Tag: BlinkNow

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Giving Tuesday 2017

I’m getting a very late start on my blog post tonight, due to a full day. However, I paused long enough to honor the day, which is Giving Tuesday, and make donations to the organizations of my choice.

Giving Tuesday, also referred to as #givingtuesday, is an international day set aside for donating funds or time to charities and organizations around the world.

This special day, which is always observed the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, was created in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation.

I learned about #givingtuesday in 2015, and it has become a yearly event for me. I typically celebrate Thanksgiving with family, and devote focused awareness on gratitude. I sometimes participate in Black Friday. This year I did. I sometimes participate in Cyber Monday. This year I did. Since learning of Giving Tuesday, I have always participated.

Here are the recipients of my donations this year:

BlinkNow – Created and run by 31 year old Maggie Doyne, this organization is in its 10th year. Traveling after high school graduation, Maggie was deeply touched by the children in Nepal, who were living in destitution. With her savings of $5000, Maggie began to care for children who were without parents, homes, education, medical care and basic necessities. In 10 years she has built a children’s home, a school, and a women’s center, and her organization provides necessities, education and medical care. Maggie is Mom and guardian to 50 children.

Check out BlinkNow HERE.

TOGETHER RISING – founded by blogger, author and activist Glennon Doyle, this organization began through Glennon’s blog, Momastery. Women began reaching out in tangible ways to help each other. Today Together Rising restores hope by helping women and families in crisis and by responding immediately to disasters around the world by raising and sending funds and necessities.

Check out TOGETHER RISING HERE.

World Vision – this Christian based organization has created programs that benefit children, families and communities in need, around the world. They offer child sponsorships, medical and school supplies, food, sustainable living by way of seeds, fruit trees and farm animals, clothing and clean water.

Learn more about World Vision HERE.

Haven of Hope Rescue Foundation and Carthage Humane Society – both of these organizations aid animals by rescuing dogs (Carthage rescues other animals as well), and helping to place them in foster homes and ultimately into forever homes by way of adoption.

Haven of Hope, based in the Oklahoma City area, has saved hundreds of dogs since 2009. Check them out HERE.

And Carthage Humane Society has been in operation since 1948. Their mission is to provide a safe haven for animals in their care and aid in finding suitable homes for those pets. Find out more about them HERE.

Of course, donations and the volunteering of time and services can, and should, take place year round. I am grateful though, in the midst of this busy holiday time, that there is a special day for focusing on those people and organizations that live the giving lifestyle 24/7. These people and groups are making a difference in the world. Our attention and awareness, our funds, our time, supports them in their efforts.

And that is such a good thing. That’s #givingtuesday. Together we can change the world.

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Journey 335: #GivingTuesday

I discovered another yearly event today. I really am wondering how I’ve missed all these special days. As my awareness shifts, I discover so many new things. There’s Thankgiving, for expressing gratitude for all of my blessings. There’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday to  purchase gifts for my loved ones. And now I find there’s #GivingTuesday, a day set aside to give back to my community or my favorite charity by way of volunteering my time or making a financial donation. 

 

#GivingTuesday was created in 2012, the idea of the 92nd Street Y in New York City. According to the GivingTuesday website, “#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Observed on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.”

For my first #GivingTuesday I made the following contributions:

 

Chase the Chill Joplin. 

My friend Ann Leach brought this event to Joplin. Scarves are donated, by dropping them off at one of three collection centers, and will be tagged. They are then hung in public places and are free for the taking for anyone who needs a scarf for warmth. Cities across the US are participating and I’m so glad Joplin is joining in for the first time. 

I purchased five scarves today, one in honor of each of my grandchildren. I’ll volunteer as well, to help tag and hang the scarves. 

 

 
The Salvation Army Joplin

This is a national organization, however I chose to donate locally. I picked this organization because about .96 out of every $1.00 goes toward helping others. The Salvation Army offers assistance to adults for rehabilitation, veteran affairs services, provides ministries to prisons and the elderly, and combats human trafficking. For children they offer hunger relief, Christmas presents, camps and programs, and housing and homeless services. On an international level, they offer emergency assistance services. Joplin certainly benefitted from relief efforts by The Salvation Army after the 2011 tornado. 

  
 

Joplin Humane Society

I care for mankind. I care for animalkind.  The needs are great at this Joplin shelter, which operates at full capacity most of the time. I’ve sponsored animals here before, paying the adoption fees to make the chances of selection for those animals greater, and I’ll do it again. My sister Linda has a dream of opening a shelter as well, someday, that specializes in fostering and adopting out dogs and cats. There’s room in Joplin for more kind people helping animals. I hope to be able to donate to her organization at that time too!
 

