Charity Matters Inspiration Archives - Page 34 of 37

Charity Matters Inspiration November 1, 2013

Movember: Changing the face of men’s health

Photo curtesy of Movember.Com — Photo courtesy of Movember.Com

Today is November 1st and the beginning of Movember. No, this isn’t a typo but rather a movement. You may recall that last November there seemed to be an unusual amount of facial hair and beards. Those beards and unshaven faces were not by accident, but rather a statement for men’s health.

A statement that all began in 2003, when two mates in a bar ( Travis Garone and Luke Slattery) were having a simple conversation about whatever happened to the moustache or the Mo, as they called it, and a joke about bringing it back. These buddies from Melbourne, Australia decided to talk their friends into growing a Mo for a purpose. They were inspired by a friend’s mom who was raising funds for breast cancer and decided to direct their efforts towards men’s health and prostate cancer. They sent an email titled Are you man enough to be my man? The result was 30 guys willing to take up the challenge and pay ten dollars each, towards their cause and the beginning of Movember.

Their goal started small but never wavered. These four friends wanted to recruit men who would support Movember, who by the way are called MoBros. The Mo Bros, would begin by registering at Movember.Com and start Movember 1st clean-shaven, then grow and groom their Mo, for the rest of the month, raising money along the way. In addition, these men become walking, talking billboards for their cause. Not to exclude the girls, they also started Mo Sistas, who champion their Mo by registering and supporting the Mo Bros in their life.

What started as a fun bar conversation in 2003 and 30 MoBros in Melbourne, Australia has morphed into 3 million participants globally, who have raised more than $446 million to date. Movember, is more than a month but rather through the power of the moustache, it has truly become a global movement that is changing the face of men’s health.

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Charity Matters Inspiration October 14, 2013

Goodness is contagious

I received an email the other day from a lacrosse store that my youngest son loves called Adrenaline. The email just made my day and got me thinking about just how contagious goodness is. The note came from the lacrosse store owner, Ian and told the story of a 13-year-old boy, named Jack. Jack had been volunteering with his dad in a underserved part of town teaching lacrosse as a community service project, in association with his father’s company.

The father and son put on a lacrosse clinic for about 75 children. The equipment was donated to use during the clinic. The kids loved the sport and wanted to learn more and play, however did not have the financial resources to afford the equipment to do so.

Which brings us back to Jack, who now wants to provide equipment for all of these kids. So, Jack approached Ian and asked if he could put a used equipment collection box in his store, which of course he did. Here comes the contagious part. Ian was so inspired by this 13 year olds big heart that he then emailed the entire Southern California lacrosse community to ask if we could all help Jack out with his mission. He has now put collection boxes in all of the Adrenaline stores and at practice locations.

Goodness is so easy to catch and truly contagious. Sometimes we are so busy that we forget to stop and realize all the beautiful miracles around us each and every day. It is the simple acts of kindness for another. I hope what Jack is spreading is as contagious to you as it was to me, because this is something worth catching!

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Charity Matters Inspiration October 9, 2013

Keeping the Dream Alive

As you already know, I spend a lot of time talking about ways to use your gifts to make others’ lives better. What is a little less comfortable is talking about my own time and what gifts I use to share with others. So today, I thought I would let you know that I do practice what I preach, or at least try my best….

For the past few months I have been working on a new video for the non-profit, Spiritual Care Guild, which ten of us founded a decade ago, to provide chaplains at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. As a story-teller (I am Irish after all) telling the story of our non-profit was challenging, fun and at the end rewarding. So please, take a look….

When we began our group, the first benefit was Field of Dreams, an outdoor movie night set on a baseball field. Our hope was to “build it and they would come.” A decade later, I am so proud to say they did. Ten years ago, we could never have imagined all this group has accomplished. Today, our dream continues as we continue to support and provide chaplains to thousands of families and children at CHLA.

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Charity Matters Inspiration October 7, 2013

Giving, the universal language

Have you read the Tipping Point? Malcom Gladwell’s book about seeing the tides turn before there is change. According to Gladwell, “The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” I could be wrong but I feel that we are globally experiencing a shift like this right now and that shift is about giving and kindness.

It’s everywhere you look, pink socks in the NFL for breast cancer, corporations leveraging causes to help soften their images and everyone doing their part to volunteer or make a difference. I recently saw this video and thought that this change is not unique to U.S. it is a global shift that is happening now.

The stories of kindness and compassion are universal and as old as time. Videos like this, simply remind us that these “tipping points” start with us. The simple act of kindness is a universal language.

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Charity Matters Inspiration October 2, 2013

Be More Heroic

With October comes the beginning of fall, the crunch of leaves, football and anti-bullying month. Who knew? When we grew up, there were bullies on the playground and in our neighborhoods but there were few solutions. Well there is a great new non-profit called Be More Heroic.Org that is taking a fresh new approach to the age-old problem of bullying.

Be More Heroic all began when six friends, hatched an idea in Justin Haulbrook’s living room. Their mission was to inspire individuals and communities to stimulate positive, proactive and courageous action in their daily lives. In order to make that happen Be More Heroic visits schools (elementary through colleges) and begins their program with a huge interactive assembly that empowers students with music, media and personal stories.

