A New Month, A New Charity!

The first time I walked into my Public Library, I was really excited. They always have great displays outside. I could already smell the crisp paper inside each and every book, old or new.

When I first walked in, I could see books that were recommended inside a bin. I could see the check out register.

As I ventured to the kid’s section of the library, I saw people looking for movies, on the libraries computers and studying. Then I knew that I had hit the jackpot, BOOKS GALORE!

The whole back end of the Library was kids books. magazines, picture books, videos, tape books, chapter books and more. About every type of book you could think of was there.  Eventually, this became one of my favorite places to be.

Yesterday I called the library to ask if they take book donations. As many of you know, many libraries are in need of books or are underfunded. So, because I think that my library is really great, I want to turn my library into my charitiy for this month.

I think that it would be really cool if I started a book drive. For this month, I am going to turn my book drive into a neighborhood book drive. What I will do is make fliers requesting book donations and tommorrow I am going to distribute them on my neighboring streets. Later on, I will collect books with my sister using my wagon. Then, I’m going to donate them to my public library! If you know me and have books to donate, please let me know! You can also donate them to you OWN library–just call to see if they accept donations!

The person who donates the most books this month will win a twenty dollar donation to the charity of his or her choice! Please email me or leave a comment to let me know what you do to help libraries!

Advertisement

Bake Sales and Lemonade Sales and Badges! Oh My!

A few days ago, Mr. Morris from Wetpaint asked me to think about helping the China Earthquake Relief Fund. This will help rebuild schools in China that were destroyed in the earthquake. The people working for the China Earthquake Relief Fund want to raise $50,000.00 so they can build safe schools for children in China.

So, this evening, at dinner, my mom dad and I talked about what I could do to raise money for this. I thought about doing a bake sale. My mom thought it might be a good idea to try to start a global bake sale or lemonade sale. On July 14, I will be having a huge bake sale and lemonade sale in my yard. We have a block sale that day, and all of the money I raise at my bake/lemonade sale will go to the China Earthquake Relief Fund. If YOU help out, we could raise even more money to donate together. You can participate as an individual, a family, or a classroom or school even. All you need to do is have a sale on your own and donate the money directly to the China Earthquake Relief Fund. I can’t accept any money from anyone myself, but you can send it right to them!

My dad thought about making badges for everyone who participates. If YOU decide to do a bake or lemonade sale to raise money to donate to the China Earthquake Relief fund in the coming months, you will receive a blog badge from me to put on your blog, if you have one. You will also win a magnetic badge too. And if you want, I will even Skype with classes to thank them. Magnetic badges will be sent in the mail. I am looking forward to making all of these. It’s going to be fun! In the future, I hope to support more global causes and to give away different badges for every cause I choose.

I really hope that some different people from all around the world will participate in this global bake sale for the China Earthquake Relief Fund. I hope YOU take on this challange! And if you aren’t able to bake or sell lemonade you could spread the word about this contest. Please consider blogging about it, using Twitter to write about it, or asking someone you know to take part.

DON’T FORGET TO LET ME KNOW IF YOU PARTICIPATE! I WILL SEND YOUR BADGES THROUGH EMAIL AND THE REGULAR MAIL!

And if anyone else has ideas to encourage people to participate, please blog about them too or let me know and I’ll spread the word!

  

Thank You Skype!!!

This week I got a webcam in the mail from SKYPE. My webcam is awesome! THANK YOU SKYPE!!!

So today I want to write down some things about how I can use my webcam to make a difference.

1. I can do webchats with classrooms about small ways to make a difference
2. I can post a video on Artsnacks which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time
3. Spread awarness on the charity of the month by announcing it on my blog
4. Announce  the winners of blog contests
5. Monthly interviews with charity directors in skype. I like to interview the people who I work with during the month sometimes. My webcam will help me do this and see them at the same time!

 If you have any more ideas about what I can do to make a difference with SKYPE and my webcam tell me by leaving a comment!

Skype Chat With The Bloggers of 17 Chances to Help

 

The first thing I would like to write about today (or tonight) is my Skype chat with the bloggers at 17 chances to Make a Difference. Mrs. Hernandez invited me to be interviewed by her class. They were the same age as I am.

