Proof Positivity: Validation
“Are you still blogging?” My husband would ask with a sneer. For almost a year he has been asking me this question with a negative attitude. Last night was different. “Are you still doing that blog?” He asked with genuine intrest. “Proof Positivity? Yes, I do my personnal blog when ever and Proof Positivity Monday- Friday except today because it’s Thanksgiving.” I said. “I want you to keep doing that.” I looked at him in shock and asked if he was ok. I have gone all this time without my husband’s support. He says “Nothing’s wrong with me. You are doing a good thing and the world doesn’t have enough of that.” My husband has a tendency to think negative first so this was a real surprise to me that he suggest PP goes on. It made me feel good that finally, he acknowledges what I do.
Anyhow, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I most certainly did. Last night I watched a special presentation of “The Incredibles” on NBC. It seems to me that things like that used to begin at a decent hour like 6:00 PM and end at the latest 9:00. No, this started at 8PM and ended at 10:30 PM. I wanted to send my kids to bed and there was no way I could they would have gone kicking and screaming.
Hoop Dreams
2,057 Children are orphaned by the AIDS epidemic every day. Nine year old Austin Gutwein wanted to play on a basketball team. He didn’t make the team.
Austin had a pen pal from Africa and decided to learn as much as he could about Africa. This includes educating himself about AIDS.
“I know it is a disease that when it gets to parents it kills them,” says Austin.
“I really started to think about what it would be like if I lost my parents,” he says.
He began to shoot basketball for charity. On his first go he earned $3,000.
“I was shocked,” says his father Dan Gutwein. “People donated that we never met before.”
Austin got in touch with World Vision and he and 1,000 other children raised $38,000. One person can make a difference. It has to start with one before more can help.
Proof Positivity: The Day Before
Time to make the cheesecake, potato salad, pistachio pie, and mashed potatoes! Turkey goes in the oven tonight! Special breakfast this morning no school today pancakes with cherry pie filling! The kids need milk I need coffee. This is going to be a busy day for me. I have a lot of work to do and little time to do it in. I may need to go to my brothers to help my mom with the meal. I have house cleaning and outfits to wear. We dress up for the holidays. In a few years Thanksgiving will change for us. When my children are old enough we will be working in a kitchen for the holidays. I feel that it’s important to teach my kids how to help others and even though we live below the poverty level for the United States we aren’t so bad off. In a perfect society we would all be good neighbors and work together and help one another regardless of monetary status.
If you wish to volunteer in a kitchen go here. Go to the Yellow Pages and click on your state.
Maybe you’re like me and your kids just aren’t old enough to go to a soup kitchen but they are old enough to send a card to our troops.
Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456
It doesn’t matter what you think about the war. These people need our support.
Know how to crochet? How about making a nest for misplaced animals.
You can be tested to see if you would be a suitable kidney donor for a young girl.
You can say No! to violence against women.
Like to sew? You can make a quilt for a newborn and send it to your local hospital.
The possibilities are endless. My family will be making the cards to send to our troops. I think it’s a nice new tradition.
Proof Positivity: Healthy Food
I saw something very interesting this morning on The Today Show. I saw health food or rather 
food getting healthy. No, really. I saw a shrimp getting a workout on a treadmill. Since I only watch 45 minutes of news I missed what it was all about. I couldn’t help but laugh and I thought hey that’s positive. Now, if the shrimp looked like Richard Simmons that would really be something. Nothing wrong with getting a little physically fit before you hit someones plate. So, now you’ve discovered me. I do have a sense of humor. I’m not all community service I’m only human. My sense of humor is part of that.
I think having a sense of humor helps to keep me positive. There are times when you need to keep your mouth shut and humor isn’t appropriate, not a problem for me. Laughter is good for your health. So, if you’re coming to this blog for the first time feel free to laugh or smile. Take a load off, voice your opinion. When you leave a valid comment I do comment back and if you are unfamiliar to me I do visit your site. I love talking so don’t be suprised if before too long there’s a conversation. The only stipualation is I think you can only leave a link to your blog once or my spam catcher will get you.
