Strollerderby : philanthropy

Kids Can Build Habitat Houses Without Lifting a Hammer

JeanneSager — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:32:00 GMT

As important as it is to promote philanthropy when kids are still young, sometimes it's logistically impossible to put kids to work for your favorite charity. Take Habitat for Humanity; construction sites aren't for kids (at least not the younger set).

A toddler swinging a hammer is a safety issue on a job site no longer. Thanks to a new online game, kids can build virtual houses while the money paid to access the games goes to build real houses for Habitat for Humanity's Honduran chapter, and a host of other charities.

Elf Island takes a $5.95 monthly membership fee to do its good works (the basic level is free so you can try it out to see if your kids have an interest, but with the money going to charity, it's worth it to pay one month). The money is split among Habitat, Plant-It 2020, Wild Aid and Polar Bears International. Each game is charity appropriate, so playing to help polar bears in the real world requires racing against the Earth's rising CO2 levels in an effort to track female polar bears and help them avoid the melting ice in the virtual one, helping Plant-It requires planting trees in Niger, etc.

I've never been a big "get the kids on the computer to game" Mom, but what Elf Island's parent company has termed mirrored gaming (actions online equalling a mirrored action in the real world) intrigues me. It seems like one of those win-win-win situations. The kids have fun, learn something about the world and learn how to help others.

Oh yeah, and a worthy charity gets some help. Let's add another to the win column.

Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Remembering the Good Works of Paul Newman

Jen Chaney — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:40:00 GMT

You may have heard the breaking news this morning that Paul Newman died of cancer at the age of 83. We'll remember Newman for many things: His roles in such classics as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Cool Hand Luke," his passion for car racing and his piercing blue eyes. Our kids may be most likely to associate him with the voice of Doc Hudson in Pixar's "Cars." But Newman should also be honored for something else: Setting a solid example as a husband, father and philanthropist.

Yes, he was married for almost a decade before divorcing Jackie Witte, the mother of his first three children. And their divorce sounds like it was more than a little drawn-out and sticky. But once he wed co-star Joanne Woodward, he found his soulmate and stayed unwaveringly by her side for more than 50 years, creating a lasting Hollywood union that may never again be matched. Together they raised three more children, starred in several films and gave back to their community in incredibly generous ways.

I'm guessing almost everyone reading this blog has a Newman's Own product -- some microwave popcorn, pasta sauce or salad dressing -- in his or her refrigerator or kitchen cabinet. Newman's food business, which he founded with friend A.E. Hotchner in 1982, did something astounding: It donated all of its profits to charity. Among those charities were Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang camps, which serve as havens for gravely ill children both here in the U.S. and abroad in places like Africa and Vietnam. The Hole in the Wall Web site already is paying tribute today to Newman and praising his service to young people.

As a father, Newman confronted his own grief when his only son, Scott, died of a drug overdose in 1978. Though he undoubtedly carried that grief with him every day, he demonstrated how to handle such a loss with class and to channel his sadness into something positive. He formed another valuable non-profit, the Scott Newman Center, which focused on anti-drug education.

In so many ways, Newman set an example about how to live life fully, as a parent, spouse, artist and fully engaged member of his community. He will be missed by many, but there is solace in knowing that his multi-faceted legacy lives on, in his movies and in the many people's lives he transformed through his good works.

Image: Reuters

Brad and Angelina Open Children's Clinic in Ethiopia

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:30:00 GMT

If only all fame and fortune were channeled into the common good....

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $2 million to start a center in Ethiopia for children with AIDS and tuberculosis. About 900,000 children in Ethiopia have been orphaned because of AIDS, and the country has the seventh highest rate of tuberculosis in the world. Though curable, tuberculosis continues to ravage the population in large part due to inadequate treatment.

The center will be named after Brad and Anelina’s adopted daughter, Zahara. “It is our hope that when Zahara is older, she will take responsibility for the clinic and continue its mission,” Pitt said.

This statement gave me pause. While raising one’s children to be activists and humanitarians is certainly laudable, Zahara is three years-old. This is sort of a hefty weight to place on her shoulders. If I heard a father of a three-year-old saying it was his hope that his daughter would grow up to be, say, a leading litigator at a big law firm, I would inwardly groan. On the other hand, I wish all rich parents encouraged their children to use their inheritance to be philanthropists.