I thought that everyone was really nice. I was really excited to do this chat, and I am excited for the next skype chat I will have. Mrs. Hernandez said we might be able to Skype again. I felt bad because I was able to see the class but they couldn’t see me. They had a webcam, but we don’t have one yet. I’m hoping that next time we will.

I thought that the questions and anwsers they gave me were really different from anybody else’s. I think that the younger you are the more different your questions are because most adults ask the same things of me, but kids have different questions for kids. Mabey that’s just how I feel.

The kids from 17 Chances to Help asked me really great questions like what kind of music I like. They also said that I have an accent, because they are from Florida, and I am from New York, which was really funny.

I hope that I will get to talk with them again. I also hope you will visit their site because they are blogging about making a difference too!

Being a Cheerful Giver

 

Today I finally returned my pop bottles and pennies/loose change! I earned enough money to buy 12 gift bags!!! I was really excited about this! I will be donating the gift bags to Compass House on behalf of Cheerful Givers! I hope that the gift bags I made will make more kid’s birthdays happier and brighter, I know that I had fun shopping for them. This would make a great charity project for a group like the Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts. If you ever want to learn about how to support Cheerful Givers, just email me!

 

Please Visit 17 Chances to Make a Difference

A few days ago I got a comment from Ari and Sarah from 17 Chances to Make a Difference. This is a blog that an entire class is keeping. I was really excited to learn that they did their blog off of my blog! I was also excited to see their blog because it is TOTALLY AWESOME!!!  Ari and Sarah are Jewish, and they are commanded to do good deeds make the world a better place. In Hebrew, this is called Mitzvot.

Please take some time today to go and visit their site, and bookmark it too to spread the word about the great things these kids are doing! Thank you so much for visiting my site Ari and Sarah! I will be visiting you all the time too. I’ve also added you to my blogroll.

Announcing the Winners of the February 25 Day Challenge

This month, I helped the Pajama Project and Project Linus! There were a lot of surprises during this month’s challenge, but one of the nicest surprises was hearing from Erin from West Seneca! Erin is a teacher, and she collected some pajamas with her students! I just found out about this last week, and it made me really happy.

Erin is the individual winner of this month’s challenge! She will be able to pick any charity or cause, and we will be making a twenty dollar donation to it! Just let us know where you would like your donation to go, Erin.

Lindbergh Elementary School won the group prize for this month. I am going to talk with my principal, Mrs. Parsons, about where this twenty dollar donation can be sent. I want to say thank you to all of my friends and the teachers at school for helping with this. I also want to thank Mrs. Parsons, too. It was fun doing a pajama drive!

My mom has spoken with Mrs. Cardena from the Pajama Program about collecting the pjs and books. And I actually got to meet and work with Christene Lewandowski from Project Linus. What was REALLY cool was visiting Compass House this month and SEEING all of the blankets there that Project Linus has donated in the past! That was really neat.

In March, I am going to be supporting Compass House and Cheerful Givers. I am really excited about doing all of this. I have some ideas for new contests too and some neat prizes this month, so please keep reading. A new month is starting!

The Serving Kids Award

The Serving Kids Award was designed by me. I used Microsoft Paint to make it. I’m just learning to use it so I don’t really get fancy like Lynn Anne Cutler can. Each month I am going to give the Serving Kids Award  to 3 bloggers. Bloggers can win this award by doing 1 of 2 things :

• The blogger can be a kid who is serving others  or the world.
• The blogger can be an adult who is serving kids.

 I would like to give my badge to 3 people that serve kids by blogging. These people are…

NINA! My little sister who is writing stories about making a difference. She writes one page per day on her blog!!!

COCO! Coco made a blog about making a difference for a specail kid who live in poverty.

Mr.Pullen and his STUDENTS! Mr.Pullen inspired his students to make a blog about making a difference called Heart to Heart.

I would really like it if these people could:

1. Put the badge on their blogs
2. Pass the badge on to 3 other bloggers who deserve it! They can be adults whose blogs or work serve kids….or kids whose blogs or work serve others or the world!

You can get the HTML code HERE to make this badge clickable!

Have fun!

