Firm Hope In a better tomorrow!

Some good Samaritans are helping one Hiram, Georgia, family whose home was hit hard by floods. CNN’s Catherine Callaway reports.

A woman named Dianne Villano started a Web site, www.supportourmarinesinc.org, which sends care packages to Marines on the front lines. She gathers things like letters from local elementary schools, Q-tips, energy bars, coffee and nonperishable food items. The letters she gets in return show what a tremendous difference packages from home can mean when some soldiers are not getting anything at all.

She was spending $1,200 per month of her own money on this. She uses her own apartment with the balcony as a storage station for the supplies. She then goes to the local USPS and flat rates the packages. After two years of doing this her accountant told her that she needs to start a charity to make these donations from local businesses tax deductible.

She is still waiting to hear from the IRS about official 501c3 status. Her goal this year is to raise around $25,000 and she has been accumulating more and more Marine units who need her help. One unit gave Dianne their American flag they used throughout their Iraq tour. Other wives have called and written her telling her how much the packages have increased morale and gotten their loved ones through difficult times.

Anonymous giving and acts of kindness can lead the giver to a very lonely place in the universe. Like the Lone Ranger or some other disguised hero, we do kind things all the time and so often the people on the receiving end don’t see it or don’t recognize it.

Living a life of altruism, in its most ideal form, means setting the ego aside and not doing what we do for credit. Usually, I have no problem with this at all. But there are those days, perhaps when I’m feeling a little weak or drained, where I find myself feeling lonely with it all, feeling like I’m giving, giving, giving, to a world that is in super receiving mode and asleep to what’s being done for them. I get a little discouraged.

Even idealized heroes had their inner circle of friends who knew who they really were and what their life was all about. The Lone Ranger had Tonto. Batman had Robin and his butler, Alfred. You get the picture. Being truly altruistic means we do what we do without expectation for credit or recognition. Otherwise, it’s not truly altruistic. But at some point, we have to be good receivers to continue to be effective givers.

I remember shortly after my first child was born that my wife and I reached a point where we were really struggling to make ends meet. We both had jobs but the pay was very meager.  We were both doing work that we loved doing and we were really caught up in the magic of being new parents.  But a financial reality burst our bubble one day.We had nothing left in savings, and bills that were due, some overdue, could not be met.

We talked with other people about our dire circumstances. We got a lot of sympathy but we were still feeling a lot of stress and not coming up with any solutions. And then it happened. I opened the front door one morning and found a plain white envelope tucked inside the screen door. Inside the envelope was $100 dollars. I felt this tremendous sense of energy swell up within me, surrounding me like a great, warm comforter. Some kind soul anonymously gave what felt like an awful lot of money to me then. They obviously didn’t want credit for their generosity and to this day I’ve never known for certain who it was.

In those days, that $100 would have just about paid for a month’s rent. And even though it wasn’t enough to make good on all of our bills, receiving the money gave us such a sense of relief and humbleness to be blessed by some great kindness of a friend who wanted no credit from us whatsoever. We made it through that dark time, not so much from the money we’d been given, but by realizing how powerful an act of anonymous generosity can be.

I’ve paid that act of kindness forward over and over many times. And even being the veteran giver that I consider myself to be, my mind still swings like a pendulum between the extremes of totally selfless giving and the need to receive something in return occasionally. Despite the back and forth energy of the momentum that is created, my sense is that I am ever moving forward through a world that often feels thankless and uncaring. I am constantly aware that there have probably been countless occasions when I have been the receiver of many acts of kindness from others who may have been aware of what they were doing even though I was asleep to their gift.

I am committed to being more awake to what’s going on around me and to showing my gratitude whenever possible for any act of kindness  given, even if it’s as small a thing as someone holding open a door for me.  Living a life of kindness is like breathing: for every breath out, there has to be a breath back in.  That isn’t about ego.  It’s about staying alive and being fully human.  To quote the animated film Ratatouille “Let’s do this thing!”

ALPINE, UTAH — Even though a cup of joe isn’t exactly Jeff Smith’s cup of tea, he gets a buzz out of kicking back at his local coffee shop and spying on yawning — and often downright grumpy — morning customers as they realize their foam-whipped morning fix has been paid for.

“They just transform,” Smith said. “They get this confused look, then grin from ear to ear and look around for someone to thank. They can’t figure it out.”

A cashier then slips the baffled customer a small laminated card with an unusual message: “You’ve been ‘tagged’ with an Act of Kindness.”

The middle-age Alpine resident is so addicted to the charitable high he feels from “small acts here and there” that he’s spent a small fortune launching an Internet-based company intended to help others experience the same feeling.

The lofty notion of kindness being passed from person to person like a sort of benevolent influenza was featured in the 2000 award-winning film “Pay It Forward.”

