Please help Fran Dowd's message live on

On March 17, 2014 the world lost a great man, Francis Dowd, after his battle with Leukemia.  Fran touched the hearts of so many people in his spirit of giving, and provided us with the definition of what it means to be a husband, father, and friend.

His life was filled with so many acts of kindness for others and he and his family has had such a battle to face over the last year.  In the memory of Fran let us (as a community) give back to his wife and three children.  Let us help alleviate some of the stress and giant costs that are associated with lossing someone through cancer and Leukemia.

Donations will be given to Trisha, Jack, Joey, and Lauren Dowd to help pay for some of the hospital bills, funeral costs, and whatever they need to help get them back on their feet again.

To Donate please follow the link below.

http://www.gofundme.com/7z67c4

Ferncreek Elementary

Today I am starting to raise money and food again for Ferncreek Elementary.  I started this back in November and have raised $200 of the $1,000 goal for the school.  Click here to donate A total of $400 of food has been donated thus far and will be a on going continuous project.  The kids are in constant need of food.  The shelves that I show below are enough supplies for 1 week out of the year.  This is a good indication on how much food is needed for these children.

I will be dropping off boxes at local businesses to help raise awareness and food for this school.  If you would like to have one of these boxes at your place of business please let me know.  Here is a list of supplies they try to provide to each student for a weekend snack pack.

 

Click here to donate

Happy 2014!!!

I have just returned from Asia, and am extremely grateful for the opportunity to see so many new people and places.  I have been thinking a lot about New Years resolutions.  I am wondering how many people have already forgotten about theirs.  The other question that I have been pondering is why we do so much giving over the month's of November and December and then seem to stop and forget about it when January rolls around.  I am hoping to use this month to help spread the word and find more opportunities to continue to keep the giving spirit that we had during the holiday season.

Today I was given a charity from my yoga teacher Paul Dallaghan.  He is asking to spread the word about an important charity to him.  The charity is Children in CrossFire (http://www.childrenincrossfire.org).  It is embraced by the Dali Lama and has a vision of making a world where young children can realize their potential.  The founder is Richard Moore who was blinded at the age of 10 by a rubber bullet.  Today I ask you to make a donation to this charity or find an organization and charity that you love to give to.  Let's keep the holiday giving spirit throughout the entire year of 2014.

Ferncreek Elementary

This year I have decided to raise money and supplies for Ferncreek Elementary.  This school is right in my neighborhood.   I find it crazy that 20-25% of their students are homeless and 90-95% of the students are eligible for Free / Reduced lunch. 

Please click on the link below and read what they need.  I will collect any food or clothing you want to donate.  Simply contact me and I will schedule a way to pick it up from you.


Here is a link to where you can donate.  http://www.gofundme.com/5isx4o

I plan on doing my first drop off to the school on December 9th.

Giving what you can

When I first started Give365days.com I was blogging everyday and giving out money each day.  My life and thoughts on how to go about giving every day has changed since then.  I am still giving everyday, but in a different ways.  My time I spent blogging and spreading the word of giving has been shifted to just giving back to the community.  I still would like to spread the word, but am putting this on the back burner as I feel the act of giving out weighs the act of spreading the word.

There is a time in our life when we have to give back to our close ones, our family, our friends, and yes even ourselves.  Sometimes this balance can be out of whack.  If we concentrate on giving everything we have out to others we begin to find frustration in ourselves.  Everyone needs to find sometime to give to ourselves.  Second, we have the people that need us.  We sometimes need to give our time to help out these people.

I have been working on bigger ideas.  As the holidays come around the corner, I am trying to organize more towards giving to the school down in Costa Rica and also trying to give more towards local schools.  I will keep you posted on some of the upcoming events shortly.

The students in Costa Rica thank you.

Thank you for everyone that donated to help raise supplies for the students down in Costa Rica.  We were able to raise $400.  I purchased about $100 worth of supplies which I gave to the children.  It was such a humbling experience to watch kids get sooooo excited to each receive 2 pencils and a glue stick.

Being there gave me a great chance to see how long and how much money it is going to take to construct a new school.  The government is very slow moving and construction of the new school is not even on a schedule.  I am beginning to see that the only way that this school is going to be turned around and made into a proper learning experience is from a lot of help from all of us.  This is just the beginning.

Here is pictures of the two classrooms.  No walls and no floor.  Imagine what happens during the rainy season.  Next fund raiser will start in January.

Trying to find time to Blog

Well I am finding that the Giving part of Give365days is the easy part.  I am having trouble finding time for the blogging part, and trying to encourage others to Give back to this world.  If you have some free time please let me know how you gave to the world today.