Caught Making a Difference: Lindbergh Students

The first thing I want to say is thank you to all of my classmates at Lindbergh Elementary! Everyone is bringing in all of their Dash’s receipts to support Ski4e. The bowl in the picture is the biggest bowl in my house! It is overflowing with receipts! I think that this is awesome! I WILL BE COLLECTING THESE ALL THROUH THE MONTH!!!!! SO PLEASE KEEP GIVING THEM TO ME!!!

Right now as I am writing this, my mom is almost finished tallying up the total dollar amount of all the receipts. Mrs. Phillips thank you so much for that big bag! That really means a lot to me!

Dash’s Markets will donate 5% of the total dollar amount we all collect this month to Ski4E! And the total amount for just today was:

$3351.55!!!! So far, we have raised $167.57 through receipts alone!

I hope I figured this out right!

I also caught another person making a difference today. She really makes my world a better place and means a TON to me.  It is…………. MY LITTLE SISTER, NINA! She is always willing to help me when I am feeling sad and is always helping me do jobs.  Like today when I went on a penny hunt for Ski4E, she helped and found all of the coins. Also, she put her lunch change in the bucket (she could’ve spent it on a slushie or cookies).  Nina got Silly Scented markers for Christmas. Crayola makes them and they smell really stinky. They are called “Scary Movie” and “Voodoo Vapor” and they smell gross. Nina makes up funny games with them, and she lets me use them all the time too. She always shares with me, and that is cool. She makes a big difference to me, and I’m not just saying that.

Making a Difference Throughout the Year

Laura has been eager to continue using her blog as a means of encouraging others to make a difference throughout the entire year. Over the last several weeks, there has been much discussion in our home about how she might be able to do this in a way that would inspire readers to take part, offer support to causes that are meaningful to her, and remain manageable for our family over the course of an entire year.

On January 1, 2008 we will be launching a year-long campaign to make a difference for a variety of selected causes. Everyone will be invited to take part with us in a variety of different ways. Your involvement can exist within the space of a moment…a week…a month…or an entire year. You can pledge to make a donation if you wish, but Laura’s first project was about promoting service, and it is important to our family that this remains at the heart of her project as it moves forward.

The purpose of Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference was to provide Laura with the opportunity to witness just how much doing “little things” might make a difference. Laura has learned a great deal about this over the last month. She has also begun to build a small community of people who are interested in doing good things as well. We’d like to call upon this community of readers as we move forward by asking you for some important recommendations.

Laura intends to feature and serve 11 different causes over the course of the next year. She will focus on a different cause each month through next November. Details about how she intends to support these causes will be shared on January 1, 2008. And in December of next year, she will embark on round two of her original 25 day challenge.

So, how can you help right now? Send us some ideas!!!!!

We have received some lovely emails from people who have begun supporting a variety of important causes. We’ve been invited to lend a hand to these people and organizations–and we intend to. As we move forward here, our family would like to continue helping in small ways that will make the MOST difference. While Laura has been happy to donate to larger organizations like Roswell Park and the Salvation Army, she is really interested in featuring smaller and perhaps, lesser known causes as well. In this way, the little things that she intends to do might make a larger impact.

Please help us by contacting us at twentyfivedays(at)gmail(dot)com. We would love to hear about how we might be able to help a lesser-known cause that is near and dear to your heart by featuring it here and devoting a month of service to it sometime this year. Laura would love to receive your suggestions prior to January 1st. She will be making her selections on New Year’s Eve.

And please continue to visit! Laura is very excited about her plans for the year ahead, and her family is excited to be a part of them!

A Little Something to Pass Along

Two days ago, I found out that Susan from Toddler Planet awarded my blog with this neat badge:

This is an award that bloggers give to other bloggers for building community online. I am really excited to be receiving this! Thank you, Susan! And everyone should go and congratulate her on her good news. Susan is battling inflammatory breast cancer, and she has been dealing with chemotherapy treatments for a very long time in order to make her tumors “operable” because they weren’t before. And now they are! Which is good news for Susan! I am happy for her and happy that even in the middle of all of this, she thought of me.

Because I won this award, I now get to pass it along to three OTHER bloggers who are building community too! And I had to think hard about who I wanted to give it to. But I have chosen three great people: Roger Carr, Jen Lemen, and Mrs. Lykowski.

