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Charity Matters Inspiration June 6, 2016

The great one…

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

Muhammad Ali

This weekend we lost a great one. A man born into a family of pre-Civil War era American slaves, who experienced the segregated South first hand and was determined to use his life to help others, which is exactly what he did.

Muhammad Ali devoted his life to helping promote civil rights, cross-cultural understanding, interfaith relations, hunger relief, and world peace. He did this through a variety of actions and causes. According to the National Constitution Center, he has been responsible for providing over 232 million meals to serve the hungry in such countries as Indonesia, Mexico, Cuba, Morocco, and Cote d’Ivoire, to name a few.

In addition, to his work abroad as a Goodwill Ambassador, he also used his fame and success to bring attention to causes such as Make A Wish Foundation, Special Olympics, Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Center and the Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

The Muhammad Ali Center’s mission sums up the legend’s life and legacy best, “To promote, respect, hope, and understanding and to inspire adults and children everywhere to be as great as they can be.”

He was great and continues to inspire us all, to do the same.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration November 2, 2015

Beauty in the eye of the beholder

I have had friends tell me over the years that I often see things that they do not. Perhaps, my filters are adjusted a certain way. Sometimes, I wonder am I the only one who is watching this? We all live in a busy world and so often, we are too busy to see the beauty right in front of us.

Last week, I was in a huge hurry trying to make a grant deadline and rushing to Kinkos to pick up my order. Traffic prevented me from turning into the Kinkos driveway, so I was parked just waiting and watching and what I saw brought me to tears.

Standing almost in front of me was an elderly homeless women, with no shoes, white hair and her face was literally black with grime and dirt. She was not begging but simply standing there. Her physical condition took my breath away. As I waited in traffic wondering what to do, I saw an elderly gentleman in his mid-seventies hop out of his car, leaving it running in the parking lot and ever so kindly, sweetly and thoughtfully approach the woman. He bowed his head, in respect of greeting her, and handed her what appeared to be everything he had in his wallet.

Tears began pouring from my eyes, at the most beautiful sight of her surprise and her smile. I looked at the elderly man as the tears streamed down my face and he gave a small nod and quickly got into his running car and drove off. The honking horns jarred me into reality of what I had just witnessed. The respect, compassion, grace, dignity and the sheer beauty of the moment, was one I will never forget.

The stress of the day gone, replaced with hope, compassion and belief that the world is full of goodness. We just simply have to look for it.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Profile April 1, 2015

Spring Cleaning

We have begun our spring cleaning. No, not with mops and brooms but rather clearing out closets, drawers, garages of unwanted, unused and unnecessary possessions. Luckily for me, I was inspired by recent visit to the Los Angeles Chapter of The St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Time and again, I have cleared out my closets and driven to the Goodwill….and am embarrassed to say that I am not sure what it is exactly they do with my things? One of my earliest childhood memories was of the St. Vincent de Paul truck pulling up for our used donations. Over the holidays, I met the Executive Director of the LA Chapter, and he invited me down to see what exactly it is that they do and trust me, it is so much more than a truck!

On my visit I learned the history of this amazing organization, which was founded in Paris in 1833 by a compassionate college student named Frederic Ozanam. He was challenged by the poverty he saw on the streets and organized a “Conference of Charity” to help the poor of all religions. Frederic wanted to create an avenue that assisted people to express their faith and grow spiritually through acts of charity. My kind of guy.

For over 100 years, SVDP has been serving the needy throughout the United States. The Society, as its called, is able to help provide the needy to become self sufficient by providing emotional and financial support, food, clothing, furniture and housing because of donations both financial and household. Many of the household items are passed on directly to someone in need.

Today, the Society, is an international volunteer organization with over 1,000,000 members in 142 countries and continues its founder’s mission to “seek and find the forgotten, the suffering or the deprived.”

So, as you start your spring cleaning, remember how much good your unneeded items are for another.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration October 22, 2014

Gotta Have Sole

I have the privilege of working with amazing high school students all the time. The story I am about to share with you really hit a chord with me. This summer at the leadership camp I organize, a young girl arrived with shoes that were literally falling apart. We could tell she was embarrassed by her shoes but the reality was she couldn’t run and play games with the sole flapping around. So we used a little shoe goo, some fun colorful duct tape and made her smile and love her overhauled shoes. We saw first hand how much she wanted to fit in and the power of a simple pair of shoes.

An amazing young man, named Nicholas Lowinger, had the same realization as a very young boy visiting a homeless shelter. Nicolas saw first hand children who missed school because they shared shoes with their siblings and it wasn’t their day to wear them, so they couldn’t go to school. So Nicholas began donating shoes and clothing to the shelter but he knew these children needed new shoes that fit correctly.

