Christmas Charity Idea

[BuzzardsWife]

Every year i do up one of those shoeboxes. But this year..because of our own poor economy, I think I will make up a box and give it to someone in my own community that needs it, or a family member, or a friend. If we all helped each other through these bad times I think it would be great.

[transplant99]

Great idea.

they have one down here i just heard about yesterday and i am already signed up. Its sort of like adopt-a-family but this one is for single mothers specifically, of which there is no end it seems.

[GreenLantern]

Explain this shoebox please

[Art Vandelay]

Human Fund

[BuzzardsWife]

its actually called operation christmas i think..you go to safeway and get a shoebox, you pick the sex of the child and the age of the child you want to make a donation to..then you fill it with things like school supplies, toothbrushes, a t-shirt, candy, whatever you like, then it is shipped to a child in a 3rd world country..one year i made up a few and donated them in my nephews and nieces names instead of buying them a gift..they thought it was cool..i printed out all the info from t heir website and put it in a card for them to open christmas day http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/

[GreenLantern]

I think this is very cool, however, if I was your nephew or niece you would not be my favorite Auntie.

"I WANT MICRO MACH---- WDF??"

"So let me get this straight, you give some other kid a bunch of presents, then tell me about it in a card and show me pictures of these presents that I don't get. Why not just give me the middle finger and end it?"

Just kidding obviously... I think this is a great idea. I will be looking into it this Christmas. Now that I am no longer the poor student who needs.. I guess it is time I started giving back!

[maverickstruth]

Every December at work, we do a Secret Santa gift exchange with our team. Put everyone's name in a hat, everyone draws a name, and buys that person a gift -- cap on the spending at something like $20. The gifts are exchanged at our team Christmas gathering.

Last year, we decided to do something a bit different. We still drew names from the hat, but instead of buying a gift for that person, we bought a gift that we thought that person would have liked as a child. Then, we "exchanged" the gifts -- had a good laugh about what everyone "got" -- and then all of those gifts were donated to the women's centre here in Calgary. (Of note, we also removed the cap on the spending, in case anyone wanted to spend more as the gifts were really all for donation).

The women's centre sets up a mini "store" each December. Women in need from the city are given tokens for each of their children, one for a small gift, one for a medium gift and one for a large gift (as I recall). They take these "tokens" and go "shopping" among all the donated gifts, to be able to put something under the tree for their kids. Those who took our donations to the centre said that they were blown away by the generosity of our group -- and we felt just so happy to be able to give a gift that meant something, rather than the usual secret Santa junk that just gets consumed or thrown away.

We'll be doing it again this year, and it's an idea that I'd welcome anyone to steal or adapt :-)

[mykalberta]

We did the same thing as maverick except for santas anonymous.

[FurnaceFace]

I've recently come across kiva.org which I think is a great idea. You support budding entrepreneurs around the world and through the organization you receive your loan back. The individuals or groups have to put together a business plan including repayment timeframe and amounts. I like this as I know exactly where the money goes instead of just sending money to an organization and hope they use it in a way I would approve of.

Right now, there is a Nelson in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania who has capital available to expand his business.

If that's not close enough to home for some of you, given Remembrance Day is still fresh in our minds, perhaps you can sponsor a veteran.

[BuzzardsWife]

the cancer thread reminded me of something my sisters and brother and dad did last year..instead of buying for each other we all donated 50 dollars each to Hospice in memory of Mom