I’m participating in the ONE.org campaign’s 12 Days of Change—12 simple actions anyone can take to give back in their own community and/or help people in other countries. A dozen bloggers are contributing and making a difference this holiday season, we are getting out all our social media tools to change the world, 1 parent at a time.
The 12 Days of Change campaign looks at things on a small scale and asks the individual the question, “what can I do to help?” What can I do to teach my child what’s going on outside their sphere? ONE has come up with twelve “actions” that you can take. These are not big things, but they are discussion starters and eye openers. We made this a family project and you can as well.
The “action” I’m announcing: Thank an NGO or nonprofit – local or national – for their work!
As a NYC blogger and shopaholic, I have a super large collection of toys I don’t need. This is the time of year I donate massive amounts of items to help the less fortunate. And the other thing I do is say “Thank-You” to the folks working for the charity. Today I dropped off 2 bags for Toys for Tots. There were 2 United States Marines in full uniform there to collect the toys and they were thanking us. I believe it is even more important to thank them. Everyone’s instinct is to say “Your Welcome,” and forget the work that is still ongoing to distribute these toys. I know it is nice that I grabbed some items out of my stuffed closet, but the people taking the time out of their day to serve others, to help kids, to get these items distributed, they also deserve tons of thanks from us.
And I try to get my son involved. I explain how it is easy for us to drop off a bag but that there is still much more work to do. He doesn’t quite understand why we should do the thanking, but I want him to start to form that habit anyway. Luckily he thinks its cool to talk to a Marine, that made it easier for him. I explained that thanking the Marine for delivering the toys to the kids would make him feel appreciated by him a kid, similar to the ones the Marine was helping.
Are you too shy to do this in person? There are many ways to say thank-you. With the boon in social media, many different charities/non-profits now have Facebook pages and twitter accounts. Take a minute and say thank-you to the staff of any organization that you worked with this year.
I tweeted a thank-you to Save the Children for all the work they do throughout the year.
I wrote a thank-you on the Facebook wall of the Grain Food Foundation (Go With the Grain) for their donations to Share Our Strength this year, an organization that I got to work with.
Keep it personal and close to home. We can all think of some non-profit, where it is possible that the employees tend to not be highly paid, who we can say thank-you to. I would bet you would at the minimum put a huge smile on someone’s face and even more, let these people know their help is not going unnoticed.
Give back to your community, it doesn’t have to cost a penny, and you’ll probably feel great!
Whnever we see a armed forces worker , my kids always go up and say thank you.we Aldo thank police officers when we see them, thank you for sharing!
Great post – it got me thinking!
I think that this is so important, but what I ESPECIALLY love is that you get your son involved. I think that during this time of the year (especially) that it’s important to show our children that they are indeed BLESSED and that there are others less fortunate than us. And we can help those people, even in small ways. How sweet is it that yo delivered those toys to Toys for Tots!
Awesome post! Thank you for sharing this!
Have a nice day!
I love love love this post! Thank you so much for making a difference.
This is such a great idea! We have a bell ringer at our local grocery store that is so nice and always polite to everyone. He goes out of his way to talk to people and make them feel comfortable with the way he looks – he’s a big, burly guy with lots of tattoos – I’m going to do something nice for him this week.