A few years later, in 2010, when Nicholas had his Bar Mitzvah he used the opportunity to begin the Gotta Have Sole Foundation to donate new footwear to homeless children. Nicholas said, “My goal is to reach as many children living in homeless shelters in the US as I can. It has always been my hope that the children will feel more confident about themselves because they have new shoes to call their own and that they will have the same opportunities afforded to them as their peers.”

Today, four years later Nicholas has donated new footwear to over 10,000 children in homeless shelters in 35 states throughout the United States. Rather than rest on his achievements Nicholas keeps expanding his program. He recently established SOLEdiers to assist disabled and needy veterans and their families, in honor of his WWII Veteran grandfather. This program provides veterans with gift cards to footwear stores so they can select the shoes they need, for their children.

Nicholas Lowinger is truly inspirational. While his peers are out running around in their new sneakers, he continues to expand his mission of providing new shoes to as many homeless children as possible. This inspiring young man elevates the meaning of Gotta Have Sole.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration May 12, 2014

Back on My Feet

I like to run. A few days a week, I throw on my tired sneakers and just go. It clears my mind, takes away the stress and centers me in a way that few things do. There are millions of other people who feel the exact same way about their runs, however, very few have the running story that Anne Mahlum has.

In May 2007, Anne was on her regular early morning run through the streets of Philadelphia and became friends with some of the men from the local Rescue Mission. She had an ephifany, what if running could help these men deal with their own challenges, the way it had helped her deal with her own?

By July 4th, a few shorts months later, Anne had nine men beginning their own version of Independence Day. It began by signing a Dedication Contract that committed them to arrive on time at 5:30am, have a great attitude and commit to running 3 days a week with her. That first run was the beginning of Back on My Feet. Six months later Charlie Gibson featured Anne as ABC’s person of the week and the donations, interest and program began to gain traction. By January 2008 Back on My Feet had its non-profit status and was up and running….literally.

Today, Back on My Feet has a $6.5 million dollar budget, 45 employees and has expanded to more than 10 cities from coast to coast. Since its inception in 2008, 743 of their members have obtained employment and 519 have housing. What began as a morning run has turned into a game changer one step at a time.

Charity Matters.

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Charity Matters Inspiration March 5, 2014

The Big Easy

As you all know I recently returned from my first Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Since today is Ash Wednesday and the celebration is winding down on Bourbon Street I thought it only fitting to share a little about a New Orleans non-profit today. The organization is called HandsOn New Orleans.

In the after math of Hurricane Katrina this incredible organization was formed to bring everyone together for the singular purpose of ” engaging, empowering, and transforming the community through volunteer service by connecting every passion with its purpose.” How great is that?

HandsOn New Orleans is a huge master calendar for the city bringing together all of the incredible opportunities and needs in one singular place. What I love is that this unique city and non-profit, hosts visitors from around the world, as well long time residents in the New Orleans community. Since the hospitality in New Orleans is unlike any place I have ever been, HandsOn New Orleans doesn’t care if you are a party of one or a corporate team, a local or a tourist. Either way they promise to provide you with worthwhile volunteer options.

While the hurricane has long past, the commitment to rebuild and reshape this amazing city has not gone away. Like most cities that have experienced a tragedy or natural disaster, that bond only makes them stronger. New Orleans is no different.

Since March of 2006, HandsOn New Orleans and their 35,000 volunteers have; completed 600,000 hours of service,organized 110 customized corporate projects with twenty Fortune 500 companies,impacted 19,500 underserved youth and trained 230 volunteer leaders that saved the community $13 million through volunteer time.

As many of us begin the season of Lent and the countdown to Easter, perhaps it is fitting to think of New Orleans. A city that shows us in good times and in bad that coming together is really what matters.

Charity Matters.

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Homelessness and Hunger January 15, 2014

FEED

I promise I am not really the jealous type. That being said, every once in a while I come across a person that really seems to have it all going on and perhaps I get a small pang. Its human right? From the outside their life looks perfect. The person I’m talking about was a super model, the president’s granddaughter and niece and is now married to Ralph Lauren’s son and her name is Lauren Bush. Doesn’t sound too bad does it?

When you look a little closer, you realize that with all of that, it would be easy to simply be beautiful. However, that is exactly what makes Lauren Bush Lauren so striking. Her beauty comes from what she has done for others.

In 2004, Lauren started her work as an Honorary spokesperson for the World Food Program, when she helped to launch their Universities Fighting Hunger initiative. Inspired by her travels all over the globe she began to learn about the realities of hunger and poverty firsthand. In 2005, she created the first FEED 1 bag, which feeds one child in school for one year through the World Food Program. The following year she graduated from Princeton and then in 2007, she started FEED Projects. By 2008, Lauren co-founded the FEED Foundation to increase FEED’s impact in the fight against hunger.