After their assembly, the Be more Heroic team creates a student team that sustains the message of the assembly throughout the year. The student team then creates and completes three service projects that involve, school, home and community. The result is a group of children who now become student advocates against bullying as well as inspiration to other kids, their communities and themselves.

Now thats what I call heroic!

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Charity Matters Inspiration September 25, 2013

Augie’s Quest

What would you do if you were told you had Lou Gerhigs disease? A disease also known as ALS, which is a disease where parts nerve cells that control muscle cells are gradually lost. I honestly don’t know what I would do but I can tell you what a remarkable man named Augie Nieto did. He got busy!

In March of 2005, at the age of 53 Augie Nieto was a thriving entrepreneur and fitness industry leader. His diagnosis of ALS changed the course of his life and positively inspired thousands of others. Augie’s first reaction was, “My first priority is to spend time with my family. What I learned later in my career is that it is not the quantity but the quality of time you spend that matters.”

His next step was to be part of the solution to find a cure for this disease. “My very first step in fighting back was to partner with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which offers the best ALS doctors and health care professionals in the country. Together, MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) and I formed “Augie’s Quest,” which coordinates fundraising events that benefit MDA’s worldwide ALS research program.”

Augie didn’t start his own non-profit but rather partnered with an existing one and created a contract with MDS, clearly defining his terms. First and foremost was that 100% of the donations he raised went to research and to date that figure is somewhere around the 30 million dollar mark and counting. As if that wasn’t enough, in 2007 he co-authored a book entitled Augies Quest: One man’s journey from success to significance.

It has been over eight years since Augie’s diagnosis and the man who built his empire building other’s people’s muscles, has now lost the use of his own. Although he has lost the ability to speak his spirit continues to be unstoppable in his quest to find a cure. Success to significance doesn’t begin to describe this journey.

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Charity Matters Inspiration September 23, 2013

Changing the view

Everyone has a gift. Everyone. The magic comes when you discover how to share yours with another. There are not words to explain the video below……

One man’s vision becomes another person’s sight. The magic happens when we share our gifts with one another. That is the beauty of our humanity.

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Charity Matters Inspiration September 18, 2013

Now I lay me down to sleep

Time and time again I am moved and inspired by the human spirit, especially at a time of loss. It is at our lowest and weakest moments that we connect with our core, our bottom. Like the bottom of a pool we push up to the top gasping for air and are reminded that we are alive. It is that reminder that motivates so many to use their pain to ensure that another does not suffer the same fate and as a result, begins an organization to help others.

That is just the story of Cheryl Haggard. Cheryl’s son, Maddux Achilles Haggard, was born with a condition called myotubular myopathy which prevented him from breathing on his own. After six short days his parents had to make the devastating decision to take him off life support. Before that moment came, they called photographer Sandy Puc to take beautiful portraits of them cradling their son. Sandy photographed the couple with their infant son before and shortly after he was removed from life support.

Those intimate photographs documenting Maddux’s short life and last moments inspired Cheryl Haggard and Sandy Puc’ to begin a nonprofit organization called, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, after the children’s bedtime prayer.

Since 2005, Cheryl and Sandy’s non-profit has provided thousands of families of babies who are stillborn or are at risk of dying as newborns with free professional portraits with their baby. Today, over 11,000 volunteers have been part of the network. Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep reaches every state in the United States and has been or is present in 40 countries worldwide.

Maddux lived just six days but his legacy goes on with every family that is blessed with the memory of their child.

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Charity Matters Inspiration September 13, 2013

When a hero comes along

So many non-profits came as a result of September 11th. The need to take the tragedy and turn it into something positive, happened over and over in the aftermath of that day. Many of the non-profits have gone by the wayside in the past twelve years, but there is one that is still going strong and that is HEART911.org

I always refer to non-profit founders as heroes but this founder is the real deal and he has the medals to prove it. His name is Bill Keegan and he was the Night Operations Commander of the World Trade Center Rescue/Recovery Teams. Bill was awarded the highest medal for the WTC 9/11 assault as well as the 1993 WTC Bombing Medal of Valor for his rescue of school children trapped in a stalled elevator; the Hanratty Medal of Valor and over fifty police duty medals.

What makes Bill a real hero, as if he wasn’t already, was his creation of the non-profit, HEART 9/11 (Healing Emergency Aid Response Team) which he founded in 2007. Heart 9/11 is a non-profit disaster response organization composed of police, fire, union construction workers, and 9/11 surviving families. Their belief is that we help ourselves by helping others. These volunteers help first responders and victims of disasters by transferring the hard-earned lessons they learned from the World Trade Center rescue/recovery mission. The Mission of HEART 9/11 is to alleviate the suffering of individuals and communities coping with disasters and related trauma, wherever it strikes in our world.

Today HEART 9/11 is over 530 members strong. These members were experienced by being victims (9/11), and as a result, understand the challenges in turning victims into survivors. HEART 9/11 continues to rebuild lives in three ways: emergency response to disaster stricken communities, facilitation of mental health and build housing for wounded returning veterans.

