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This January 15th, when so many of us will be hurting for the physical loss of Kara, please turn that grief into some good works in your community. Depending on your individual schedules, please be involved in a Day of Karing in your local community sometime within a week before or after January 15th. Gather friends, family members, or complete strangers, and join together to celebrate all that Kara was able to live for in her life. After the holidays is the ideal time to get involved. Charities are often brimming with donations that need to be sorted, and the elderly who got lots of Christmas carolers and visitors during December are now alone again now that family has gone back home. You will most likely find that non-profits are hungry for volunteers a few weeks after the New Year, so January 15th is a great time to get connected with your community. When you are done with your good works, please make the effort to drop the Hood Family a quick note telling them what you did and for whom. Sharing your touching story is bound to help the family realize in tangible ways that Kara’s spirit and example has helped us all be better members of society. I will try to paste below the many, many ideas of how you can commemorate the Day of Karing this January. This started as a Word document that I'm pasting here, so I separated items with "***", my apologies if the formatting of this drives you crazy! Also, for those who were interested in the benefit concert, after talking with the Hoods more, we've decided to plan for this spring or summer. More will be posted here about that. My best to all of you! Maura. Ideas... ***Go Online. Interested in volunteering for an organization in your community? http://www.volunteermatch.org/ is the premiere matching service that takes your interests and skills and matches them to what’s available in your community. Here, on one website, are all the phone numbers and addresses of groups across the country where you can donate your time and energy the week of January 15th. ***Donate. Before giving money to an organization, make sure you know where the money is going and how much is going to the efforts you support. A great guide to finding “good” and “bad” charities is online at: http://kaching.oxygen.com/money/giving/charities/basics/ym_giving_charities01.html ***Friends! Whatever you decide to do, enlist the help of friends! It makes the day more fun and the experience more wide reaching. This is hopefully going to grow into an annual event so start the momentum going now! ***Be A Mentor To A Child. Have a niece/nephew/neighbor? Take him/her out for a day just the two of you and show him/her what it’s like to be a positive role model. Do whatever the child wants to do that day… ice skating, sledding, shoveling snow, make a snowperson, make a gingerbread house with candy, play with toys, bake cookies, draw pictures, make greeting cards, do a craft… anything interactive and positive – the way Kara was with children. ***Mentor A Stranger. The United Way is one of the largest national organizations that matches up mentors with children. Go to http://national.unitedway.org/index.cfm fore more info. ***Run A Clothing Drive. After Christmas is a great chance for people to clean out their closets to make room for Santa’s new gifts. Clean out yours, and ask local friends and family to do the same. Collect all clothing the week of January 15th and donate it to a homeless or in-need facility. ***Ask What Is Needed Of You. Call your hospital’s volunteer department and ask what kinds of donations they need this time of year. Hospitals have very strict rules about who they can allow to be with patients, for health reasons, so be prepared that you won’t be able to visit with patients unless you commit to a longer term volunteering position. But maybe this can be the beginning of a beautiful opportunity! ***Help A Teacher, Help The Future. Know a local teacher? Ask them if they are interested in getting their classes involved in some sort of fundraising or charity experience. They may very well have 30 little hands that are willing and able to make a difference too. ***Stretch The Generations. Do you know a grandparent or elderly person who is still an expert quilter, sewer, tailor, or knitter? Ask them for a donation. Hospitals always need baby blankets and homeless shelters depend on donations of mittens, hats, and scarves. This could be the ideal chance to learn from your elder so you can help create some items next year. ***Churches Can Help. Get involved in your church’s charity efforts. Not everyone has the time or energy to organize a large local movement, and not everyone should. Look in your weekly bulletin or ask a church worker what is available the week around January 15th. ***Go Traditional. What you do for the Day of Karing doesn’t have to be unique. Think of the traditional volunteering opportunities in your community. ·Visit a nursing home and play cards with the residents. Better yet, just sit and listen to their stories. ·Work in a soup kitchen. When you’re there you may be too busy to sit and talk with many visitors. Instead, look into their eyes for their story. ·Call the local library and ask if they have a Books On Wheels program and how you can help. ***Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Pick and elderly family or family-in-need on your street. Shovel their walkway late at night when they won’t know it’s you. Sometimes private giving is more heartwarming. ***Share The Love. Many people at Kara’s funeral commented on the Christmas cards she sent in 2000. They were the last written reminders that many have from her. Take an hour, pull out some stationary, and write your loved ones, friends and family, a note reflecting on the past year and all the reasons why you love them. Sometimes, it just means more in writing. ***Trial Sized Everything. Most women have gotten more free trial sized hygiene items than can fit in a medicine cabinet. Why not collect them