This is a must-see video and charity.
Pig for a Day
Here is a story that would make just about anyone smile.
At a recent Rock County 4-H Fair in Wisconsin, one boy auctioned off the pig that he raised to help his teacher. His teacher had quit her teaching job to work for Beat NB and to help her own niece who was battling cancer. At the fair, his pig fetched quite a nice amount of money, but then those bidding on it turned around and sold it back so that it could be auctioned again. In total, the pig, which he thought would help to raise about $600, raised $10,000 instead!
Read the entire story and enjoy.
Fighting Cancer Through Clothes
This is a beautiful idea. Take a look at the thrift shop that helps to fight cancer.
How Americans Are Giving
This is a fascinating article about the widening gap between rich and poor…and how much charity they give. It also shows interesting trends about Millenials, cryptocurrency donations and more. Check out the article and see what you think.
Walking for Mental Health Awareness
Kev Carr is raising money and awareness about mental health issues. As a private in the Royal Logistics Corp and someone who served in Iraq in 2003, Carr was diagnosed with PTSD. He is heading out on a 1000 mile hike across America for the charity group Walking With The Wounded. He is leaving for the States now, along with two other other British and three American veterans as they walk from Los Angeles to New York.
The trek is actually being backed by Walking With The Wounded patron Prince Harry. To get a spot on the walking team, Mr. Carr had to pass through a strict selection process and an interview. He said, “I have mixed emotions about the walk as this is one of the biggest things I have ever done and it means a lot to me.”
Biking to Make a Difference: Brennan Besser
Starting on May 16 and ending 3400 miles later across the United States, Brennan Besser will be biking his way towards raising money. He is biking from Seattle to New York and hopes to hold basketball clinics along the way to raise a total of $1 million for the Walk On America Foundation.
As he explains, “What we’re hoping to do is shine a light on a part of the American community that doesn’t have that strong of a voice.”
Where did he get this idea? Besser’s older sister, Jacqueline, is nonverbal and impaired in her motor skills and communication. He wants others to understand ways to deal with adversity and he’s doing so by traveling, typically 60 miles a day with a team of 3-5 people.
Rapper Using His Talent to Raise Money
Here is a lovely idea. In Lexington, Kentucky, a local rapper and activist, Devine Carama, is combining his talent, his teaching and his love of giving in a beautiful way. In order to teach students to create change through music, he joined with professor Bryan Hains to teach student to write rap. For their final exam, 21 students created a hip-hop EP that highlighted challenges under-deserved communities face. The album will benefit Operation Making A Change.
See here for more details.
Amazing What One Student Can Do
It’s amazing what one child with a lot of energy can do. Brooke Dubois, a high school student from Massachusetts, collected 1500 pounds of donated clothes as part of the Lapels Dry Cleaning annual drive. The drive benefits the Big Brothers Big Sisters in the area.
As only a high school freshman, she started to get the word out to everyone she knew. Donations were either dropped at her house or she picked them up from others.
As she said, “I’m so happy we were able to get that many donations but what was really cool was how supportive friends and family were in helping this cause. In a way, it almost made me forget that I was trying to beat Josh. Almost.”
Her goal was to collect more clothes for the drive than her brother did in 2016, when he came in with 1398 pounds. And she reached her goal.
The participating stores reached a whopping 16,093 pounds of clothes collected. This is the highest amount they’ve collected in the 14 years that they’ve been doing the drive.
Now, all of the donated clothing will be sold through various channels. The money from those sales will help to fund mentoring programs for young girls and booys.
American Airlines Raises Money for ALS Research
After so much bad publicity for various airlines, it’s not to have something good to say. American Airlines recently raised $800,000 for Answer ALS through their second annual American Airlines Charity Gold Tournament which took place in Dallas, Texas on May 24-25.
As their chairman and CEO Doug Parker said,
“We are proud to partner with Answer ALS on behalf of all American team members, including Peter Warlick, vice president – Finance, who was recently diagnosed with ALS. Peter is a champion for all American team members fighting this disease. And we believe there is a real opportunity to bring attention to orphan diseases, like ALS, that require additional awareness and fundraising support in order to bring them to an end. It means a great deal to the American family to host this event in our hometown.”
More than 200 people came together to play golf and to raise money to help with research for ALS. These included former NFL Safety for the New Orleans Saints, Steve Gleason. Gleason was diagnosed with ALS in 2011. As Gleason, who took his first commercial flight in four years to attend the event said, “We know if we are going to find solutions to ALS, a disease with no known cure, or viable treatment, we have to be bigger than the disease. But, I hear everything is bigger in Texas, so, this is right in your wheelhouse. I believe it is a pivotal time for ALS.”
In 2016, American Airlines announced that they would have a multi-year financial commitment of $1 million to the Answer ALS project through the ALS Foundation. The golf tournament funds are in addition to that commitment.
There are six clinical sites for the Answer ALS project. They include: Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Washington University, Ohio State University, Emory University and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Join in the Zumba for a Good Cause
It’s such a great idea when people combine charitable giving with doing something healthy for themselves. That’s what the Zumbathon Charity Event in Saratoga Springs, New York will soon be doing as they open their doors to a Zumbathon to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. The event will take place on April 9th at the Saratoga Springs High School gymnasium.
There will be at least ten local Zumba instructors dancing with people to raise money. The local Zumbathon was started last year by Zumba instructor Mayumi Kato of the Saratoga Regional YMCA.
The event last spring was a hit. As Kato explained, “We were very excited to see so many participants at our very first event,” which raised $2000.
She continued, “It could not have been done without participants, instructors who donated their talent and time on the stage, many local businesses that donated their products as raffle prizes, and Kivort Steel Team to accommodate us at a great venue, the Saratoga High School Gym.”
When discussing this year’s event, Kato said, “We think that our community looks forward this type of event where we all can smile, dance, sweat together for a great cause, especially during the winter.”
Discussing the event, Nicole DeCelle, market executive director of both Albany and Central New York for the American Diabetes Association, said
“We are honored that Mayumi and the Kivort Steel Cycling team are bringing back their Zumbathon in 2017. It was a tremendous success last year, as well as a great deal of fun. We are continually amazed and grateful for the support of folks like Mayumi and the creative ways in which they help raise funds and awareness for the Tour de Cure and the fight to stop diabetes. There are more than 2 million New Yorkers living with diabetes and it’s thanks to the funds raised through events like the Zumbathon, teams like Kivort Steel and riders like Mayumi that the ADA is able to continue our work in improving the lives of those impacted by diabetes and to ultimately find a cure.”