But Smith’s Web site, goodwillpaidforward.com, punches the concept up a notch — or a full rung — by allowing do-gooders, even those wishing to remain anonymous, to track the contagiousness of their kindness on Google map.

“Now you can literally see how your act of service has spread all over the world,” he said excitedly. “It’s incredible.”

A sheet of 10 tags can be bought online for $16. After the tags arrive by mail, the buyer logs on the Web site and types in a provided code to activate the series.

The newly motivated humanitarian then goes to work carrying groceries or mowing lawns with a pocket — or keychain — full of tags.

“Sure, we can serve without tags, and we should, but do we?” Smith questioned. “Not enough, and sometimes not at all. So these (tags) act as a great reminder. You think, ‘I’ve got to get rid of these.’”

Like the proverbial cash that burns to be spent, Smith says, the mini cards itch until they’re properly scratched with a good deed and given away.

Each tag passed out can be tracked on Smith’s Web site as it wonders the earth from one amicable person and one continent to the next.

Those tagged type their ticket’s individual number on the Web site and leave a comment, then pass it on.

Once purchased, the same sturdy tag remains in circulation for what Smith refers to as several “generations” or “ripples” of kindness.

“Like ripples of water,” he said. “Throw the first pebble and watch it multiply.”

In short, a person’s original 10 acts of kindness often increase to 100 in as little as a month’s time.

To date, the 7-month-old Web site has tracked 11,763 acts of kindness, nearly 60 a day.

An active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smith said he was especially moved to create the feel-good movement when late church President Gordon B. Hinckley noted, “It is not enough to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. … And the good that is in you must be spread to others.”

The self-made, affluent businessman said the operation is not intended to turn a profit, but he wouldn’t mind if tag sales paid enough to make it a self-sustaining operation.

Attesting to his altruistic claim is a rare sight: a popularly visited Web site without a single advertisement. There’s not one neon-blinking, cursor-following, pop-up ad on the whole site.

“Sure, I want to get paid back on it, but that’s not everything,” Smith said. “I feel good about it.”

Where it does make money, though, is in the fundraising department.

After Smith’s son’s baseball team found out it was facing a 20 percent financial shortfall after dwindling sign-up numbers, they sold the sheets door to door for $20 — of which $12 per sheet went back to the team or organization.

“People don’t mind buying one, even in these (economic) conditions, because they can feel good about it,” he said.

And apparently people do. A glance at the Web site shows comments of appreciation for acts a few dozen ripples deep, ranging from shoveling snow off of sidewalks to an anonymously given cashier’s check for $5,000.

In about a month, the lengthy Web site name goodwillpaidforward.com will be changed to tagten.org “in reference to tagging 10 folks with kindness,” Smith said.

“It’s a tag-you’re-it thing,” he said.

SOURCE: Deseret News

The “miracle” of Christmas is repeated over and over again through the joy of caring and sharing. The traditional red kettle of the Salvation Army is an integral part of the Christmas scene, with millions of dollars donated each year to aid needy families, seniors, and the homeless, in keeping with the spirit of the season.

Donations provide Christmas dinners, clothing, and toys for families in need. Financial assistance also helps with basic necessities, along with seasonal aid. Families of prisoners often are included.

Volunteers distribute gifts to shut-ins in hospitals and nursing homes, and shelters are open for sit-down dinners. The Salvation Army endeavors to bring spiritual light and love to those it serves at Christmas so that the real meaning of the season is not forgotten.

Many families receive aid over a period of months after the Christmas season as well, people struggling with difficult family, emotional, or employment problems.

The History of the Red Kettle

In 1891, Salvation Army Captain Joseph McFee was distraught because so many poor individuals in San Francisco were going hungry. During the holiday season, he resolved to provide a free Christmas dinner for the destitute and poverty-stricken. He only had one major hurdle to overcome — funding the project.

Where would the money come from, he wondered. He lay awake nights, worrying, thinking, praying about how he could find the funds to fulfill his commitment of feeding 1,000 of the city’s poorest individuals on Christmas Day. As he pondered the issue, his thoughts drifted back to his sailor days in Liverpool, England. He remembered how at Stage Landing, where the boats came in, there was a large, iron kettle called “Simpson’s Pot” into which passers-by tossed a coin or two to help the poor.

The next day Captain McFee placed a similar pot at the Oakland Ferry Landing at the foot of Market Street. Beside the pot, he placed a sign that read, “Keep the Pot Boiling.” He soon had the money to see that the needy people were properly fed at Christmas.

Six years later, the kettle idea spread from the west coast to the Boston area. That year, the combined effort nationwide resulted in 150,000 Christmas dinners for the needy. In 1901, kettle contributions in New York City provided funds for the first mammoth sit-down dinner in Madison Square Garden, a custom that continued for many years. Today in the U.S., The Salvation Army assists more than four-and-a-half million people during the Thanksgiving and Christmas time periods.