September 11th was a day we will never forget. The heroes and the ripples of kindness that resulted from loss, continue to inspire.

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Charity Matters Inspiration September 11, 2013

September 11th

We all know where we were that fateful morning twelve years ago today. A moment burned in our minds forever. I will never forget taking my oldest son on a trip to NYC a few years after 9-11 and going on a tour run out of the temporary makeshift 9-11 museum.

The tours were lead by the victims spouses, brothers and first responders who lead us through the surrounding buildings of the World Trade Center. They shared their stories, their day and the legacy they were left with. Their pain was still palpable and they wanted to share it with us, so that we never forgot that these were not buildings but people.

We will never forget.

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Cancer August 21, 2013

Big moments in small packages

There are so many ways our lives touch others. It seems that the big moments that touch us often come from the littlest people. Last friday night my son’s football team had their first scrimmage. Lined up in crisp new uniforms were 86 big varsity high school football players and in the front of team stood a 9-year-old boy. The 9-year-old is our new team captain. His name is Jeffrey and he is teaching our football team about courage, toughness, perseverance, dedication and overcoming adversity.

Jeffrey knows about these traits because he has cancer. Less than two years ago, he was a typical 8-year-old boy who loved playing baseball and flag football and then everything changed. Jeffrey was diagnosed with DSRCT (Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor), an extremely rare and aggressive cancer. In just over a year he has completed about a dozen rounds of chemotherapy, five surgeries, numerous procedures and five weeks of radiation therapy.

In honor of our mighty new captain, the team will wear Jeffrey’s initials on their helmets this season in honor of his courage and tenacity, as well as to bring much-needed attention to the lack of funding for pediatric cancer research. Jeffrey received the signed game ball and his very own football jersey with the number 11, that represents the date of his diagnosis, 11/11/11.

This little package has already showed our sons how to be strong, courageous, and to face adversity with a smile and can do attitude. Jeffery’s family has a web-site and the quote on the site reads, “Let your dreams be bigger than your fears, your actions louder than your words, and your faith stronger than your feelings.”

We have yet to play our first game but it is already a winning season.

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Charity Matters Inspiration August 19, 2013

Suggestions for Success

They say that copying is the highest form of flattery. I can honestly say in over 300 posts I have yet to “flatter” a fellow blogger…..until today. I must admit that I came across this reading one of my morning guilty pleasures, a blog called Habitually Chic. I thought this was simply too good not to be shared and besides I needed to follow tip number 15!

21 Suggestions for Success

by H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
Be forgiving of yourself and others.
Be generous.
Have a grateful heart.
Persistence, persistence, persistence.
Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
Commit yourself to constant improvement.
Commit yourself to quality.
Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
Be loyal.
Be honest.
Be a self-starter.
Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
Take good care of those you love.
Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

I hope you enjoyed these fabulous tips for success and have a wonderful week.

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Charity Matters Inspiration August 9, 2013

The Cycle of Goodness

Have you ever done something good and then had it come back to you even greater? Some call it karma, I like to think its kindness but whatever you call it, it makes you think. I have had more than a handful of these experiences in my life but one that happened the other day that I thought was worth sharing.

I have a friend named John, from spin class, who writes for a big newspaper. A few months ago, I desperately wanted his paper to cover a cause I care deeply about. I harassed poor John for a few weeks and finally followed him out of spin class pleading for his help. He caved and called a new young writer to come to our event, which was now just hours away. The reporter’s name was Angel, by the way.

Well, Angel fell in love with our cause and spent a month down in Watts following the story. She submitted an amazing article to her editors and then nothing. I began to give up the idea that the story would ever appear.

In the meantime, my friend John lost his mother to cancer and his nephews were diagnosed with this horrible disease. John, decided to use one of his skills (cycling) to raise money for cancer. Well, last friday the long-awaited article appeared on the front page of the paper. I cried, John cried and if you read the article here, you will cry too.

On monday, back in spin class, I said that John deserved a round of applause for his upcoming ride and raising thousands of dollars for cancer. The next day he received a lovely donation from someone neither of us knows from class, saying what a beautiful thing he is doing in honor of his mother.

The man who sent me a reporter named Angel, continues the cycle of goodness. This weekend he will ride for all those who suffer from cancer. And so the cycle continues…..

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Charity Matters Inspiration August 7, 2013

The Starfish

The Starfish Story

It was still early.
The mist had not yet cleared from the sea.
In the distance, a solitary figure stood throwing objects out over the water.
Walking along the debris-strewn beach, I looked at the masses of starfish scattered everywhere.
The tide had thrown them in, stranding them on the beach.
As the sun rose higher,
they would perish.
Approaching the stranger, I could see that it was the starfish he was picking up and returning to the sea.
Our eyes met.
“Do you really think you can help?
There are millions of starfish on this beach.
You can help so few.
Does it really make a difference?
Does it matter?”
He reached down and picked up another starfish, looking at it intently.
“Oh yes,” he replied.
“It matters to this one!”

Making a difference is as simple as touching one other life than your own.

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