Care2

This week’s blog is back to helping others in a completely free way. I found another website that uses daily clicks to help others. Care2 is doing a lot of work to help others, including the land and animals, and one of those ways is through daily clicks. You can click daily to help stop violence, pets, children, the rainforest, and the list goes on. You can also sign petitions and sign up on the site to get “butterfly” credits in which you can redeem for other rewards to continue helping people, and send free e-cards. There is a lot you can do on this site and can probably explore for hours. But for those of you who only have a few minutes each day, try and check out the daily clicks that you can do to help others. So as you’re doing some internet searching this weekend check out Care2 and the work they are doing. Happy clicking!

Until next week,

Annie

http://www.care2.com/

Sonic - Limeades for Learning

Sorry for last week’s absence. This week we are going back to school and helping teachers receive needed materials. I love how much the internet helps me in finding my weekly materials and I just came upon this cause. Sonic has teamed up with donorschoose.org to help donate money to public classrooms. The voting for the different projects only goes through September 30 so I wanted to get this out to you as soon as I found it. You are voting for different projects that teachers have put online and those with the most votes will have their project funded. Some of these projects are for books, markers, journals, etc. You can look at the whole list or separate it by what state you live in, the grade you want to support, the resource you want to give or the subject of the class. You can vote once a day with any valid e-mail address and if you are someone who eats at Sonic, you will receive a code for an extra two votes on your bag. This is a great thing, easy, doesn’t cost anything, and helps teachers be able to continue teaching our next generation. So for the next couple of weeks just take a couple minutes each day, find a project you like (on the find a project tab!) and want to support and vote for them. Happy Learning!

Until next week,

Annie

http://www.limeadesforlearning.com/

Music

This week, although a bit late but still here, I am focusing on Music. Music has been a part of me my whole life so I love whenever I get the chance to support the arts. I am focusing on three ways to help different groups but there are countless ways to help. The three that I am bringing to the table this week are the African Children’s Choir, Playing for Change, and Carols for a Cure. The African Children’s Choir is an organization that through music has helped improve the lives of hundreds of kids throughout Africa. Part of their work is putting together choirs and the choirs, which are made up of children from seven different countries in Africa, tour throughout North America and the UK. There are many different ways to support them but one that I like is to buy their CD’s. They are on iTunes and are absolutely wonderful. Playing for Change is an organization that is doing wonderful things. They have a CD that you can purchase and listen to artists from all over the World. Many of them were street artists at one point and this has given them the opportunity to be heard by others. They have a foundation that helps with music education. Lastly we have Carols for a Cure. This is a CD that Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS releases every year and the proceeds go to help the work they do with those affected by HIV/AIDS. The casts from Broadway shows contribute their voices and each show gets one song. It is a wonderful CD for a great cause and great voices! So when you are trying to figure out what music to listen to this week while driving to work, think about maybe trying out one of these three organization’s CDs. You will not be disappointed. Happy listening!

Until next week,

Annie

African Children’s Choir: http://africanchildrenschoir.com/index.php

Playing for Change: http://www.playingforchange.com/

Carols for a Cure: http://broadwaycares.stores.yahoo.net/caforcucds.html

ConAgra Foods

In this week’s blog we are back to food, specifically a company that is helping to provide food to others. ConAgra Foods has teamed up with Feeding America to help provide meals to Americans. For every purchase code that is entered on ConAgra items (like Marie Calendar, Healthy Choice, Peter Pan, Chef Boyardie, and Banquet) they will donate money worth one meal to Feeding America. Now there is a catch which I just saw making this not valid for much longer. This only goes until August 31 so make sure to look and enter them soon. They are close to the 2.5 million meals that they are donating but have not yet reached it. So in the next few days when you are going to the grocery store or are just around your house, make sure you look and see if you have any ConAgra foods so you can enter them and help provide a meal for someone else. Happy eating!

Until next week,

Annie

http://www.childhungerendshere.com/Html/EnterCode.html

Locks of Love / Pantene Beautiful Lengths

When I finally sat down to do this week’s blog I was wondering what I was going to do until I saw something that sparked my memory! Many people know about this “cause” because it changes the way a person looks. I personally have donated to it twice and am working towards a third. If you haven’t already guessed, I am talking about donating your hair to Locks of Love or Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I have donated hair to both causes and feel so blessed that I am able to do so. For the males reading this, you can also grow your hair out and donate it! However, it does have to be 8 inches long for Pantene and 10 inches long for Locks of Love. Pantene Beautiful Lengths teams up with American Cancer Society to donate the wigs while Locks of Love donates the wigs to children. These are both wonderful causes and something that we can all do and does not cost anything besides giving up your hair! Happy cute hair!

Until next week,

Annie

Locks of Love: http://www.locksoflove.org/donate.html

Pantene Beautiful Lengths: http://www.pantene.com/en-US/beautiful-lengths-refresh/Pages/default.aspx

Lunchables

This week’s blog post comes to you a little late, but still within the week here! It happens to be another facebook post but its important and helping promote better health and eating for children all over. Lunchables has teamed up with Feeding America to work towards donating 1 million pounds of fruit to Feeding America. You can like their page on facebook and then once you’ve done that for every picture of a smiling face they will donate 10 lbs of fruit. This is something that’s awesome and having volunteered at a food bank often enough to see the difference fruits and vegetables make, I’m glad to see that lunchables is taking part. Not only will people be able to receive fruit, they will also be getting food that can improve their health and teach them good eating habits. So when you are having fun with your friends this week or just hanging around, take a picture and post it on the page so that others can enjoy some wonderful fruit. Happy smiles!

Until next week,

Annie

http://www.facebook.com/Lunchables

Go to Bat

I actually just found this week’s blog today and am very excited about it. State Farm and the MLB have teamed up to donate to different non-profits/causes and they are doing so by holding a Go To Bat. You have to sign up on the website, and you can pick one of over 25 non-profits to “bat” for. You then get to play a computer batting game and your batting average goes towards the total batting average of the non-profit you chose. Every week there is a winning non-profit that gets a donation, like this past week was PSI and I believe $18,000 was donated and then there is also an overall non-profit that wins even more money at the end. In all $200,000 is being donated. It is pretty self-explanatory so I am including the website that allows you to sign up and go from there. Play ends September 25 so make sure to sign up and start playing! Happy Batting Practice!

Until next week,

Annie

http://www.mlb.com/mlb/sweepstakes/y2011/state_farm/gotobat/