Captain McFee’s kettle idea launched a tradition that has spread not only throughout the United States, but all across the world. Kettles are now used in such distant lands as Korea, Japan, Chile and many European countries. Everywhere, public contributions to Salvation Army kettles enable the organization to continue its year-round efforts at helping those who would otherwise be forgotten.

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Americans are struggling with stagnant wages, rising debts and increased expenses during these tough economic times. What happens when a corporate executive loses a job or a family simply can’t make ends meet to put food on the table? What about the refugee who needs to learn English to get a job or the homeless man who wants to get off the streets before winter sets in?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ extensive welfare program is a system unlike any other because it provides temporary relief while at the same time helping people help themselves. The fine-tuned program has been in operation for decades and is run almost entirely by volunteer labor. Although it was primarily established for members of the Church, the program also assists others who are struggling.

Based on the principle of self-reliance, the Church welfare system includes canneries, farms and factories throughout the United States that provide food and commodities for those in need.

In addition, thousands find jobs annually through its employment centers and on-the-job training at Deseret Industries stores. Thousands more add to their own home food storage to prepare for a rainy day.

Charlene Cummings from Leonardtown, Maryland, learned firsthand how the Church welfare system can change lives. Charlene dealt with abuse as a child and struggles with a diagnosed mental illness, but she recently moved from a supervised living group to her own apartment. Charlene credits much of her newly discovered ability to function independently to the watchful care she receives from her friends at church.

In Charlene’s situation, local members of the Church taught her financial management skills, including budgeting and savings. Because she’s diabetic, members assisted Charlene with menu planning, shopping and other areas involved in managing her illness. When times were really challenging in her life, the Church provided both financial and food assistance to help Charlene bridge the gaps in her personal income. “The Church has become the family I’ve never had; they’ve taught me things I’d never learned,” Charlene explained.

Mormons are counseled, as a part of Church practice, to develop such independence and self-reliance.

“We teach self-reliance as a principle of life, that we ought to provide for ourselves and take care of our own needs,” suggested late Church leader Gordon B. Hinckley. “And so we encourage our people to have something, to plan ahead, keep a little food on hand, to establish a savings account, if possible, against a rainy day. Catastrophes come to people sometimes when least expected: unemployment, sickness, and things of this kind. The individual, as we teach, ought to do for himself all that he can do for himself.”

Another aspect of these teachings is the need to stock basic foodstuffs in case of any type of emergency. The Church operates over a hundred regionally located storehouses and home storage centers to help members gather their food storage. Other plants process specific food items, such as the peanut butter plant in Houston, Texas.

In addition, many Mormons grow and can some of their own food supplies. Paula Henderson of Raleigh, North Carolina, cultivates an urban garden of about 625 square feet in her yard. From the harvest of fruits and vegetables her garden produces, Paula makes pesto and pickles, cans or dries tomatoes and roasts peppers. “Last fall, after the freeze,” Henderson explained, “I gathered all the green tomatoes, put them in the garage and used them as they ripened all winter. I didn’t buy any tomatoes until March.”

Paula’s experience illustrates one of the practical concepts of the welfare plan: utilize all available resources many ways, adopting a lifestyle of economy or provident living.

The concepts of provident living and caring for the less fortunate have been primary objectives of the Church from the very beginning. Based on the Christian principles taught in the scriptures, Church founder Joseph Smith reached out to immigrants, widows and orphans, providing them with sustenance in their stretched circumstances. Brigham Young, another early Church leader, established a Perpetual Emigration Fund to assist newly converted Mormons in their travels to the Utah territory. The fund, repaid to the Church when the recipients were financially able, circulated to help other traveling families.

Such hand-to-hand concern for others continued during the settling of the frontier lands, but gained additional attention during the Great Depression years of the 1930s. Strained financial situations, unemployment and overall discouragement led Church leaders to implement a more formal application of the self-reliance concepts.

In 1936, then-Church President Heber J. Grant announced “that the gospel plan not only takes care of our spiritual needs, but our temporal needs as well. Our primary purpose is to set up a system … under which the curse of idleness will be done away with, the evils of the dole abolished, and independence, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help people help themselves.” A system of work projects and storehouses was then set up that bridged the unemployment gaps of the time and provided for the immediate needs of Church families.

Such a system endures today, a two-way system where one helps another in need and they both benefit. “If you build self-reliance in people,” noted Dennis Lifferth, managing director of the Church’s welfare program, “everybody grows; it is the essence of the welfare plan. Lives can be changed by personal interest and attention.”

SOURCE: LDS.org

North Porch Women and Infant Centers might best be described as a special kind of emergency room. The waiting area is full of comfortable couches and chairs, and in the storage room the shelves are stocked with baby supplies.

