Hands On Nashville Day

My son and I spent a morning painting and grounds-keeping a school last week as part of Hands on Nashville Day.  The photo doesn't show how bright and clean the walls looked like - especially since it was previously "institutional putty" colored.  And the lovely garden area in the window was filled with weeds taller than me.  I am proud to say that we were part of 30 people who showed up from my work to make this transformation.  I don't know if this technically qualifies as planting a school garden, but maybe it's headed in that direction.

Across the City:

9,200+ Volunteer Hours

2,300+ Volunteers

$200,000+ in economic impact

63 Schools and their students being blessed!

Small Stuff

I had nearly two feet of hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love.  From their website:

"Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the United States and Canada under age 21 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis."

Bowling for Kid - Big Brothers/Big Sisters Fundraiser

Participated in the fundraiser through work - our team raised over $500 for a worthy cause.

Vision Walk - Check!

My son and I went, walked, and raised $250 for a good cause. Thanks to family, coworkers and strangers who donated to our cause!

The food drive isn't going so well. I did not get the letter from them saying that this is an official event. Need to follow up with them.

Vision Walk Update

One thing that I have learned as I have embarked on my journey to Do Good and Make a Difference is that one woman can do nothing.  The success that I have here is directly related to many, many people.  I would like to thank my family and friends who are part of my family, for their generous donations to this year's Vision Walk.  Between them, they have pledged $150 dollars towards a cure for blindness.  I posted the link at work today.  Hopefully some of my coworkers will feel inspired to join us in April.

Pasion for Post Cards

I have been collecting post cards for decades, now; however, mostly they sit in albums hidden from the light of day.  But if everything has a purpose, how can a post card express its postcardness like that? Post cards are meant to be mailed.  They are meant to bring a smile to someone's face when they show up in their mail box.  And who better to receive such a smile than our military men and women who are deployed.  And so, I shall ransack my collection of post cards and send them out into the world!

I'm Not A People Person

Cooking or serving food at a soup kitchen is probably a more personal expression of charity and love for my fellow human being; however, I think I can do more than just that.  It may not be as personal, but I would wager it is at least as impactful.... I am going to go on a one woman food drive to see if I can fill my pickup truck bed full of non-perishable foods for our Food Bank.  People give food to the Food Banks during the holidays, but the need is there all year round.  Also, I am lame with social media, and my Crowd Funding is going nowhere...

So here is the high level plan

I will stay at the store on Saturday from 6 am to 6 pm and fill up my truck as many times as I can in that time period.  

• Contact the Food Bank and get their buy-in to the idea
• Contact local Super Walmarts and grocery stores until I find one that will agree to my food raiser
• Set a date
• Make a sign
• Write a press release and send to local newspapers
• Write a letter and send to all the local churches
• Letter to the local colleges
• On day of, get boxes from the store to put the food in
• Afterwards, write a letter to the Editor and send to all the local newspapers thanking my neighbors and fellow citizens

The holiday food drives have hopefully filled our Food Bank's larders, so I will make sure that the time period for this food raiser works for them.  I am thinking of Mid-February.