Charity time!
Once a year, I whore my LJ for charity. Don’t get me wrong, I whore for charity 365 days a year* (366 this year), but once a year I make up a list of five of my favorite charities in hopes that someone might have an extra ten dollars/quid/euros/yen/galleon that they wouldn't mind parting with.
1. Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation -- Yes, every year I start off with the Pediatric AIDS charity, and with a damn good reason. There are more than a million people in the US living with HIV/AIDS right now. More than 40,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, and a good portion of those are children who are born with AIDS. This isn't about who gave what to who or what started where, this is about babies, about children, who just need your help.
2. Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation -- Live Journal fandom is a community that is predominately female. Not all, but a lot. 1 in 8 women in the US will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. In 2007, breast cancer was expected to take the lives of more that 40,000 women, but the Komen Foundation is working to decrease those numbers. They don't just do research, they fundraise, they offer lifestyle support, they want to beat this and if your $10 or $15 or $50 is that extra bit that they need to beat this disease, how awesome would that make you feel?
3. Habitat for Humanity International -- This isn't about Hurricane Katrina, or it's not just about Katrina. It's about tsunamis and earthquakes and people living in ramshackle lean-tos that could fall down any second in Africa or South America. Donating to this charity is a way of realizing how grateful you are for the roof over your head and giving that gratitude to someone else.
4. First Book -- We are media fandom. We watch TV. We read books. We surf the next. We write. We draw art. We study. We are informed. We wouldn't be any of these things without the ability to read and you can't read without books. Without books we can't develop our imaginations. Imagine not knowing about Austen. Imagine never reading Pratchett or Gaiman or any author that makes you heart race or that gives you hope for a better day. Horrible thought, isn't it? So shouldn't you make sure that doesn't happen to someone else too?
5. Planned Parenthood -- This isn’t about being pro-choice or pro-life, this is about needing a place to go if you're in trouble. This is about having a place to turn to if you can't afford healthcare and need condoms or a pap smear or if you've got a itch and you can't talk to your family GP. This is about having some control over your life. Planned Parenthood is about giving your sister or your daughter or your BFF a chance to have some control too.
And last, but not least, #6...
The Gratuitous Charity Shilling
My BFF is a grade school teacher in one of the Brooklyn public schools, and I think that pretty much speaks for itself. The US public schools are in a pretty deplorable state, and my BFF is constantly telling me stories that pretty much horrify me, and it's not about the children, it's about the horror of No Child Left Behind. It's about not being able to have story time, because teachers are required to allot every last minute for standardized testing. So, when my BFF said she wanted a Smart Board for her class, my first thought was, I'll buy you one! Because this is what teachers do now. They can't rely on the school systems to fund them, so they buy supplies on their own. And then she told me about the cost. And so I told her, go to Donors Choose, and this is where we are now. If you would like to learn more about helping to fund her project that would be awesome. If you think you might like to fund something else, I cannot urge you highly enough to at least click through the possibilities on the Donors Choose website. There are thousands of teachers out in the world, teaching the next generation, who could use your $6.99 designated beer fund to make their classes run a lot better.
*And to assure you that I'm not asking you to do anything I don't, I can proudly say that last year I donated to Donors Choose, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, One.org, Save Darfur, RAINN, Oxfam, Goodwill and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Why did I donate to all these charities? Because they say if you want the world to be a better place, you have to contribute, and even if you're only contributing $5 that's better than nothing at all.
1. Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation -- Yes, every year I start off with the Pediatric AIDS charity, and with a damn good reason. There are more than a million people in the US living with HIV/AIDS right now. More than 40,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, and a good portion of those are children who are born with AIDS. This isn't about who gave what to who or what started where, this is about babies, about children, who just need your help.
2. Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation -- Live Journal fandom is a community that is predominately female. Not all, but a lot. 1 in 8 women in the US will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. In 2007, breast cancer was expected to take the lives of more that 40,000 women, but the Komen Foundation is working to decrease those numbers. They don't just do research, they fundraise, they offer lifestyle support, they want to beat this and if your $10 or $15 or $50 is that extra bit that they need to beat this disease, how awesome would that make you feel?
3. Habitat for Humanity International -- This isn't about Hurricane Katrina, or it's not just about Katrina. It's about tsunamis and earthquakes and people living in ramshackle lean-tos that could fall down any second in Africa or South America. Donating to this charity is a way of realizing how grateful you are for the roof over your head and giving that gratitude to someone else.
4. First Book -- We are media fandom. We watch TV. We read books. We surf the next. We write. We draw art. We study. We are informed. We wouldn't be any of these things without the ability to read and you can't read without books. Without books we can't develop our imaginations. Imagine not knowing about Austen. Imagine never reading Pratchett or Gaiman or any author that makes you heart race or that gives you hope for a better day. Horrible thought, isn't it? So shouldn't you make sure that doesn't happen to someone else too?
5. Planned Parenthood -- This isn’t about being pro-choice or pro-life, this is about needing a place to go if you're in trouble. This is about having a place to turn to if you can't afford healthcare and need condoms or a pap smear or if you've got a itch and you can't talk to your family GP. This is about having some control over your life. Planned Parenthood is about giving your sister or your daughter or your BFF a chance to have some control too.
And last, but not least, #6...
The Gratuitous Charity Shilling
My BFF is a grade school teacher in one of the Brooklyn public schools, and I think that pretty much speaks for itself. The US public schools are in a pretty deplorable state, and my BFF is constantly telling me stories that pretty much horrify me, and it's not about the children, it's about the horror of No Child Left Behind. It's about not being able to have story time, because teachers are required to allot every last minute for standardized testing. So, when my BFF said she wanted a Smart Board for her class, my first thought was, I'll buy you one! Because this is what teachers do now. They can't rely on the school systems to fund them, so they buy supplies on their own. And then she told me about the cost. And so I told her, go to Donors Choose, and this is where we are now. If you would like to learn more about helping to fund her project that would be awesome. If you think you might like to fund something else, I cannot urge you highly enough to at least click through the possibilities on the Donors Choose website. There are thousands of teachers out in the world, teaching the next generation, who could use your $6.99 designated beer fund to make their classes run a lot better.
*And to assure you that I'm not asking you to do anything I don't, I can proudly say that last year I donated to Donors Choose, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, One.org, Save Darfur, RAINN, Oxfam, Goodwill and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Why did I donate to all these charities? Because they say if you want the world to be a better place, you have to contribute, and even if you're only contributing $5 that's better than nothing at all.