John has much experience working in the philanthropic world, and takes great interest in charitable goings on today.

The Valerie Fund

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By JohnPosted In: Charity Activity, Childrens CharitiesTagged: , ,

When nine-year old Valerie Goldstein passed away after a battle against cancer, her parents Ed and Sue didn’t want her death to be forgotten.  They thus established the Valerie Fund, back in 1976, in her memory.  The fund’s aim is to “provide support for the comprehensive health care of children with cancer and blood disorders.”

Thirty-five years after its founding, there are today, seven Valerie Fund Children’s Centers for Cancer and Blood Disorders located in tri-state hospitals which offer comprehensive health care to over five thousand children and their families every single year.  This makes up the biggest network of healthcare facilities for children with cancer and blood disorders throughout New Jersey, making it one of the largest in the country, with more than 25,000 patient visits annually.

The Valerie Fund seeks to treat the “whole patient” and the “whole family.”  This means that it focuses not just on the physical needs of the individual, but also their emotional needs.  And since cancer impacts the entire family as well, the Valerie Fund notes that and provides support and counseling for siblings and parents as well.

ThanksUSA Helps Military Families

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ThanksUSA evolved in quite an interesting way.  Two sisters, Rachel and Kelsi, were on a family vacation in August 2005 when they got the idea to help families of military troops.  While participating in a treasure hunt, they were inspired to think of creating some type of a treasure hunt program for soldiers.  ThanksUSA is short for “Treasure Hunt Aiding Needs of Kids and Spouses of those serving the United States of America.”

ThanksUSA is a non-partisan, charitable organization that mobilizes Americans to thank those in the armed forces.  They have two interconnected programs.  They have a national treasure hunt that raises awareness and funds for scholarship programs.  They use the money raised to provide need-based college, technical and vocational school scholarships for children and spouses of those who are serving.

This year, the 2011 Stephen Curry ThanksUSA Charity Golf Tournament will focus on ThanksUSA and benefit the organization.  Participants will include NBA star Stephen Curry and other sports and entertainment VIPs, local community leaders, military people and more.  The event will take place on September 26, 2011 at the Presidio Golf Club in San Francisco, California.

Serving Our World

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By JohnPosted In: Childrens CharitiesTagged: , ,

Serving Our World is a vital non-profit organization that seeks to place the far too many young girls and boys in loving, safe, protected homes.  These children have been horrifically exploited in some way or another; from exploitation to rape, and even being trafficked.

Making a donation to Serving Our World will actually “change the course of their lives; help us rescue more children today before it’s too late.”  For example, in Thailand, the statistics show a child is lost to some kind of horror every four minutes.  Long-term goals of the organization is to “build long-term community benefits for the people in East Timor and Thailand.”  It has over 18 years’ experience in this field so it can “bring relief to the families where it is needed most.”

Serving Our World is now asking volunteers to support its efforts by joining the Serving Our World family The Good Life Home.  This is a “haven…where children can be safe to play, with grounds enough for them to be a kid and play with friends.”  All donations will make a huge difference.  Remember:  these children are worth it and deserve a chance at a normal, happy, healthy life.

Women’s Environmental Network

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By JohnPosted In: EnvironmentTagged: , , ,

The Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) is a UK-based organization set up to “educate, empower, and inform” those to whom the environment is important.  One of its main activities in this realm is campaigning on environmental and health issues, but from a woman’s point of view.  Formed in 1988, the WEN seeks to connect women, health and the environment.

Environmental Issues

According to its website, the WEN has worked out that with today’s huge amount of consumption, three planets would be necessary to adequately sustain our needs.  Given that this is due only to increase, soon five planets would be needed as figures shown the population will exceed nine billion by 2040.

Women and the Environment

So the question that is to be asked, is why is this so much more of an issue for women than men?  Apparently, this is because women comprise 66 percent of those impacted by “climate-related disasters in developing economies.”

What’s also sad is that fewer and fewer individuals are connecting these days to “simple pleasures like communal outside spaces and growing their own food.” So there needs to be a change in the way in which we are living.

Women Green Pride

On the flip side of all of this, there is actually a lot being done in this realm, especially by women in the UK.  For example, there is a bunch of groups led by women who “every day, take conscious actions to consume less, to use resources more effectively, to raise awareness at grass roots levels about climate change and to engage women and men in community-based projects such as allotments and orchards.”  So there is much being done.  But there is obviously also, still much more that can be done too.

How Turn2us Works

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By JohnPosted In: Charity in BusinessTagged:

Turn2us is a great organization for charities that don’t know where to begin when it comes to fundraising. It sets out to facilitate and assist the charities’ access the financial resources that are available to them.  Turn2us offers a free website that was designed to help in exactly this realm: to “find appropriate sources of financial support, quickly and easily, based on your particular needs and circumstances.”

Green Fingers

Currently, one of the charities’ Turn2us is working to assist is the Gardening for Disabled Trust which is “an entirely voluntary organization offering grants to people with physical or mental disabilities living anywhere in the UK to help them to continue to garden.”  One individual – known here as Barry – wrote a thank you letter to the charitable organization, detailing his experiences, supplementing his words with photos of his garden.  He wrote, “Thank you, for providing the means to create a garden which is available to the wheelchair.  We have had so much joy from planning the plants to grow, gardening and watching everything happening in the new beds.  It has overwhelmed us and we are really thrilled.”  For most of his life, Barry has been dealing with the “side effects of n inoperable brain tumor.”

