undeveloped areas in central Africa: the 2000 mile stretch from Congo’s deep forests to Gabon’s pristine sea shore.

National Geographic photographer Michael ”Nick” Nichols and ecologist Mike Fay took a grueling 456-day voyage and captured on film this stunning set of photographs in an effort to preserve amazing wildlife that, with increasing industrialization, will not be there anymore in a few years.

The work was so significant it caused the government of Gabon to set aside 11 percent of the country’s interior rain forest as national parkland, creating 13 new national parks to protect virgin lands and wildlife.

This book is a joint venture between the National Geographic Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society and all proceeds go to Congo basin forest conservation. 

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