Items tagged with 'giving'
Volunteering around Christmas?
Looking to help, Anonymous emails:
I know a few AOA readers are involved in charitable work, so I was wondering if you could ask ... how one could volunteer to help on Christmas night? I'm staying in the US this year for the holidays, my buddies are out of town, maybe I can make myself useful. THANKS!
We'll expand Anonymous' question to include all the time around the holidays -- not just Christmas.
And if you can think of some way to just do something nice for other people, that would be great, too. Someone once shoveled our driveway while we were away for a few days over Christmas break, and it was just about the best thing ever.
Got a suggestion for Anonymous? Please share!
photo: Flickr user Hamed Saber
Local holiday wish list: Unspeakable Visions Christine
Things that would make Christine happy this holiday season: tea, movies and apple vodka.
In holiday seasons past AOA has made lists of local gifts we thought people might like to get. This year, we're going right to the source. Instead of making our list, we've asked a few people directly: what's on your holiday wish list.
Our first wish list comes from Unspeakable Visions Christine...
How to help the Irene flood response?
Updated September 7 at noon
Julie emailed this morning:
I just made a donation to the American Red Cross, but was wondering if there were other ways that I can help the victims of flooding.
We've collected a few ways after the jump. We're sure there are others -- so, if you know of way to help, please share it.
A fruit/vegetable picking charity?
Jennifer emails:
I recently heard about a program in Toronto called Not Far From The Tree. It seems like an awesome idea, and I was wondering if you guys had heard about anything like it here in the Albany area.
The first thing that came to our mind was the Capital District Community Gardens' Squash Hunger Program, which collects surplus produce. But we wouldn't be surprised if there are others.
Know of local program like this? Please share!
Cameron Varano & Hens for Haiti
Cameron during one of her trips to Haiti.
Some people write checks when they see desperation in the world. Others are able to lend a hand.
Cameron Varano is the latter.
In 2009 the 24-year-old Niskayuna resident helped create the Hens for Haiti project, an initiative to build a hen house in Gros-Morne, Haiti. The goal is to bring jobs, nutrition and hope to the community and they're making progress.
The hen house is being constructed and the chicks are supposed to arrive in the spring, but like many projects in developing nations, Hens for Haiti has encountered some speed bumps along the way.
A good place to volunteer?
Looking to help, Camilo emails:
With the upcoming season of holidays, I was wondering if you guys know of a good place to volunteer in, where I could spend a couple of hours a week. I am not affiliated with any church (neither am I interested in), but any place where I could feel like i'm being useful for the community would be cool. I checked online and I cant find anything really worth. Most of the volunteering positions I find around are more like office-assistant-of-the-church kinda work, but not really community oriented.
This question has come up a few times in the past. And people had some good suggestions -- some of them probably still apply.
There's also a site called VolunteerMatch that allows you to search for volunteer opportunities as if they were job listings. You just tell it the location and what you're interested in. Here are the results for "everything" within a 20 mile radius of 12203.
One more interesting option: The Stakeholders group is starting up a network to match non-profits with volunteers. It looks like they're currently taking applications for January matches.
Know of good place to volunteer? Please share!
photo: Flickr user Hamed Saber
Other Capital Region orgs up for Refresh money
After the seeing that Hannah's Hope Fund fell just short on a second Pepsi Refresh grant, we were curious about what other local groups are currently in the running for soda money.
All these projects up for votes through the end of this month. All descriptions from the Refresh site. There's a wide range of ideas...
What are you thankful for?
Otto's thankful for his BFF Daisy.
The holiday this week has us thinking about giving thanks (and turkey, too). So, we were curious:
What are you thankful for?
We'd love to hear your answer in the comments. It could be anyone or anything.
We'll draw one person at random from the comments and AOA will give $100 to a charity of that person's choice.
OK, we'll start: AOA is very thankful for our loving and supportive family and friends -- we never would have been able to start this site without them. And we're also thankful to you. We count ourselves very lucky that AOA is part of a community that includes so many interesting and thoughtful people. It makes us smile.
Important: To be part of the drawing, you must submit your comment (that answers the question) by noon on November 24. You must include a working email address (that you check regularly). The winner will be notified by 5 pm on November 24 and must respond by 5 pm on November 29. The choice of charity is subject to AOA approval (for example, we're not going to give money to People Against Puppies).
Good places to donate furniture, clothing?