What do you think? Is it okay to pigeonhole one's children into a certain line of work if that work is widely beneficial?

Photo: pursepage.com

Teaching Kids to Share -- Their Money

Madeline Holler — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:38:00 GMT

Raising a little philanthropist sounds so great in theory. But in practice? I can't quite figure out how to get it going.

I could do what parents did when I was growing up, which was to tell their kids exactly how much of their allowance to turn over to the church. But where's the lesson? The lifelong habit? We don't want charitable giving to be motivated from guilt, right? And where should the money go? Do kids get the concept of others in need?

Emily Bazelon, a writer for Slate, watched her sons get involved in charity -- one of them raising money to save an ophaned elephant in Kenya that had fallen down a well. She asks whether it wouldn't have been more relevant to raise money on behalf of orphans -- actual human ones -- in their hometown, Washington, D.C.

She concludes, with the help of David Owen, author of The First National Bank of Dad, a book on teaching kids about money, that the opportunity to give is more important than who the actual beneficiary is.

She writes:

Owen argues that "when parents require their children to give away a certain amount of money every week or every month, the parents are really just craftily confiscating what they believe to be excess resources." He thinks that young kids, especially, have a natural interest in giving, and that if they see you do it, they'll follow along unbidden.

OK, that makes sense. Bazelon also notes peer pressure in her older son's pursuit to save the elephant. Once his classmates were on board they each made items to sell. And it was fun. If he had to act alone, he might have felt less motivated -- or completely overwhelmed.

Both her sons' philanthropic acts have come through organized efforts. But I'd like some other ideas. Do you teach your young kids about giving? If so, how? And for what? What about the kids who don't want to share their money. Do you force them?

Am I really going to have to take a class?

Teaching Rich Kids Not to Be Tools

Amy Kuras — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:24:00 GMT

I really hate rich people. Or, at least, the entitled asshole attitude so many rich people project – that because they are used to their staff jumping when they snap their fingers, that everyone else must do the same. And then there's the cluelessness about how the world works for regular people. Gah. Hate.

So I saw this article from the UK Guardian as a positive thing. Wealthy people in the UK, especially those involved in London's financial and banking industries, are beginning to teach their kids about philanthropy.

Demand is growing, both because of an increasingly professional approach to philanthropy in Britain, growing numbers of super-wealthy people, and increasing discontent over the growing gap between rich and poor.

Participants in the classes learn about different causes they may want to contribute to, the best ways to make an impact and how to set up charitable giving.

Courses range from three-hour seminars for individual families to 40-hour courses for a group of young people.
One financier who set up a course for his 11 and 13 year old children and gave them a 10,000-pound philanthropy budget said he did it to give them a little more structure and education about charity, instead of abstract notions of doing good. As they learned more, their interests shifted from animals and more abstract issues to children, and they ended up deciding to focus on fighting child abuse.

As our own rich celebs get more and more shallow and horrible (Paris, anybody?) it's good to see that some people actually believe in using money for good.

8-Year-Old Kid's Toy Drive

Kelly Mills — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:01:00 GMT

I've been feeling the tyranny of Christmas this year. Everywhere I look, there's displays exhorting me to buy more crap for folks; the stress of getting it together has been making me edgy; and frankly, people drive like jerks this time of year. So when I watched this clip about Stephen Smith in an effort to find things to post about, I was only slightly into it. (Partly because the newscaster's chatter is just idiotic.) Yeah, he's an 8-year-old who started a toy drive when he was 3. That's very sweet. But you know, somehow I was just feeling sold.

My 6-year-old was watching my computer from a ways away over my shoulder, and when the clip ended, she asked me, "What are you doing?" "Looking for stories to post about," I absently replied.

"I think you should write about that one," she said. "Because that kid is pretty cool. I mean, not everyone celebrates Christmas, but when kids do, and they don't have any money for toys...Well, that boy made a party for them. I like that." She smiled to herself. "He's a very, very sweet boy."

Okay, you got me. And here you go.