To date, FEED has partnered with companies like Whole Foods Market, Barnes & Noble, the Gap, Lord & Taylor, Pottery Barn, Harrods, and many more. Since its beginnings, FEED has donated over $6 million dollars to the World Food Program through the sale of their FEED bags and with their FEED Foundation. That donation works out to be over 60 million meals to school children.

Now that is something to be jealous of….just a little.

Charity Matters.

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Holidays and Holiday Giving November 25, 2013

The opposite of full

The week of Thanksgiving seems to be a week about food and eating. What is the opposite of eating? Not eating or hunger. So it seems only natural that Thanksgiving and feeding the hungry always go hand in hand. The fact is that 1 in 6 people in this country are suffering from hunger.

I have to confess, I have fed the homeless, on more than a few occasions, but never on Thanksgiving. I applaud those that do. I can only imagine how much more grateful you are, for what you are lucky enough to have, after you have witnessed someone without.

I think the most beautiful part of the tradition that many families have, is showing children compassion and gratitude. Any time you give of yourself for another, it is a gift. When you teach and show compassion and kindness it is much, much more.

As you begin to plan for this Thursday’s meal, the arrival of relatives, hustling to the market, think about ways your family can impact another. Here are a few simple ways to get started and make sure to include your kids in the process:

1. Go to Great Non-Profits website, type in your zip code, “feeding the homeless” and find local organizations in your community that you can help.

2. Consider donating a few dollars to a local food bank, ours here in LA, can make $1.00 buy 4 Thanksgiving meals. Here is the web for LA Regional Food Bank.

3. Think big and get involved in a big or little way with Feed America.Org, an organization designed to support the network of food banks across the country.

One last tip, Thanksgiving is more than a day but rather a spirit, that lasts much longer. Consider putting some of these thoughts into action, the day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday, to show your family that giving is more than seasonal. Showing your children the reality that being full is just not just about our stomachs is a Thanksgiving legacy.

Charity Matters.

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Homelessness and Hunger October 21, 2013

Food for thought

A few weeks ago I received an invitation from a friend, to volunteer at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. I jumped at the chance, not only to see this incredible place, but more importantly to show my youngest son how easy it is to make a difference. I wanted him to realize how the small gift of time can have a huge impact.

I did a post on the history of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank last spring and in the process learned about this incredible facility that provides 42 million meals a year to the 1 out of 6 people who suffer from hunger in Los Angeles County. However, this was different, this was an opportunity to spend time with my youngest son and show him by example how great it feels to help.

We arrived, watched a video about hunger in Los Angels and learned that children, who suffer from hunger, receive their only meal each day at school. As a result, they have no food over the weekends. Hunger is a foreign concept to my son and yet, I could see him trying to process the facts. The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, packs and prepares weekend backpacks filled with food so that children will not be hungry.

The “I Love Lucy” assembly line began and about 15 of us started to fill the backpacks. An hour and a half later we were told that we had fed 711 children. My 12-year-old beamed, and asked when he could come back to help. I had wanted to show him by example but he actually showed me. Our small gift of time working together to make a difference for others was actually a gift for us.

We gained way more than we gave, which for my son, was food for thought.

Charity Matters.

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Homelessness and Hunger April 24, 2013

Are you hungry?

The power of one is a concept that always intrigues me. How can one person create so much change? How can one idea create something that feeds one million people a year? The thought is humbling, empowering and pure inspiration.

The “one” I am talking about is a man named Tony Collier. He was a cook who saw leftovers going to waste and decided to do something about it. Sound simple enough? As a cook, for a Los Angeles based non-profit, Tony received more donations than he needed. So, he decided he needed to share his leftovers with other charities that were trying to feed the hungry as well. Tony had heard about a food bank in Phoenix that had done something similar and decided to bring that model to Los Angeles and founded Los Angeles Regional Food Bank in 1973.

From the very beginning the 200 square foot garage quickly filled up and soon had to move into a converted 2,600 square foot dry cleaning facility in Pasadena. By the early 1980’s Tony’s simple idea was distributing more than 3.5 million pounds of food to over 70 different agencies in LA.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt6QJobSbww]

Today, The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank distributes 51 million pounds of food or the equivalent of 42.4 million meals. The LA Food Bank served over 1 million people last year with the help of 32,000 volunteers.

One man’s simple idea is no longer housed in a garage but now resides in a 96,000 square foot facility that distributes the food to over 653 different agencies throughout the LA area. One man, one idea and a legacy of compassion that continues to inspire.

Charity Matters.