The “patients,” mothers who have got to the end of the week or month and have no money for diapers or baby food for their infants and toddlers, get immediate help. Since 1984, North Porch has provided the emergency assistance to thousands.

It seems fitting that an emergency center for mothers and children was founded by women. Ten years ago, a group of Episcopal women began looking around for ways to help the poor here.

When they decided to establish a drop-in center, the Episcopal Diocese provided space in the form of several storage rooms on the lower floor of Cathedral House, its administrative headquarters. The founders, some of them with their husbands in tow, spent hours making the room habitable.

After the cleaning and painting were finished, they brought used furniture from their own homes and toys for a children’s play area. From the beginning, North Porch’s board aimed for a “homey” atmosphere. The upholstered furniture is worn but comfortable, and the floor is carpeted.

“We didn’t want this place to have a gypsy look,” said Marie Obermann, who is the current board president and one of North Porch’s founders. Only by Referral

Because of limits on financing and supplies, the original board decided that the center’s emergency packages would be distributed on a referral basis only. To spread the word about the new venture, the founders held an open house for the social service workers who would be making those referrals.

Clients began arriving almost immediately. Florence Bustamante, past president of North Porch’s board, said that instead of the teen-age mothers the volunteers had expected, most were in their 20’s. Many brought their infants and older children to the center.

North Porch has had a paid manager since the beginning. For the last seven years, Oleeta Randleman has held the job. Ms. Randleman has a special empathy for her clients. “I sat in that chair once,” she said, pointing to the client’s chair beside her desk.

While the majority of the clients are mothers, grandmothers also visit North Porch, often to get supplies for the grandchildren they are raising alone. Ms. Randleman noted that occasionally even a father will come through the doors. She remembered one father who arrived on a bicycle. “I’ll take anything I can carry on my bike,” Ms. Randleman said he told her.

Sometimes caseworkers from the Division of Youth and Family Services visit the center to take away supplies for newborns who have been left abandoned in Newark hospitals. The North Porch newborn package, which sometimes includes a complete layette, accompanies the infant to a foster home where he or she will spend the first few months of life.

“As far as I know, we are unique,” Mrs. Obermann said.

When the center was first opened, the demand for food and diapers was so great that North Porch almost became a victim of its own success. At the end of each month, and especially in summer, supplies will be completely exhausted. Rather than turning people away, the board instituted a monthly quota system for referrals.

Now, North Porch operates at maximum capacity, serving 50 full-service clients a month, each of whom receives a package containing diapers, baby food and formula. An additional 10 to 15 people receive only diapers. A Limit on Help

The center is open Tuesday through Thursday afternoons, and the flow of visitors varies. Sometimes, Ms. Randleman and the volunteer on duty have the space to themselves. On other days, the main waiting area teems with mothers and children who arrive early, fearing that supplies will be gone before the end of the afternoon.

In keeping with the center’s role as an emergency provider, clients are limited to one package a child per year.

The packages do not come cheap. Though most of the baby clothes and layette items are donated, baby food, formula and diapers must be purchased. The center saves money by buying formula in bulk.

Baby food is purchased at stores in Paterson, where North Porch has established a successful satellite operation in cooperation with the food bank at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. St. Paul’s buyers get better prices from stores, Mrs. Bustamante said, and the Newark center reaps the benefits.

If money is in short supply at the center, so are volunteers. Over the years, the original corps of volunteers has been diminished, and new ones have not replaced them.

Part of the problem, Mrs. Obermann said, is that many suburbanites do not like to drive into Newark. Volunteers willing to make the trip find that parking is difficult and costly. To rectify the situation, the center’s board is offering to pay for parking for its volunteer workers. Determined to Survive

Though the center suffers from problems common to all nonprofit social service organizations, North Porch’s board is determined to make it survive and flourish. There is some chance that Cathedral House will eventually be sold, Mrs. Obermann said, putting North Porch in the same homeless condition as some of its clients. Whatever happens, the volunteers are committed to staying in Newark, preferably in the same neighborhood.

The women who direct North Porch are also hoping to establish more satellite branches. The three-year-old Paterson branch provides packages for approximately 70 clients a month, and because of its affiliation with St. Paul’s Church it does not have the parent organization’s restriction of one package a child per year.

Mrs. Obermann said the board would like to set up a North Porch outpost in Jersey City and possibly another in Dover. “Of course,” she added, “what we would like most of all is not to be needed.”

It is clear that North Porch will be needed for the foreseeable future, and to stabilize the center’s finances, the board is preparing to begin a drive to establish an endowment. This effort was aided by the recent receipt of a small bequest.

Though the center’s anniversary was in February, its board and volunteers have yet to celebrate. The singularity of North Porch is apparent in the fact that the accomplishment of getting through 10 years is less important to those involved than the accomplishment of helping mothers get through the last 10 days of each month.

More information on North Porch

SOURCE: New York Times