Roger Carr’s website, The Everyday Giving Blog, is all about helping others. I know that Mr. Carr has built a HUGE COMMUNITY of charitable people there, because he sends a lot of readers who respect him to my site. I also like what his site is all about. The type of community he is building is something that means a lot to me.

Jen Lemen’s website sends me lots of visitors every single day. I admire Jen because she is an artist and she focuses her art on really positive things. Reading about things like this makes me feel happy inside.

Mrs. Lykowski is a teacher in Michigan. Her students are building community with a group of students from Columbia! They have a Wiki and podcasts that are really interesting to listen to. This is where Columbian students talk about what they think American students and schools are like. Michigan students do the same thing. I love listening to them!

So, thank you Susan for giving me this badge to put on my blog! I hope that the people I have passed it to will do the same. Each of them can also pass the badge along to three other people as well! If you have questions, you can email my mom at twentyfivedays(at)gmail(dot)com.

 

Drumroll, Please! Announcing the Winners!

 

Merry Christmas everybody! As you all know, today is the day I have been waiting for! I am about to announce the winners of the contests– the GRAND PRIZES, the BETTER LATE THAN NEVER PRIZES, and the CLASSROOM CHALLANGE PRIZE. Some people have been wondering how my mom and I kept track of the people who were participating. Well, that was easy. We kept a spread sheet on Microsoft Excel. Every night, we looked at my comments and secretly looked at your blogs to see what you did to make a difference. Then, my mom showed me how to cut and paste the things you wrote into our spreadsheet. People who didn’t blog e-mailed us everyday, saying what they did.  We have been keeping track all month long. Reading about all the things you’ve done has made my holiday the best one yet! This has been a wonderful learning experience for me, not only learning how to blog better, but learning that doing small things can make the world a very merry place! Reading about all of the good things that you did were great presents for me! So, I want to say thank you to all 60 people and 6 classrooms that took part in this challenge!

And now, drumroll please!!!

Thanks to everyone who matched my donations, we have $825.00 dollars to award tonight! This morning, my teacher, Mrs. Nabozny, gave me a very special Christmas gift by matching my funds. Thank you to everyone! I only ever planned to contribute my allowance for this month. It’s because of everyone else’s pledges that this got so HUGE!

There are two prizes for those who either joined later in the contest or may not have done all twenty five days. I have named these the Better Late Than Never Prizes, and I have picked one adult and one child winner. Each winner will receive a $100.00 donation to the charity that they name.

The adult winner is NEDRA. Some of the things that Nedra did included donating food to a food bank, buying supplies for a local classroom, using Roswell Park Christmas cards this year, buying clothes for needy children, feeding hungry animals, helping someone who experienced a death in her family this year, helping to run a holiday concert, and writing lots of notes of appreciation (among many other things)!  

The child prize is being awarded to the DUVALL FAMILY! Addie stayed late after her Brownie meeting to help clean up, she shoveled and dug a neighbor out of the snow, they donated supplies for soldiers overseas, emptied their piggy banks to contribute to a school fundraiser, gave money to the Salvation Army, and even shared the last of their favorite treats with their siblings rather than keeping them all for themselves!

There are also two Grand Prize Winners (one adult and one child). These winners participated right from the beginning of our contest! Donations in the amount of $250.00 (each) will be made directly to the charities that you name.

Our adult winner was Coco! Coco did so much this season that I can’t write it all here….but some of the highlights included making donations to the Salvation Army, donating clothes and books, starting online gift registries for the Salvation Army, visiting local fireman with homemade treats to thank them for their help all year long, donating food to food banks, donating toys to local hospitals, being kind to drivers by letting them cut in front of her. Supporting the Susan G. Komen foundation and joining Team WhyMommy. There is so much, much more…Coco has been really inspiring this season.

The child Grand Prize is being awarded to Lillian, Duncan, Hunter, and Drew!!! Some of the things that they did included donating books to a youth book exchange, helping their grandparents with a tricky home renovation purchase, creating multimedia holiday cards for troops overseas, donating free mammagrams, paying for a random shopper’s purchase at a Hostess store–because she was short on cash, and babysitting for those who needed it during the holiday season. These kids live in Utah, too–and they have shoveled more snow than any other person involved in this contest has. Again, they did more too, but these are just the highlights.