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Homelessness and Hunger March 13, 2013

March Madness

In our house we take March Madness seriously, no it’s not because of basketball, it’s because all three of my sons have birthdays this month…which of course leads to true March Madness. I am always trying to find ways to remind my boys how fortunate they are and birthdays are always a good opportunity for gratitude.

This year I wanted to find a cause that involved birthdays that the boys could contribute too and I came across the most remarkable cause called Cheerful Givers.Org and the person behind it all, just as amazing.

He name is Robin Steele and in 1994 she was touring a local shelter in her community in Minnesota and discovered that parents often looked for a favorite box of cereal or canned good to give their child as a birthday gift. Robin couldn’t bear the thought of a child’s birthday passing without any acknowledgement and immediately got to work assembling 12 birthday bags that she dropped of at her local homeless shelter.

The next day Robin received a call from the shelter to share the story of the birthday bag. A woman had come into the shelter looking for some sort of favorite food item to recognize her child’s birthday and panicked when there wasn’t anything. However, when the shelter gave her a birthday bag the woman replied, “The whole way over on the bus I prayed and prayed that there would be something here for me to give my child, but I never dreamed there would be something so beautiful.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhsEld48tnE&feature=youtu.be]

Robin got to work, enlisted volunteers and began Cheerful Givers. However, three years later Robin still wondered if she was doing enough. So in 1997 she traveled to India to meet with Mother Teresa. Robin met with her hours before her death and returned with a message that we are all hungry for love.

She was more determined than ever to ensure that her birthday bags, “celebrates those lives that matter and that they are a symbol of unconditional love we have for our anonymous neighbors and their children.”

Today, over 622,045 birthday bags have been distributed and counting. March madness in all its glory. The celebration of birthdays is the celebration of life and Robin Steele reminds us all why it is such a gift.

Charity Matters.

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Homelessness and Hunger November 30, 2012

What Matters?

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

Mother Teresa

We all get overwhelmed this time of year with donation request, causes, and so many people and places in need. We can not give to everything, we can not improve everything but we can make a difference in each gesture of love, kindness and compassion to another…..even if it is just one. It matters.

Charity Matters.

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Homelessness and Hunger November 28, 2012

Caterina’s Club

Last week was Thanksgiving and in my search for feeding the hungry, one name just kept reappearing, Bruno Serato. Call it coincidence but I had received a text from a girlfriend the same day about a non-profit called Caterina’s Club. What do you know? Caterina’s Club is founded by Bruno Serato. I just love it when the magic comes together.

So who is this Bruno Serato? Bruno is a chef and restaurant owner in Orange County, California. He is also a long time supporter of the Boys and Girls Club. In 2005, after a visit to the Boys and Girls Club Bruno realized that many of those children were living in motels and were not being fed dinner.

Bruno shared this story with his mother, Caterina, who told him he must use his resources to feed these children pasta dinner. That is how his non-profit Catarina’s Club began. Every night vans from the Boys and Girls Clubs pick up children at surrounding motels, where they live, and deliver them to the Boys and Girls Club for homework help, activities and free pasta dinner.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br7ci0ORpuQ]

Today, Bruno has served more than 400,000 free pasta dinners. Bruno has called these children his favorite customers. What he feeds them is more than pasta; it is love, time, compassion and consistency in an often crazy world for these children. Bruno recognized that being fed isn’t always through your stomach but perhaps feeding a child’s spirit is just as important.

Charity Matters.

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Homelessness and Hunger August 3, 2012

The changing face of Skid Row

As you know this week we have talked about the amazing history of Skid Row and the Union Rescue Mission, as well as the inspiring story of Reverend Andy Bales. As the CEO of the URM, he has made eradicating homelessness his life’s mission.

How do you take on a problem like ending homelessness? It seems enormous, especially since Los Angeles County is the homeless capital of America with 74,000 men, women and children living on the streets every night. Well, the URM has had tremendous success with their program of getting people off the streets and back on their feet.

They do so much more than provide 1.2 million meals each year. URM begins with reaching out offering food, clothing and emergency services like housing. Women and children are sent to a facility called Hope Gardens where they are safe and far from Skid Row. The next step is the transformation phase where the Mission offers medical, dental and legal support. There is a full-time program that provides counseling, job training, volunteering and recovery from addiction….all with a 66% success rate.

The final phase is the restoration, take a look.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO9tqyfZ55Q&feature=player_embedded]

My experience at the Union Rescue Mission was truly inspiring. I began this journey unsure, nervous and not clear what to expect. I left Union Rescue Mission with a renewed faith in compassion, dignity and the power of one. The face of homelessness will never look the same again, there is hope on Skid Row.

Charity Matters.

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