Giving back instead of giving to each other!

Hi ya'll!  Serving the the less fortunate is one of my passions!  I'm an active member of Junior League, on the board for Wellspring League - we support and advocate for Wellspring Living, serve on the Academic Committee with Kenya Children's Fun, hold various leadership roles at Buckhead Church, and have traveled internationally to Africa twice and Haiti once.  This summer I am returning to both Kenya and Haiti!  Plus, I have a hard time turning down a volunteer opportunity locally! The reason I give you my service resume is because I think it's really important to impart this to our kids and their generation.  It really helps them get some perspective as well as be grateful for what they do have when they start to sacrifice for others' needs.

We have a few things going on at school to help others and engage your kids!  We are currently collecting books for Mimosa as well as taking giftcard donations to adopt families there.

I have also asked that in lieu of Christmas/holiday gifts for me, that a donation be made to Kenya Children's Fund or Wellspring Living in my honor.  You can donate as little as $1 to feed an orphan for a week in Kenya.  This is a tangible way to our kids how to be a little less selfish around the holidays and see where they can give to others.

I challenge you to talk with your kids and maybe donate a week's allowance towards a giftcard for Mimosa or finding some books in their shelves that are no longer being loved.

When we talked about our Pollution/Recycling unit in science, we also discussed donating our old clothes to someone we know who needs them or to Goodwill.  There are also some cool ways to reuse old things to make new, awesome things. 

Please partner with me and help your child see the value in this! 

Here is the message I sent out:

!  I do not want to seem presumptuous at all, but I would like to honor those less fortunate this season by asking that instead of buying me a gift that parents would donate to one of the charities that I serve, either domestically or internationally.  Civic responsibility and giving back is a really important idea to teach the kids, and this is a tangible way to show them that.   

Wellspring Living: offers rehabilitative services to women and children trapped in CSEC  http://www.wellspringliving.org/donations.php (I serve on the board of Wellspring League – an advocacy group to involve young professionals in the organization)

Kenya Children’s Fund:  we have two schools in one of the top-ten worst slums in the world in Nairobi, Kenya http://www.kenyachildrensfund.org/estore/?c=1  Please realize that no donation is too small – if you would normally spend $5 on a coffee mug for me, there are gifts on here to provide food for an orphan for a week for $1, and increasing.  If you do not like an “alternate gift,” the general donation page is:  https://www.kenyachildrensfund.org/donate/online.php.  I have worked at this school in 2009, 2010, and I am going in May of 2012.  I serve as an educational consultant and on the academic committee with the CEO, managing partner in Kenya, and two collegiate professors.  This organization is very near to my heart, as are the kids in Africa.  It might also be a cool lesson in talking about the gift of education and basic necessities like clean drinking water, a home, and food to eat.  It really gives our children here some perspective and gratefulness for the blessings we abundantly have.