And finally, we have one winner of the Classroom Challenge. The winning classroom will win a $125.00 donation to the charity that they name as well as this very special prize from Susan and her husband at Toddler Planet:

 A 4 foot x 3 foot photo printout of the Martian landscape taken by the Mars rovers, a packet of solar system lithographs, and a special video conference call (or audio, if the school doesn’t have a webcam) with two NASA scientists.  We’ll give a talk and answer questions from the winning class. 

This winning classroom did quite a lot to make a difference using technology. First of all, the STUDENTS created a classroom WIKI, which will help to keep all of them organized and informed. The ENTIRE SCHOOL also participated in a “Free Rice Marathon.” Students were brought to the computer lab in 15 minute shifts all day long. They worked on over thirty computers and were able to “win” and “donate” 750,000 grains of rice through the United Nations to end world hunger. You can all play free rice (for free!) here. And the winner of the Classroom Challenge was Mr. Jones’s class! Congratulations!!!

Thank you, again, for making this holiday season so special for everyone!

If you are a winner, please email us by New Year’s Day to name your charity. Mr. Jones! You can let us know as soon as you are able to meet with your class again–no rush!

And if you are someone who has matched my funds, we will let you know via email which charity you can forward your donation to as soon as we have that information from our winners.

I will also be writing a post so that everyone who is reading knows exactly which charities benefitted from this contest and our generous contributors.

Writing this post was kind of sad for me, because I have really enjoyed doing this so much. A lot of people are asking if I will be doing this again next year, and the answer is YES. I will definitely be doing this contest again next year! I am also thinking about how I want to use this blog all year long. My mom and I are going to talk about that this week, while I am off, and I will announce my plans very soon! So, don’t leave just yet!

Congratulations, everybody!!!! And thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How I Made a Difference on December 24th: A Christmas Eve Prayer

 My Grandpa Stockman believed in praying for others and especially for people who he knew others were not thinking of. The way that I am going to make a difference today is by remembering people like this and keeping them close in my heart. I would like everyone who is reading my blog to try to do the same.

One way that you can remember the less fortunate at Christmastime is by lighting a candle in your home. My family is going to put one in our kitchen window today. But did you know that you can also light candles on the web? I would like to invite all of you who are reading to do the same at this page on the Gratefulness website. If you visit this page, you will see that I have lit a candle in memory of the less fortunate, who may be lonely or sad today. The name of our group is TFD for Twenty Five Days. It would be wonderful to see a lot of candles lit here in the next few days.

Although we know that not everyone does this, my family remembers people by praying for them, just like my Grandpa did. So this morning, my daddy and Nina and I worked together to brainstorm and write a Christmas Eve prayer that we will say at dinner tonight. I’ve written it below so that you can see it and say it too, if you would like.

We wish everyone who celebrates a Merry Christmas! Tomorrow, we will be announcing the winners of our contests, so please make sure to stop by again. ALSO!! PLEASE BE SURE TO LEAVE A COMMENT TELLING US ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU DID TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON THAT MADE YOU FEEL VERY HAPPY!! You can read my post from yesterday about this, or you can leave a comment here!

Dear Lord, On this Christmas Eve, we are thankful for the many blessings you have given us.  We are especially thankful for our families and friends, and the love and kindness we share with one another. We ask that you help us share that love and kindness with those who are alone, those who lack love in their hearts and lives, those who live in fear and despair, and those who live without faith and charity. We ask that you bless us all with your grace, and fill our hearts with peace and true love toward all your creation, as you showed us when you gave us the gift of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

How I Made a Difference on December 23,2007

Today I made a difference by putting together some old clothes, new toys and boots to donate to the St. Vincet de Paul society. Click here to see the link. My church encourages people to donate to St. Vincent de Paul all year long. They even have a clothing bin box behind the school. Tomorrow, my dad will help me out by taking me there to drop off all of our things! My church works all year long to collect and donate food to their pantry, too. It is a very special organization, and I imagine that at this time of year, they need as many donations as they can get!

   ——————————————————————————-

Christmas Eve Commenting!

