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.

What does it take? Why don't people give to Charities?

The donation fund I set up for the school in Costa Rica is the first time I have really ever tried to reach out and ask people for money for a cause.  I am finding that I am finding this harder than what I first imagined.  When I first thought of the idea, I thought it would be pretty easy and fun to raise money for a good cause.  My first trial I made a few posts on Facebook and Google plus and did not receive a dollar.  It was crazy how deflated it made me feel.

I tried to put myself in others shoes.  If I was to see these posts I more then likely would just continue on with my day.  Maybe I would stop and say that I would like to give, but I still would not give anything.  I realized that I would have to promote more and ask more in order to get people to donate.  It made me feel really weird to continue to ask others to give to a cause that is important to me.  I do not want to sound pushy.

I realize that if I want to try to get others to donate to the school in Costa Rica I will have to be a little bit more aggressive.  I also need to be a little more accepting that most people will not donate to this cause and that is OK.

This is a great lesson for me, and I have a lot more respect for people that have to ask others to donate for a living.  I have made a few more attempts to have others donate and I am happy (and extremely grateful) to say  that I have received a few donations.  It makes me really happy to have others join me in thinking this is an important cause.

What does it take to get others to join and give to a charity?  For mine I am beginning to realize it will take a lot of time, patience, understanding, and determination to spread the word and raise money.

If you would like to donate and raise funds for the school in Costa Rica here is a link to the GoFundMe.com page.

If you would rather donate supplies and are in the Orlando area please feel free to Contact me

The Publix Checkout

Today in Publix I had a cashier stop what she was doing and tell me that there was a $2 off coupon for one of my products.  She then decided (while people waited behind me) to run to the front of the store to find me the coupon and cut it out to save me that $2.  I was extremely impressed with the generosity and giving attitude I got from this cashier.  She could had easily just rang up my groceries and made more for the Publix bottom line.

I tell this story because I could easily say that was very nice of her and move on with my day.  I could be happy that I just saved $2.  What if I was to say I would have purchased these products regardless of saving the $2.  If I look at it this way the $2 was never mine to begin with.  I am keeping this mindset and deciding to pass the $2 on to the next person.  I will add $1 and pass $3 on to the next person.

Sometimes we are given things right under our nose.  We have the opportunity to pass on these "acts of giving" onto others.  I was really impressed with the cashier at Publix, and hope we can all learn from her giving efforts.

Costa Rican School Needs Supplies

Today I am starting a campaign to help raise money for a school that was torn down due to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit Costa Rica back in September 2012.  A friend down there contacted me letting me know that this school is in need of help.  The schools name is La Escuela de Delicias. As the school is being rebuilt the students are learning in a makeshift room on dirt floors.

I will be visiting Costa Rica and the school at the end of October and will be bringing both school supplies and money used to help rebuild the school. While the school is being built they are in need of supplies such as crayons, markers, pencils, dry erase boards/markers, colored pencils, paper -lined and colored, coloring books, English learning supplies, etc.

Here is a link to the GoFundMe.com page to donate today.

If you would rather donate supplies and are in the Orlando area please feel free to Contact me

Gorillas in the wild.

Tonight I made a donation to WWF to adopt a gorilla.  I was lucky enough to come face to face with a family of gorillas out in Rwanda.  I was among the Susa family which consisted of 32 Gorillas at the time.  Dianne Fossey once studied this exact family.  It was an amazing experience, but I also know that these gorillas are in great danger to loose their habitat and also their lives.   The Gorillas do not know borders and travel between countries.  Some of these countries still act very primitively and will kill these animals for profit.  The money is needed to help stop these primitive people.  We have so much to learn from these gorillas, as I saw so many similarities between us and the gorillas.  I hope to one day come face to face with these primates again soon. 

If you would like to donate and adopt a gorilla Click here