  

BlinkNow 

On a global level, I made donations to two organizations. BlinkNow is located in Nepal and is the creation of Maggie Doyne, who founded this non-profit at the age of 19. Their mission is to focus on building community, through caring for children, education, healthcare, empowerment, and sustainability. Maggie has adopted 50 homeless children and built a children’s home and school that provides shelter, medical care, education…and love. 

  
  

Mary’s Meals



Headquartered in Scotland, Mary’s Meals slogan is, “A simple solution to world hunger” and their mission is to provide every needy child with one free school meal. To accomplish that, they have set up school meal projects in some of the world’s poorest communities, where hunger and poverty prevent children from gaining an education. Mary’s Meals was founded in 2002 and has grown from its first feeding operation of 200 children in Malawi, to a world-wide campaign, providing free school meals in hundreds of schools and feeding over 1 million children a year. 

 

I am very thankful for the opportunity to give back, on a local and global level. I share my experience, not for praise, but to live openly and transparently as I journey and to encourage others to follow their hearts. Anne Frank said, “No one has ever become poor by giving”. Such a true statement. Indeed, I am enriched. 

  
 

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Journey 98: BlinkNow…Maggie’s Story

blinknow

My journey today is to share about another’s amazing journey, and how her courage and love have impacted so many people. I learned about Maggie Doyne through Elizabeth Gilbert, and her Facebook page.

After high school, as Maggie’s friends headed off to college, this 18 year old boarded a plane and set off to explore the world. With only a backpack and an open heart and mind, she traveled through four countries before finding herself in the Himalayas, hiking along the dirt roads of Nepal’s poorest villages. In the midst of this poverty, Maggie met Hima, a six year old girl breaking rocks to sell to help feed her family. Although she was barely surviving, Maggie saw a spark within this child. Most people might feel compassion for the plights of such a child. Maggie decided to take action as well.

She began by helping Hima, sending her to school, paying for her tuition, uniform and textbooks. Seeing the transformation in this young girl’s life, Maggie helped a few more children, and then a few more. The need was great. The children needed a home. Over the next two years, Maggie’s dream of providing one for the children took shape. She used her life savings to purchase land in Surkhet, Nepal. She founded the organization, Blinknow, and with the help of the Nepalese community, supporters from Maggie’s hometown in New Jersey, and people from around the world, the home was built, brick by brick.

In 2008 the Kopila Valley Children’s Home opened its door. Currently 51 children reside at the home, with Maggie as their mother. Her BlinkNow co-founder, Top Bahadur Malla heads up a team of caregivers, cooks, “aunties” and “uncles” who help care for the children. In 2010 a primary school was opened. More than 350 children from Surkhet and the surrounding area are getting an education, many of them the first in their families to ever go to school. Beyond schooling, the children are provided with health care and a nutritious healthy meal each day.

On the BlinkNow website, which you can visit HERE, is this quote:

At BlinkNow, we believe that every child in the world should be provided with the most basic needs and rights – a safe home, medical care, an education and love. And with that, they will grow up to be adults with a social conscience and the skills to continue our mission of ending the cycles of poverty and violence in our world. We believe that in the blink of an eye, we can all make a difference.

Elizabeth Gilbert, who has shared Maggie’s story previously, is making a difference as well. She threw down a challenge this week. If people would donate $10,000 to BlinkNow, her favorite charity, she would sing Total Eclipse of the Heart during karaoke at The Diamond Horseshoe Club in NYC, and post the video. Her challenged stemmed from her desire to push herself beyond her own comfort zone, by singing karaoke. When people asked for evidence of her singing, she came up with this challenge, pledging to match the donations, dollar for dollar. If somehow $20,000 was raised, she’d also sing a rendition of Faithfully, by Journey.

As of this morning, more than $30,000 has been raised for the children of BlinkNow, with more donations pouring in all day. A very generous donor has agreed to contribute an additional $50,000, meaning that so far, more than $110,000 has been raised for this very worthy charity. I made my donation as well, touched by the heart of this teenage girl who didn’t walk away from suffering and poverty, but rolled up her sleeves and asked, “What can I do?” And…I want to see Liz’s karaoke video! It will be posted tomorrow and I will update this blog post with it. Donations are still being accepted HERE until midnight tonight, if anyone feels so led to contribute to make life better for these kids. Type the world KARAOKE in the special instructions box, as Liz is still matching donations. And of course, regular donations are accepted by BlinkNow at any time!

Maggie says, “What have we done as a human family that our children are living this way? More importantly, what can be done to reverse the course?” The children of the world are our future. All the children. I am grateful to have learned of Maggie and her kids, and the BlinkNow organization. In the blink of an eye, we can all make a difference, indeed.

blinknow children

Liz singing karaoke