under construction: the Parthenon 2Well, I am at it again, freshening up this site. Most notably the Fresh Gifts Journal is becoming the Fresh Gifts Boutique. I am totally jazzed about this idea as it will be a virtual boutique combining giving to self, family, friends, community and our world in the form of offering giving time, talent, treasure and touch. Plus, a section for giving when time sensitive [like seasonal] and ideas I deem HOT STUFF on the Top Shelf.
Do take a peek! Feedback while under construction welcomed. Fresh Gifts Boutique this way!
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LONDON, 19th August 2009 – A new initiative is turning pickpocketing on its head by using ex-pickpockets to put money into Briton’s pockets on the sly.
“Put-Pocketing” is the act of secretly putting money into someone’s pocket without them noticing, and is the challenge faced by a team of 20 specialist “put-pockets” in a current scheme being rolled out nationwide.
People who have been “Put-Pocketed” will find money – ranging from a £5 or £20 note - in their pocket. They will also find attached to this a small card with a short message from the project sponsors, TalkTalk.
Former pickpocket and now TalkTalk Head of Put-Pocketing, Chris Fitch, said: “It feels good to give something back for a change - and Britons certainly need it in the current economic climate. Every time I put money back in someone’s pocket I feel less guilty about the fact I spent many years taking it out. Put-Pocketing is just as much of a challenge, and requires all the same stealth and skills”.
Click over for the rest of the story and to check out the video...
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By Jack Bell
New York Times News Service
Published: Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 9:27 p.m. MDT
On the field, Barcelona plays with a ruthless beauty that is the envy of the soccer world. Off the field, the Catalan club has an enviable social conscience that extends well beyond its home. That benevolence was on display Saturday night at the Rose Bowl when Barcelona played the first of three matches on its tour of the West Coast.
As Barca and the Los Angeles Galaxy took the field before more than 90,000 fans in Pasadena, Calif., the Barcelona players were wearing a new warm-up top that heralded the club's commitment to a new effort it had joined to eradicate malaria in Africa — United Against Malaria.
"For Barca, our motto for 110 years has been 'More Than a Club,' " Marta Segu, the executive director of the club's foundation, said in a telephone interview. "The club has always defended human rights against dictatorship and promoted the Catalan language. This time we said, OK, we have a responsibility with society around the world."
Barcelona, through an association with the United Nations, which it pays more than $1 million a year to wear the UNICEF logo on its jerseys, and a nonprofit organization called Malaria No More, has enlisted international corporations, nongovernmental organizations, Major League Soccer's MLS Works charity and some of the world's highest-profile players in a campaign against malaria.
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Also OnlineThey have names like Womenade, Bread for the Journey, Party With Purpose and Dining for Women.
They're called giving circles, and they're the new faces of philanthropy.
Link: Learn about giving circles
In these groups, people are gathering with like-minded contributors, pooling their money and deciding which charities should benefit from their cash.
After all, simply whipping out a checkbook to donate to a worthy cause is so old-school.
While charitable giving is declining, giving circles are growing. There are more than 600 in the United States, triple the number from just a few years ago. Some visit and interview potential recipients, while others offer guidance to nonprofits that get their financial support.
Joining a giving circle makes you spend more time thinking about where you want to contribute, which makes donating more fulfilling, said Mary Beth Bardin, who participated in a North Texas giving circle that helped at-risk girls.
"It's one thing to write a check, and there's a certain joy in writing the check, but it takes you to a whole new level to go out and see how the money is being used," Bardin said. "You get personally involved."
Many find giving circles appealing because they don't have the time or interest in joining more traditional volunteer groups, said Angela Eikenberry, a University of Nebraska at Omaha professor who studies giving circles.
"Donors want to be more engaged in their giving and have more leverage and more control," she said. "People who are in giving circles talk about going outside the bureaucracy and outside the established institution and doing things in more innovative, less cumbersome ways."
