Charity

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, this is excerpted right from Daily Kos. It is a cause I have focused on before and I chipped in again this year. From Daily Kos:

Many of you know the story of Kossacks' involvement with saving the Pretty Bird Woman House, which is a women's shelter on the South Dakota side of the Standing Rock Reservation. Last fall we conducted a fundraiser thatraised enough money to buy the shelter an entire new house. Since this week is the beginning of the holiday giving season, I want to give you an update on the shelter and some ideas for donating if you are so inclined...

I recently posted on a wonderful expression of how Americans would rather sacrifice a day's pay than repeat McCain lies. Some 40 call center workers in Indiana walked out of their job rather than read the script provided by the McCain campaign that was nothing but lies and smears. To me THAT is what America is all about. They knew they had been handed a script that wasn't right...and they walked out.

Now there is the case of a woman buying a foreclosed house then turning around and giving it back to the owner:

I assume Marilyn keeps the house and is mainly letting the original owners keep living there (it was unclear to me if she returned the house or merely let them stay). But the fact is this is the second story in a couple of days emphasizing that people are inspired to do the right thing.

I blogged about Matt first at The Awearness Blog after I first saw the video via Metafilter. Metafilter is a snarkful community of wen connoisseurs who have a witty remark or twenty at the ready. So it was with shock that I saw comment after comment of Mefites saying that this video brough a tear to their eye.

I've watched this video at least 50 times --my kids have been playing it all day today. It's not the music or the somg that brings a tear to my eye. I can be in a different room, like I am right now, and listen to the music and have no reaction.

No.

It's watching the pure joy, the pure radiance, the pure light beaming from all those dancing, happy faces that makes me cry.

I cry because it is so uncommon to see such selfless joy these days. Matt has a quality not of "whatever" but of real in the moment joy.

Fight Hunger in San Francisco - Volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank
When: Saturday, April 12th 2008, at 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Where: San Francisco Food Bank
900 Pennsylvania Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94107

Host: San Francisco Young Democrats and Democrats Work
Contact: info_at_democratswork.org

Join Democrats Work and the San Francisco Young Democrats at the San Francisco Food Bank on Saturday, April 12th from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Our work will mean that thousands of pounds of food will be distributed at meal and pantry programs throughout the city.

Be sure to wear your Democrats Work t-shirts!

Democrats Work: Food for Homeless Teens
Tuesday, February 19 at 5:00 PM

Urban Peak Shelter (Denver, CO)
1630 S. Acoma Street
Denver, CO 80223

Join the Democrats Work Convention Crew as we prepare and serve dinner at Denver's Urban Peak Shelter for homeless and runaway teens. Stick around, enjoy the dinner you helped prepare, and hang out with some of the shelter's clients.

Details at DemocratsWork.org

Host: Aaron Silverstein

Came across a site mentioned on BBC News website called "Free Rice." It is a slightly silly but addictive little thing that actually adds up to helping the UN feed people. Joy and I are obsessing on it today.

Basically, they get money from advertisers. They have vocabulary words and you pick the correct defination...for each one you get right, they donate money for 10 grains of rice to feed people through the UN. So far Joy and I made it to Vocab Level 50 (though we dropped back down to 48 as we got some wrong) and have gotten 4000 grains of rice....which may be only one good bowl of rice for someone out there, but what the hell. It's fun in a nerdy way and if enough of us do it, it can have a real effect.

Here is what they have to say for themselves:

FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

If you see me in a suit it generally means one of two things: I am going to a wedding or I am invited to an event with Bill Clinton.

The work I have done for Kiva, both as a lender and a blogger, has gotten some attention. My Kiva diaries are among the more popular ones I write. A little while back I was interviewed by BBC World News as a lender. And most recently, I was invited to a private panel discussion for the release of Bill Clinton’s latest Book, GIVING: How Each of Us Can Change the World. I do not have a copy of this book as of yet so this is not a book review, though that might come. Instead I want to discuss the event and some of the individuals and organizations that were highlighted.

Three people I have had previous contact with were on the panel: Bill Clinton himself, who I got to meet at a fundraiser for Christine Jennings, Majora Carter, an awesome NYC rising star, and Premal Shah, President of Kiva, the organization I have been working with that got me invited to the event. Rounding out the panel were Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone (which hosted the event), Mark Grashow of U.S. - Africa Children’s Fellowship and a 6 year old girl named Mackenzie who organized a beach cleanup for her birthday. The panel discussion was moderated by Tavis Smiley.