Saturday, November 25, 2006

The Spirit of Giving

I love to volunteer and give back to others. Despite my own personal melodrama, I'm always aware of how good my life truly is and I am truly thankful for my family and friends. This as been one of the worst years personally for me, but the love and support of my family and friends has brought renewed clarity on what I have to be thankful for.

Today we went to the Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade where you bring a new gift to donate to Blue Santa. This is the second year we have participated in that. I really want to teach Cole to give to others. He really enjoys picking out a gift to give and donating it.

There are so many charities and organizations and so little time to choose what to do and for whom. I also really want to support our troops. My mom and I donated some tolietries for care packages, but I wanted to do more. I found a website www.troopcarepackage.com that will assign you a soldier(s) to support directly. I asked for two. I've been assigned two troops (a male and a female) both stationed in Iraq. You are encouraged to send letters to the troops. I will let Cole help with this project, as well, I know he will enjoy it. I also found a cool website where you can donate money to a charity of your choice (and receive a bracelet), I donated to the Homes For Our Troops that helps provide housing for our severely disabled returning soldiers www.gi-bracelet.org. I was also sent an e-mail from one of our vendors at work to a cool website www.letssaythanks.com where you can send a postcard to troops stationed overseas.

So this holiday season, look beyond yourself. Giving to others is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

1 comment:

Leah said...

I am so glad that you are teaching Cole to give to others in need. I wish more people took the time to teach their kids how great it is to give than receive. YOU ARE GREAT!!!