Judi emails:
An older pair of friends of the family are doing some serious downsizing to live in a pretty impressive independent living community in the area. They have quite a bit of furniture, clothing, etc that they need to find good homes for and they've expressed an interest in donating most of their things, but don't really know where to start.
I want to help them as much as I can, so I've been trying to do a little research on all the places they can donate ... Do you know of any good places to donate in the Capital Region? Would any of these places be willing to pickup the donations?
Judi says she's considered a few of the places that probably first come to mind -- Goodwill and Salvation Army. She's wondering if there might be some good places she's missing.
Last year, Naomi donated some used furniture to Troy Area United Ministries and got the scoop on how it all worked. And while it wouldn't necessarily be a donation, the local Freecycle network could be useful (more scoop from Naomi).
Anyone have suggestions for Judi? Please share!
Earlier on AOA: If you're looking for the inverse situation, Slacker asked about good places to buy a couch.
Tour de Habitat 2010
The annual Tour de Habitat bike ride is coming up September 26. From the brochure:
The Tour de Habitat gives riders a choice of pedaling a 100, 50, 25 or family-friendly 10 mile route to benefit Capital District Habitat for Humanity. All rides start and finish at the Albany Pump Station, with a post-ride reception featuring food and beer.
The entry fee is $100, for which the org is hoping people will get sponsors. The fee includes "riding a fully supported route, pre- and post-ride meals at the Albany Pump Station, two pints of any Evans beer after the ride and a souvenir t-shirt."
Earlier on AOA: Scoring your very own urinal at Habitat ReStore
Hannah's Hope Fund
Hannah and her family
Your three year old daughter is diagnosed with a rare disease.
There's no support group. There's no foundation. There are no clinical trials -- just well meaning doctors with advice about how to make her more comfortable.
If you took that advice, who could fault you?
But Matt Sames and his wife Lori couldn't let go without a fight.
The Rexford couple has managed to bring together an international community of scientists and doctors, and raised over $2.2 million to help save their daughter and others like her.
Now the Hannah's Hope Fund is in fourth place for a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh grant that will help support an upcoming clinical trial.
New York is not the volunteer state
The top four volunteer activities in this metro area.
From a report called Volunteering in America, based on averages from 2006-2009:
The Albany metro area has 200,000 volunteers
27.1% of residents volunteer - ranking them 44th among the 75 Mid-size cities
34.7 hours per resident - ranking them 44th within the 75 Mid-size cities
$532.2 million of service contributed here
Here's the full rundown for this metro area.
The report includes a list of "community factors that may influence Albany's volunteer rate" -- but in Albany's case they would seem to indicate that more people in this area would be volunteering.
New York State did terribly in the rankings -- 51st among all states (and DC) for percentage of people who volunteer. NYC probably accounts for a lot of that -- it's volunteer rate was 50th among 51 large cities.
Here are the national rankings.
The federal government produced the report based on data collected by the Census Bureau.
[via the TU's Chris Churchill]
Earlier on AOA:
+ From 2008: Know of a great place to volunteer?
graph: Volunteering in America
Rappelling down the Crowne Plaza -- for a good cause
There was originally a Streetview embed of the Crowne Plaza, but we heard it was messing things up for some people who were using IE
This isn't your typical fundraising drive: Special Olympics New York is giving people who raise $1000 for the org the chance to rappel down the side of the Crowne Plaza in downtown Albany. From the press release for "Over the Edge:"
Approximately 100 "Edger's" will rappel 18 stories down the State Street wall of the Crowne Plaza Albany. Each participant will be required to raise a minimum of $1,000 to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity. The chance to rappel is completely exclusive and can only be done in this area through Special Olympics New York! Our goal is to raise $100,000 for athletes across the State.
The fundraising starts today. The the Crowne Plaza descent is August 20.
(Thanks, Nick)
Lark Tavern benefit
There's a "Rock to Rebuild the Lark Tavern" benefit coming up May 22 at the Washington Park lake house. On the schedule for the event: music, food, an art auction and a silent auction. Tickets are $10.
If you have goods or services to donate, contact Jasen Von Guiness: jvg |at| albanysociety |dot| org.
If you have art you'd like to donate for the auction, contact Samson Contompasis at the Marketplace Gallery: TheMarketplaceGalleryNY |at| gmail |dot| com.
