Tuesday, March 5, 2013

I'm Back! Two Year Anniversary Blog - a little late!



I am back with renewed energy and motivation to once again bring you all a weekly blog on easy ways to help others. I thought I would come back with a big bang and start it off with a recap of the past two year’s entries; I’m doing it in two segments so it is not too long. This recap will only include the entries from the past that are still active today and waiting for you all to take part. I’m hoping with my renewed energy I will gain more viewers which is where I ask you, my loyal readers, to pass this on to your friends and family. I try and keep it light and short, minus this blog, and give you easy ways to help others. I named my blog, The Little Things Do Matter, because they truly do. For each reader that takes part in the week’s entry, that is one more person than before taking part and as you know things add up! So here are the short explanations recapping the last two years. Enjoy and be sure to share!

Year One:

The hunger site - http://www.thehungersite.com
Donate money towards hunger, mammograms, animals, veterans, autism research, child health, literacy, and the rainforest by simply clicking a button every day.

Enter the code on your coke bottle or container the cans come in for points that can be donated to many causes, including schools, the special Olympics, and our troops.

Answer questions on many different subjects and for every question answered right, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program.

You can send in your used cards to St. Judes Ranch and they will take them, make them into new cards, and sell them to help raise funds. The children at the ranch help with the card project learning many valuable skills.

Box tops for education - http://www.boxtops4education.com/
On the top of many different food and household products are box top labels. They are worth ten cents for each label and can be taken to most schools to help them raise funds.

Answer two questions every day, one about dogs and one about cats. Whether you answer the questions right or wrong, 10 pieces of kibble are donated to shelters all over the United States.

Labels for education - http://www.labelsforeducation.com/
This is very much like box tops however it is labels for education and the schools are given points and not money. The points can be turned into items from a catalog that they have.

Places are always looking for prom type dresses to be donated and what better time than right before we get into prom season! Donate my dress has compiled a list, by state, of different places that take dresses and then donate them to girls who need them.

You help entrepreneurs start and/or expand their businesses that usually are not able to. The cool thing about this site is once you are repaid you can either reinvest your money into a new borrower or take your money back. You have the power to be able to help many people.

Good search - www.goodsearch.com
Good search is a search engine like Yahoo and Google yet when you use good search one cent is donated, for every search, to a nonprofit or school of your choice.

Jamie Oliver has created a mission to help educate people on healthier ways to eat. He focuses on school lunch and you can help him by signing his petition to help bring better and fresher food to schools.

Daily feats - www.dailyfeats.com/
Daily feats allows you to check in the good feats that you do daily, like flossing, drinking orange juice, reading, working out, and so many more. You get points for every feat you enter and can get fun things with your points as well as donate your points to Save the Children, Companions for Heroes, JDRF, and the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Nike reuse-a-shoe - http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/
Nike takes old shoes that can no longer be worn and makes them into things that can still be used like track surfaces, gym floors, basketball and tennis courts, and even new Nike products. You can drop your shoes off at Nike and Converse stores and can also mail them in if you do not live near a drop off location.

All of the post tax proceeds from Newman’s own food products go to the foundation which has donated millions of dollars to thousands of charities.

Little acts of kindness
Little acts of kindness are something that can brighten someone’s day and bring a smile to a sad face. Whether it is smiling at someone walking down the street, giving water or food to someone on the streets or bringing holiday cheer to those less fortunate try and go offline every once-in-awhile and bring happiness and cheer to others.

Terracycle takes materials that usually cannot be recycled and recycles them into items that can once again be used. The nonprofits, schools, or individuals that are collecting the waste receive $.02 for each item sent in and can either donate the money to charitable causes on the website or can use it for their own nonprofit charity or school.

Roozt promotes socially responsible buying by offering deals from companies that are making a positive impact in their community, environment, with their employees, and humanity as a whole. For every person that joins, they will donate a meal to a person in need.

Better world shopper - http://betterworldshopper.com/
Better world shopper has graded hundreds of companies on five different categories that can help people shop more ethically. The five categories that they judge companies on are human rights, the environment, animal protection, community involvement, and social justice.

You can make sleeping mats for the homeless out of plastic bags so that they can stay out of landfills and continue to be used. The youtube video shows you how to make the yarn for the mats and the mats themselves.

We give books allows you to read children’s books online while donating a book to children who don’t usually have many, if any, books to read. You can pick the campaign that you want to read for and even if you don’t have children it is still fun to read the many books that they have available.

Cards that give back
The holidays are past but you can always think about buying cards that help great causes. There are many different cards that can help other people. The three that I blogged about were Phoenix Children’s Hospital cards, St. Jude’s Ranch, and Cards from Africa. These are three wonderful organizations that are doing a lot with the money they receive.

Donate your hair to wonderful causes that create wigs for children with cancer (locks of love – 10+ inches) and women with cancer (pantene’s beautiful lengths – 8+ inches).

Music
Music is such an awesome thing and there are so many ways music helps people. There are many songs and CDs that can be purchased that help good causes like broadways Carols for a Cure, Playing for Change, and African Children’s Choir.

Care2 is a site that has the daily clicks to help good causes as well as petitions that you can sign and daily actions that can be done to help others and our environment.

Sevenly is working on raising capital and awareness to many organizations doing good throughout our world with the help of a weekly shirt. Each week they choose a different organization, make a unique design for that cause and sell clothing with the design for a week and $7 of each shirt sale goes to the organization being recognized.


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