$2.5 Million Raised For AIDS Prevention
A new grant program from the M*A*C AIDS Fund has gifted $2.5 million to fight HIV and AIDS in South Africa. The grant will go to UNICEF South Africa and Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity (NOAH) to fund testing and treatment for pregnant women and strengthen the community infrastructure to care for children orphaned by AIDS.
“It is our responsibility as a global company to invest in integrated and sustainable HIV/AIDS initiatives and programs,” said Nancy Mahon, Senior Vice President of M*A*C Cosmetics and Executive Director of the M*A*C AIDS Fund. “This collaboration will have a significant impact on addressing the alarming and rising rates of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, working in partnership with two important local grassroots organizations that are on the frontlines and have a deep and vast understanding of the issue.”
The new M*A*C AIDS Fund grant will provide $2 million to UNICEF to give HIV testing and treatment to pregnant women and to children in the provinces of Kwazulu Natal, North West and Limpopo.
The $500,000 grant to NOAH will help provide basic needs and services for AIDS orphans, with a population total around 1.4 million in South Africa where adoption rates are down nearly 13 percent from last year. NOAH’s 107 community “Arks” will provide food, clothing and basic health, hygiene and sanitation supplies for an estimated 5,000 children.
“The partnership between UNICEF and the M*A*C AIDS Fund will help improve access to treatment for mothers and children as these services will be brought closer to where those in greatest need reside, in rural and remote areas,” said Ngashi Ngongo, UNICEF Chief of Health in South Africa. “This initiative will help reduce the number of new HIV infections in children, keep mothers alive and reduce the number of orphans.”
Subaru ‘Shares the Love’
Subaru of America, Inc. announced a marketing campaign based on the love Subaru owners have for their vehicles and their desire to help worthy causes. Called “Share the Love”, the campaign will run from November 24 to January 2 and will allow new Subaru vehicle customers to select one of five charities to receive a $250 donation from Subaru of America, following the purchase or lease of a new Subaru vehicle.
Extending the automaker’s, “Love. It’s What Makes a Subaru, a Subaru” campaign, the program is expected to raise up to $5 million for the charities during its duration. The five charities participating in the program are; Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Habitat for Humanity International, Meals On Wheels Association of America, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
Kevin Mayer, director of marketing communications for Subaru of America, said, “We wanted to create a program that not only stands out from the crowd, but is also relevant to our customer’s value system – that of giving back to the community. The program is also timely in that many charities are feeling the effects of the recent economic troubles. So we are pleased to be helping charities during this difficult period.”
Proof Positivity: Thanksgiving Around The Corner
Thanksgiving is on Thursday. My family will have turkey, stuffing, green beans, and who knows what else. My mom’s turkey is the best. This isn’t just my personal opinion this is fact. My mom’s turkey is so moist it melts in your mouth. We don’t carve the turkey it falls off the bone. The turkey cooks all night and by 12:00 PM perfection. It may not be the most beautiful but it makes up for that in taste. Anyhow if this is your fist time with the meal there is help for you.
If you could spend $20 on water for the rest of your life would you do it? With Universal Giving you can do just that. You can donate $20 and it will go for safe drinking water. You could give a month of care to five orphaned babies or give health back to a child. the possibilities are endless. “UniversalGiving allows you to shop for gifts in a meaningful way this holiday season.”
Stumbleupon has given me the opportunity to view new sites that I would not otherwise view. I read a story about two high school boys that sold junk food at school and donated the profit to a hospital. The person who “discovered” the site had it listed as strange/ bizarre. Is it truly strange that kids would want to do more to help others? All I have ever seen in my lifetime is young people wanting to make a difference. When I was in City Year there were 1,000 City Year members that is only a small fraction of the young people who do Americorps programs. Since 1993, more than 540000 people have served in Americorps programs. That group of people don’t include those who do it without the chance of getting a living stipend of a college scholarship. It’s true that it all starts out as a one sided kind of deal. When I was involved I went soley for the scholarship. I didn’t care about the rest so much. By the end of my two years serving I fell in love with community service and making a difference. The fact that someone young wants to change the world doesn’t surprise me. The fact that someone would find it bizarre surprises me.