Many giving circles are informal, making them hard to track. But the circles attract both veteran philanthropists and those new to giving, Eikenberry said. They range in size from just a handful of people to several hundred.
Bardin was part of about 10 mother-daughter pairs who collected about $15,000 and formed a giving circle associated with the Dallas Women's Foundation.
Each mother-daughter team visited agencies that requested funding. Bardin and her daughter, Susan, met with an after-school volleyball program in southern Dallas that wanted $1,500 for uniforms and bus transportation to get to games.
Then came the hard part: Figuring out which groups should receive funding.
"We found ourselves bargaining," Bardin said. " 'This group has asked for $5,000, but what if we gave them $3,000 and we would have $2,000 we could give over here?' "
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Backpack of felt and leatherBy TAYLOR ASHLEY
DAYTONA BEACH -- Helping kids to be on equal footing on their first day of school was what members of the Daytona Beach Association of Realtors had in mind when they first sought to "adopt" 38 schoolchildren identified by the Children's Home Society.
Nineteen years later, the Adopt-A-Child program has expanded to 16 agencies and some 800 children, and includes not only backpacks and school supplies, but also new clothes and toiletries for each child.
It was through the Association's involvement in area home sales that the need was recognized within the community.
"There are many backpack programs but the unique quality of Adopt-A-Child is that all items are purchased specifically for an individual child," said Cyndi Parker with Professional Title Agency Inc., Daytona Beach. "Adopt-A-Child offers people the experience of shopping for a child instead of just donating money.
"All items are included in their new backpack, which normally reflects that child's favorite color, character or sport. The goal of Adopt-A-Child is to meet each child's individual need for that very important first day of school," Parker said.
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Shoebox Project - BoxesKids Join Effort to Help Millions of Needy Children Worldwide by Filling the Empty Boxes from Their New, Back-to-School Shoes
SOMERSET COUNTY - School will be back in session soon, but many Somerset County kids already have homework—as they learn a lesson in giving.
Through Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project, kids kick-off the school year learning about the impact of giving to children in need. By adding a few extra items to their back-to-¬school shopping lists and saving the boxes from their newly purchased shoes, kids are joining the effort to help some 8 million hurting children in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Operation Christmas Child, a project of international relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, encourages volunteers to fill simple shoe box gifts with toys, necessity items, school supplies, candy and often hand-written notes of encouragement. The gifts are then hand-delivered to children worldwide who are suffering because of natural disaster, disease, war, terrorism, famine and poverty.
“For a lot of kids living in poor countries, not having a pencil could be all that keeps them from getting an education,” said Leigh Fisher, Mid-Atlantic regional director for Operation Christmas Child. “With back to school sales, pencils are cheap and so are a lot of other great things you could pack in a shoe box. We all want to make a difference in the world, packing a shoe box is way we can all help make the future brighter and give a lot of kids hope for something better.”
For many of these children, the shoe box gift will be the first gift they have ever received, letting them know they are loved and not forgotten.
Why now—months before the holiday season?
Operation Christmas Child is not limited to just a few weeks a year. It is a year-round project, requiring months of organization and preparation to reach millions of kids around the world. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has distributed shoe box gifts to more than 69 million hurting children in some 130 countries.HOW CAN I HELP NEEDY KIDS WORLDWIDE? It’s Simple!
PREPARE—Help enlist families, churches, scout troops, community groups and businesses to take part in creating shoe box gifts for needy children in more than 100 countries.
PACK—Fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items, hard candy and a letter of encouragement.
Step-by-step shoe box packing instructions are available at www.samaritanspurse.org.
PROCESS—Join thousands of Operation Christmas Child volunteers this fall at one of hundreds of collection sites and Processing Centers in the United States to prepare millions of shoe box gifts for delivery to underprivileged kids on six continents.For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (410) 442-3701 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org. National Collection Week is Nov. 16-23, 2009; however, shoe box gifts are collected all
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