The best thing about keeping this blog has been reading your messages to see what you have to say and what cool things you’ve been doing to make a difference. It makes me really happy, and I know that it makes others who are reading this happy too. I think it would be really fun if everyone who visits this site–whether you are a new reader or someone who has been participating since the beginning–answers the following question by leaving me a comment!

Out of all of the things that you did to make a difference for someone or something this holiday season, which one made you happiest and why?

I’m really looking forward to reading all of your answers. And remember, you do not have to be participating in my contest to take part. Just click on the comments box right under the title of today’s post to leave a message! I’m excited to see how many we might get! This will make for some fun reading on Christmas Eve!

Also, if you haven’t had a chance, please vist Lillian, Duncan, Hunter, and Drew’s blog! They did my meme! Thank you!!!! Also, you can do the Meme too… and I’ll link to your blog if you let me know (and your site is appropriate, my mom reminds me). Here are Duncan, Hunter, and Drew’s responses!

1. In your opinion, what does it mean to make a difference?

Drew: Making a difference could be something small like going and shoveling your neighbors drive way or it could be something big like donating $500 dollars to charity.
Lillian: Making a difference often starts out small and grows from there. One little thing done by just one person can have a snowball effect – or not. Sometimes it stays small but meaningful.

2. What is an example of a unique way to make a difference?

Drew: I think that a fun and unique way to make a difference is to do something as small as getting a little gift for an elderly neighbor cause even if it’s small it could make all the difference.
Lillian: I think every opportunity to do something for a specific person is a unique opportunity. There are many ways to be one person among many, but those are the general opportunities. It’s those little things that become not only unique but extra special.

3. Who has made a difference in YOUR life this week?

Drew: My grandma is making a difference in my life every day by giving and helping me with so many things that I do on a daily basis.
Lillian: SO MANY people make a difference to me every day! As we’ve been doing this I’ve noticed that I could make a list each day of what other people do for me. It is very humbling. Sometimes it’s also frustrating because I want to say, “Stop! Stop helping me and let me help you!”

4. If I didn’t have a blog, would you still be making a difference

Drew: I might but I don’t think it would be anywhere near to as big as it is with the blog.
Lillian: Probably, but we wouldn’t think about it nearly as much, and we would likely be much less diligent at looking for opportunities. This has been a fun and enlightening experience!

5. What is your favorite thing about the internet?

Drew: It lets me learn things and do stuff that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. Plus I can talk to my friends on MSN.
Lillian: Two things: 1. Information. When I don’t know something I know I can find it online! It drives me nuts when our internet service is down and I can’t take a few minutes to look something up. How did we ever survive without it? 2. Relationships. I have made some of my best friendships online, and continued or renewed others that would otherwise have been lost. Email, blogs, online gaming, IM, Twitter, and Web 2.0 sites like Facebook have given me vast opportunities to build and support relationships. I think it’s wonderful.

How Miss Steinhauser Made a Difference on December 22, 2007

Miss Steinhauser is my favorite instructor at Master Khechen School of Tae Kwon-Do because she is very kind to me and is a very good role model for myself and others. Miss Steinhauser is the only woman instructor that I have at Tae Kwon-Do. When I first started Tae Kwon- Do, Miss Steinhauser had just tested for her black belt, and I was in her first class. Now I am a first bar child black belt. So I have known Miss Steinhauser for a really long time. She works really hard as an instructor at Tae Kwon-Do, every single day! I have had Miss Steinhauser for an instructor for almost six years now, and she has never lost her patience or raised her voice even once! And I take classes three days a week all year round usually! Miss Steinhauser teaches us to have good character and she practices what she preaches. I really like that.

Today Miss Steinhauser really surprised me. She gave me a gift for Christmas! It is called a bo. A bo is a weapon in Tae Kwon-Do that looks like a stick. It is sort of heavy, and it is a really special weapon. I’ve been waiting to learn how to use a bo for a really long time, but my parents said I had to wait until after Christmas for me to get one. I was really surprised by this and really, really happy!

I know that this whole blog is supposed to be about how I am making a difference. And I have done some good deeds today. For example, I cleaned our oven! And I washed down the baseboards in our house too to get ready for our party tonight. But what I really wanted to write about today was how Miss Steinhauser made a difference for ME and how grateful I am for that. It really means a lot to me, Miss Steinhauser!!!!

Thank you so much!!!!