Community service has been getting more and more popular among youth. When my own children reach an appropriate age I hope to be bringing them to soup kitchen during the holidays. It’s important that the young has an opportunity to make a difference. Leaders are born this way. I want them to have the opportunity to find that they don’t have it so bad and they can help someone else by giving them the support they may need. I do want to make this a family event so I need to be patient and wait until the youngest is 5 or 6.
More opportunities to give:
KIVA ”The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.”
City Year for those a little more well off you can sponsor a team to make a difference. When I was a member the price tag was $100,000. This pays for the living stipend and a whole lot of other things that an executive director would do a lot better job of explaining. You could even get a team together to fund raise.
Making a difference doesn’t have to be an organization such as what’s listed above. What if you really like art. Go to your local art museum or one that you really enjoy and become a sponsor. The money will go toward educating children about Monet, Georgia O’Keefe, and Picasso.
Go to a small community theatre and become a sponsor or make costumes. Community theatres get very little money for what they do.
Read to a child. If you have no books there are a few sites you can go to: at Big Universe you can read books for free. You can read stories at Reading is Fundamental. You can go to Starfall to learn how to read.
Making a difference doesn’t have to cost a lot it just takes the kindness and giving of your heart.
Proof Positivity: Under The Sea
“…scientists described apparently productive ecosystems in two places where life was not known before, under the Antarctic ice sheet, and above concentrated salt lakes beneath the Mediterranean. In both cases, innumerable tiny microbes are fixing or holding onto quantities of organic carbon large enough to be significant in the global carbon cycle…”
I really can’t say I’m suprised they have found life in an ice world. I’d be more suprised if they found life on the sun. All this time and only now they are finding life in Antartica. I wonder if it has anything to do with global warning. We’ve had scientists there for some time and you would think a find like this would come sooner unless it is a recent change in the enviroment that has made it easier to find life.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/11/081117103653.htm
Are Crocks That Ugly?
I admit to having a pair of crocks and I love them. They are comfortable and because they are black they match every thing. There are things I won’t wear with them and you can’t go wrong with recycled. Not only recycled but also given to poor children in Guatamala. For some of these kids it’s their first pair of new shoes.
Children International Received 10,000 Crocs to give to the children.
Brother’s Brother Foundation and Crocs(TM) Soles United donated 10,000 pairs of Crocs(TM) comfort clogs to impoverished children supported by Children International, a Kansas City-based humanitarian organization. The gift, valued at $100,000, will provide children and their families in Guatemala City, Guatemala, with shoes made from recycled materials. The foundation also paid to ship the shoes to Guatemala.
Luke Hingson, the president of Brother’s Brother Foundation, said, “We have a history of success collaborating with Children International. They have the ability to persevere through the obstacles of distance and poor infrastructure in developing countries. We know there is success at the end of the day with Children International delivering shoes to children who need help.”
Wal-Mart On The Road to Green
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), announced its first substantial purchase of wind energy in the U.S. The wind power will supply up to 15 percent of the retailer’s total energy load in approximately 360 Texas stores and other facilities.
The energy will come from Duke Energy wind farm under construction in Notrees, Texas, and is expected to begin making electricity for Wal-Mart by April of 2009.
The project will provide approximately 226 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable power each year or the equivalent of washing 108 million loads of laundry — enough for every household in Austin, Texas to do laundry for a year. Wal-Mart will avoid producing more than 139,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year. This is equal to taking approximately 25,000 cars off the road or eliminating the CO2 produced by 18,000 homes annually.
“Wal-Mart’s action shows that low-carbon technology is increasingly competitive and long-term sustainability is a winning business strategy,” said Andrew Aulisi, director of the markets & enterprise program at the World Resources Institute. “Wal-Mart’s smart and innovative approach should be used more widely.”
