Me Baking + You Eating = Money for Sick Kids
Aug 23, 2012 Charity & Volunteering
I am incredibly lucky: my family is healthy. I wish that could be true for all families, but it isn’t. That’s why I’m baking this weekend, to make a small contribution to the fight against pediatric cancer.
Cookies for Kids’ Cancer was started by two parents after their son was diagnosed with cancer. Now, people like me help raise money to fund research and treatment, by getting people like you to buy our baked goods!
I’ll be baking up a storm this weekend, and delivering the goods right to your door. On Sunday August 26th I’ll be delivering throughout Brooklyn, and on Monday August 27th I’ll be delivering to Manhattan (very convenient for you if you work in the city and would like to share with your co-workers!).
I’ll be taking payment through PayPal so that I’m not going to strangers’ houses laden with cash. There is a $10 minimum per order. If the prices seem a little on the high side, please keep this in mind: I’m donating all of the ingredients (which are expensive!) so that every penny of the purchase price gets donated.
[UPDATE: If you will be attending the Springboard Conference in September in Boston, you can order cookies or brownies - pay now so that I can get the donations in, and I will make them later and bring them with me! Please get your orders in ASAP - by September 7th would be great!]
Last year, with your help, I donated $257. I would love to match that again this year, or maybe even hit $300?
Here’s what I’m offering, and anyone who knows me would attest to how awesome these all are:
Tags: bake sale, Cookies for Kids
Posting from my bathroom for charity
May 8, 2012 Charity & Volunteering
So I’m sitting in my bathroom writing this post. No, I’m not doing that, I’m waiting for my hair dye to penetrate my gray hairs and dark roots. What would make me dye my hair on a Tuesday when I have so many other things I should be doing? The RBaby Foundation.
I first heard about this organization when Julia Beck (in that picture with me over there), founder of Forty Weeks, invited me to hear Phyllis Rabinowitz speak a few years ago. Phyllis and her husband Andrew lost their newborn because the ER they took her to wasn’t prepared to deal with an infant. They were sent home when their baby needed treatment.
They took their incredible grief and turned it into an organization that trains ERs to deal with babies, and provides the right equipment. They took the biggest tragedy of their lives and turned it around and helped others. There really are no words for people like that.
And Julia Beck has been one of their biggest supporters. She brought me into the RBaby fold, getting me to run my first race, a Mother’s Day four miler in Central Park that raised money for RBaby. (Heck, she even got me to craft for another charity – what won’t I do for this woman?) When I heard that Julia was being honored with the first ever Champion Award, and that I was being invited to a huge charity gala at the Plaza to celebrate Julia and the fifth anniversary of The RBaby Foundation, I was just thrilled.
Then I got scared. Me and high society? We don’t mix. I was the last person in NYC to get the memo that panty hose were out. I can’t walk in high-heeled shoes. And I can’t wear nice clothes and eat at the same time. I can guarantee you that tomorrow night I will say or do something to embarrass Julia, and she probably knows this, which is why I’m even more honored to be invited – she’s willing to risk public humiliation in the name of friendship. Hell, I’m already in trouble with her mother for calling her a hippie, but that’s another story. :-)
Tags: charity, Julia Beck, NYC, RBaby Foundation
ONE’s 12 Days of Change: my “sweet” contribution
Dec 2, 2011 Charity & Volunteering
I’m thrilled to be chairing a campaign from ONE.org (you know, Bono?) that will give you twelve different ways to raise awareness about how lucky we are to live where we live, and about what’s going on in places not so fortunate.
ONE does not ask people like us to write a check. They help spread awareness about what’s happening in places hit hardest by things like poverty, draught, and AIDS, so that we can help convince governments to write checks – big ones. I was lucky enough to attend a taping of The Daily Show with ONE the other night when Bono was the guest, and he was speaking about his goal of ending the spread of AIDS by 2015. Not reducing, ending. That takes vision, and funding.
But the 12 Days of Change campaign looks at things on a smaller scale: what can I do to help? What can I do to make my family aware of what’s going on? ONE has come up with twelve “actions” that you can take. These are not big things, but they are discussion starters and eye openers. They could even be family projects.
I’ve recruited twelve blogger friends to announce these actions, one per weekday, starting yesterday with Jyl Johnson from Mom It Forward. It’s a fun one: to watch the World AIDS Day broadcast produced by ONE (you can find the link in Jyl’s post).
I doubt I can get my kids to sit down with me and watch the whole broadcast (it’s more than two hours long) but I’m going to ask them to watch parts of it tonight, maybe before our regular movie night. I’ll even bribe them with popcorn if I have to (don’t tell them they were going to get it anyway!).
The Day 2 action I’m announcing is a little more involved, but right up my alley:
Make a batch of holiday cookies or treats for a friend, neighbor, teacher or anyone who needs something sweet in their week
I’m going to go a bit further than bringing in a treat for a teacher. I’m going to bring in treats for ALL the teachers and staff at my kids’ school. And while I can’t complete the action today, I did get started by baking a couple of big cakes that are now in the freezer, waiting to be turned into cake pops (something I just learned to make but am now obsessed with). I’ll add a couple batches of brownies to that as well, since I’m known at that school for my brownies. I’m going to get together with our principal and find a good day to leave a big “Thank You!” spread in their lounge.
I chose this action as mine because, well, baking. But also, because I always mean to do things like this but don’t follow through a lot of the time, and that’s a little sad because every time I do follow through, I’m so glad! It only takes a little effort to tell those around us how much we appreciate them, how glad we are to have them in our lives.
And, this is a great example of doing something you like to do for others – doing something nice doesn’t have to be painful or unenjoyable. Find something you like to do and then figure out how that thing could help others. I sold baked goods last year to raise money for pediatric cancer – I did something good by doing something I liked, and the people who bought my stuff raved. Everybody won.
So what does me baking for teachers have to do with Africa or AIDS or poverty? Well, the more I appreciate what I have (a good public school close by, teachers and staff who care about my kids), the more likely I am to want to make other people’s lives better too. It’s that simple.
So, I’ll be posting and tweeting when each new blogger announces that day’s action, and I’d love to hear from you if you do any – or all! – of them.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: 12 Days of Change, Food, ONE