all together, and ask friends to do the same. Call local domestic violence shelters and agencies to see if anyone is interested in your donation. ***Plant Annuals. Plant some beauty outdoors, either at your church, work, or home. Plant a tree or flowers in Kara’s memory and watch it resurrect every spring as a reminder of her love. ***Stop and Shop. Talk to someone who has trouble getting around and offer to do his or her grocery shopping during that week. ***Do What She Did. Donate online to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the organization that Kara worked at in New York City. Their website is http://www.acorn.org/donate.htm. It’s a great non-profit that advocates for living wages, affordable housing, and other important issues to people who have low incomes. ***Serve Those Who Served. Call the local VA (Veterans Administration) office and ask how you can help with either their homeless shelter, or by helping provide some of the services they offer. ***Old Books Have More History. Run a book drive in your community. Accept books of all sorts and then have a party with friends to help you sort them out. Children’s books can go to family homeless shelters, teen books can be donated to inner-city schools, adult reading can be given to hospital waiting rooms, and spiritual materials can be put in a church’s library. ***Give A Part Of Yourself. Give Blood – Call 1-800-give-life to find a local blood drive near you. Donate Tissue – To donate tissue or learn more about the Red Cross tissue program, call 1-800-693-6272. Be An Organ Donor – Pull your license out of your wallet, have you signed the back where there is a spot to be an organ donor? Do so today. It’s that easy! Volunteer for American Red Cross – Find the chapter nearest you online at http://redcross.volunteermatch.org/ ***City Cares. This is the best resource for those of you who still haven’t found a perfect match of what you want to do to commemorate the Day of Karing. CityCares is an alliance of volunteer organizations that plan and manage meaningful volunteer opportunities in partnership with 3,600 non-profit organizations and schools across the country. There are dozens of cities across the country that have websites and local offices whose sole purpose is to pair an individual, a company, or a group of friends up with an effective, local way to give. For more info go to http://www.cares.org/national/. ***Bingo! Who says volunteering can’t be fun? Look up local churches and see if any have bingo games during the week. Often times you’ll find that volunteers are needed to help elderly players with their boards. ***Help Increase Literacy. Call your local library and ask if there is any way you can donate your time to literacy efforts. There are often programs for children and adults where you can help people learn to read. ***Have A Pet? Be A Help! Check our your local Humane Society, which can be found in the phone book. Many are looking for financial donations or help with any of the following: ·Adoption Counseling: Adoption counselors educate prospective adopters about animal behavior and training, the medical, nutritional, grooming, and exercise needs of pets, and the agency’s policies and procedures. Most importantly, adoption counselors assist adopters in selecting a pet suited to their lifestyle and household composition. There is often some training for this program. ·Bathing and Grooming: Bathers and groomers work with animals in adoptable wards during the summer months. Cats and dogs are bathed and treated for fleas as needed. In addition, frequent brushing is essential during the warmer months. ·Special Projects: Shelters often need volunteers to help with special skills, such as carpentry, plumbing, gardening (weeding, trimming shrubs, mowing), painting, janitorial work, laundry, building maintenance, and data entry. ·Pet Socialization: Walk a dog...cuddle a cat! Animal shelters depend on volunteers to walk and play with friendly, adoptable pets. Regular play time provides exercise and relief from stress, and prevents boredom for both you and the pets. Contact the shelter for walk times and to sign up. ***Join Up, Join In. Find out what’s really needed in your community. The local United Way chapters are great at assessing the needs of a community by talking with the non-profit organizations and service providers who are on the front lines of helping those most in need. There are too many chapters to mention here, so go online and sort by state or your zip code. http://www.unitedway.org/uwsearch/. ***Send A Note. With service members all over the world, and especially now the many in the Middle East, it’s important to remember them after the holidays. Due to questions over mail security, the “Any Service Member” mail has been suspended, but thanks to the joys of technology you can still send an email message! Just go online to http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/MessageSend.html to email a Service Member your well wishes the week of January 15th. ***Keep It Simple, Silly! On January 15th: ·Hold the door for someone. ·Smile. ·Say “hi” to the people you pass on your way to and from work. ·Ask someone how they’re doing or how they are liking their job. Really listen to their answer. ·Pray. ***5 Cents Add Up. Send a flyer around to your dorm mates/neighbors/family and collect bottles the weekend before or after January 15th to raise money for the Kara Hood Community Caring Foundation. Checks can be made payable to: KHCCF, 4945 East Lake Road, Cazenovia, NY 13035. ***Paper Pickup. Get a group together to do a simple paper pick up at your local park or community area. Clean up cigarette butts, scraps of paper, or other garbage that’s trashing your local landscape. ***Appreciate the Finer Points. For a volunteering job with a longer-term commitment, volunteer at a museum. See if they need help showing classes or groups of in-need children around the displays. Email me if you have more questions or ideas!
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