Giving Back this Holiday Season

The Holidays are upon us and thus the gift buying begins. While you are deciding what to get people this year pause and think for a minute as to what your gift will bring other than happiness. Are you buying something that is fair trade? Something that gives back? Or something that supports local business? There are some great ways this year to help give back while also getting things for those you love:

• West Elm has mugs for $10 and $5 supports one of I believe seven causes
• Look for the St. Jude’s symbol at stores to help give to St. Judes
• Gap has a gift card that when purchased 2% goes to Care or Communities in Schools
•  Think about purchasing fair trade items; visit Ten Thousand Villages or Whole Foods
• Purchase local; think about going to the little stores around town instead of the big corporations
• Instead of giving gifts, donate to a non-profit
• While the sales continue purchase children’s toys and items and donate them to a local non-profit, hospital, daycare, etc.

The list goes on and on. There are so many ways that you can help make a difference this holiday season, just figure out how you want to do so. Happy Holidays!

Until next week,

Annie

Helpful Websites:

St. Judes: http://www.tg.stjude.org/partners

Gap: http://www.gap.com/customerService/info.do?cid=2116&tid=gpemmain1&EV=GWMET11082012&DI=91419277&CD=GNC_GPR

Ten Thousand Villages: http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/

America Recycles Day

I apologize for my absence but am going to make a great effort to post every week from now through the holidays! Tomorrow is America Recycles Day; cue Annie’s inner nerd. If you are someone that already recycles that is great; keep doing it. If you are someone that does not yet participate in the art of recycling then tomorrow is a great day for you to start doing so. There are so many ways you can help our environment and I am going to post just a few here. You should also check out the America Recycles Day webpage and take the pledge to recycle more. In the meantime here are some recycling tips:

• Make sure to buy materials made from recycled materials (seventh generation is a company that does a great job at this)

• Plastic bags can be recycled and many grocery stores and now even some department stores have containers for them

• Start collecting materials that are not usually recyclable to send into Terracycle

• Recycle every can of soda, water bottle, orange juice, and milk container

• Look at the bottom of your items, a lot of times they can be recycled

• When you are done reading your weekly People Magazine either lend it to someone else to read or recycle it

• Join recyclebank and learn about ways to recycle while earning points

These are just some ideas for you to do more but the most important thing is that you are at least thinking about and making an effort to recycle. A lot of places make it very easy for you by having curbside pick-up but if you don’t, do not let that stop you from recycling. I always enjoyed going to the recycling center in college to drop my stuff off, it makes for a fun adventure. Happy Recycling!

Until next week,

Annie

America Recycles Day: http://americarecyclesday.org/

Terracycle: http://www.terracycle.com/en-US/

Seventh Generation: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/

Recyclebank: https://www.recyclebank.com/join/earnpoints