The fact that Turn2us is able to make things easier for such worthy organizations, means that these charities are able to focus more on the work at hand – helping these needy individuals get a better life, as in the case of Barry and many others.

Barnardo’s Gains Government Assistance

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The children’s charity organization, Barnardo’s, has just received a pledge from the British government for nationwide monetary support for its care leavers.  Barnardo’s is committed to children and it “believes in children, no matter who they are.”  Further, Barnardo’s states that it believes in “the potential of every child and young person, no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through.”

Million Pound Saving Scheme

According to George Osborne – MP for Tatton and Chancellor of the Exchequer – the British government  has promised care leavers substantial backing, in the realm of £5 million, that will go towards a savings account scheme.

Barnardo’s has worked hard to get this support.  Indeed, it developed a campaign with Action for Children in an attempt to “urge the Government to review provisions for children in care.”  Osborne committed to this, saying that it was due to the announcement made in October 2010, of a tax-free children’s savings account.  This will be available in the autumn.

Children Getting Care

According to Osborne, the Action for Children organization along with Barnardo’s suggested these accounts be put towards children in care and their savings.  Osborne also added, “I know these children face particular challenges and I can tell the House the Department for Education will work with others to make the necessary funding available to ensure we can provide the support they deserve.  We will work with the charities and interested parties to develop detailed proposals, funded by the government, so that Junior ISAs can best support these children.”

Believe in Miracles

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Nurses Seeing Miracles

Even if at first you don’t believe in medical miracles, there are stories such as the ones below told by a veteran nurse, that might make you think again. Janna Bullock, an RN, MSN affiliated with Mattel children’s Hospital, UCLA, could probably confirm similar stories as well. Nurses see these miracle stories every single day which is probably what makes their job – although extremely difficult – incredibly demanding.

Nurses: A Calling in Life

Many of these nurses believe that their job is way more than just a job; they just see so many incredible things the whole time that it becomes their calling in life. That is how Janna Bullock feels. When you are in a room with a woman giving birth and the monitor shows the loss of a fetal heartbeat and 10 minutes later the doctors and nurses pull out a perfectly healthy baby, you have to believe in miracles and cannot possibly just go home and act as if nothing happened to you that day.

Miracles: Part of a Nurse’s Everyday Events

This particular nurse tells of how she even saw her own teenage child recover TWICE from what doctors thought was a terminal cancer and is now a healthy young adult. There have been a whole handful of individuals she has seen being treated at the hospital for deadly diseases who have recovered and have left the hospital, to go on to lead a normal, pain-free-life that no one thought possible. This is clearly a miracle. You just need to look at those who have overcome tragedy to believe in miracles, but being a nurse helps. And that’s why Janna Bullock loves her vocation so much; it is a way of life to watch these miracles on such a regular basis and she wouldn’t change it for the world.

Nurses: The Miracle Onlooker

Nurses aren’t there to make diagnoses. They just sit on the sidelines and watch the doctor. But what they do see – time and again – are the errors in these diagnoses, not because the doctor is bad or incompetent, but more because they just don’t know. They don’t know what miracle is around the corner. And that is what is so great and rewarding about being a nurse; you get to witness it firsthand.

The Poor In England Pay More For Basic Services

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By JohnPosted In: Save The ChildrenTagged: , , , , , , , ,

According to a Save the Children research study, Poor families in England are being overcharged by approximately $2,060 a year more for basic needs .

Utility bills are almost 30% higher since the lower income generally use prepayment meters instead of direct debit. They pay as much as three times the real price for items such as cookers by getting them on rental purchase. In addition, insurance is also more expensive because they live in high-crime neighborhoods, Save the Children discovered.

Martin Lewis, a financial expert who helped with the study explained that: “It is ridiculous but true – it costs more to be poor.” He said that poor people don’t have access to the web to obtain information about banking and money saving tips

Sally Copley of Save The Children, explained that families who live on less than $20,000 per year are being charged more for heating. In order to save heating costs families don’t heat when they don’t absolutely have to. Copley said that: “There is a clear link between living in cold, damp conditions for long periods and children’s health being put at risk.”

Football Feeds The Hungry

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By JohnPosted In: Feeding AmericaTagged: , , , , , , ,

The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl was played at the San Francisco AT&T Park. It raised enough money to sponsor more than 20 million meals to Feeding America. The Second Harvest Food Bank in the South Bay is a subsidiary of Feeding America.

Before the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, the University of Nevada and Boston College teams served meals to the needy in San Francisco while dressed in their team jerseys.

The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl took place with a cold temperature of 45 degrees. One meal was donated for every ticket sold and the game was almost sold out in spite of the cold weather.

Restava Donating To Feed The Hungary

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Feeding-America1Feeding America reports that one sixth of all Americans contend with hunger. Feeding America is a charity whose mission is to feed that hungry. It helps in all 50 states and has more that 200 foodbanks nationwide.

Restava, a mattress company, chose to support feeding America. It chose Feeding America because it is an American charity and Restava is an American company, with American workers who love their country. Every dollar given to Feeding America helps provide seven meals to hungry people.

Restava will donate one dollar to Feeding America for every mattress purchased. In addition, Restava will match customer contributions up to $10. So purchase of one mattress can bring $21 to feed 147 people.