To volunteer: larktavern.volunteer |at| gmail |dot| com
Earlier on AOA: Fire at Lark Tavern
Voting opens for "community sponsored" Sculpture in the Streets
This year's Sculpture in the Streets exhibit in downtown Albany will feature works by J. Seward Johnson (a little background). And, for the first time, the exhibit will include a "community sponsored sculpture." From the web site:
One of the sculptures will be sponsored by you- the residents, employees and friends of the Capital Region! $3,000 will support one life-sized sculpture for the duration of the show. We ask everyone in our community to donate $1.00 and show how, especially in today's economy, collaboration is the key to success. To truly involve each of you, the sculpture will be chosen from one of the three [options] -- each $1.00 donation will serve as one vote for [a] sculpture ... Each donor will have his/her name printed in an ad in the Times Union this summer to celebrate our community coming together in this effort!
The thumbnail on the right is one of the options (title "Generation Bridge"). Voting started today and goes through May 21.
The kickoff party for this year's Sculpture in the Streets is June 18.
Earlier on AOA:
+ Sculpture in the Streets 2009
+ Sculpture in the Streets 2008
Dining Out for Life
There's an easy -- and fun -- way to help the Aids Council raise money coming up this week.
The org's annual Dining Out for Life event is this Thursday. Here's how it works:
- You got out to eat at one of the participating restaurants
- The restaurants donate 25 percent of their food sales that day to the AIDS Council
That's it. Easy.
At a lot of the restaurants, "ambassadors" are organizing group dinners. We went to a group dinner at Athos last year and met a bunch of interesting people. It was a lot of fun.
Great local gifts for Valentine's Day
Like those Necco conversation hearts -- but better.
Valentine's Day is nearly here! This means candy, lots of pink and red things, frivolous and sometimes-almost-too adorable paper goods, dinner reservations, flowers and all manner of stuffed animals propped in store windows. Oh... and, you know, letting the people in your life know that you love them.
After all the fuss of the biggest winter holidays has died down, Valentine's Day is a funny little break from the every-day. It's a little bit of warmth in the otherwise totally freezing, month of February.
Lots of Capital Region shops have their share of hearts and flowers but here are four of my favorite local ways to do something special for Valentine's Day.
What are your favorites?
Hearts for Haiti
Victoria Van Der Laan, the local artisan who sells on Etsy as ex libris handmade, has organized an Etsy shop called Hearts for Haiti. The shop has been up for just a week -- and its page reports that it's already raised more than $8500.
Wrote Victoria on her blog:
... Having no money to donate I was feeling helpless and desperate to do my part. Somehow I ended up on the Etsy forums and it struck me that a charitable shop should be organized to help the people of Haiti in some way.
So I started a forum thread. The response was immediate and incredibly inspiring. So many amazing people stepped up to help in all of the many ways that were needed. Throngs of Etsy sellers offered up amazing items. I got swept up in all of the camaraderie and the amazing spirit of charity and before I knew it I was well on my way to opening a shop!
As of this afternoon, the shop had more than 650 items for sale -- all donated by other Etsy artisans. The proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders.
(Thanks, Leah!)
Earlier on AOA: ex libris handmade was featured in the holiday gift guide
James Taylor benefit concert at the Mahaiwe
James Taylor has added a second Haiti benefit concert at the The Mahaiwe (the first one sold out in 90 minutes Tuesday morning). The second show will be January 23 at 8pm. Tickets start at $100. They go on sale at 9am Wednesday morning at the theater and via its web site.
That sold-out first show raised $150k for the org Partners in Health -- and Taylor then matched it with another $150k of his own. The proceeds from this second show will also benefit the same org.
The Mahaiwe is in Great Barrington, MA, which is about an hour drive from Albany.
Toy donations?
Chuck emailed this morning about trying to find a place to donate gently used toys:
As the only child, and worse, the only grandchild, our now 7 year old has several (clean) garbage bags and RubberMaid storage bins full of (also clean) plush toys, and other assorted kid paraphernalia. An embarrassing amount for one child actually. We'd love to see that these go to other kids as they are all in great condition, but it seems toy donations always need to be new toys.
I'm tempted to just leave them on some church steps or push them into one of those used clothing bins, but I'd rather like to see that they go to the right place.
Can you help!
Anyone have ideas?
Local holiday gift guide round-up
The Peppermint Pigs from Saratoga Sweets are still one of our favorite holiday gifts.
If you haven't finished (or -- you know -- started) your holiday shopping yet, there's a good chance you're getting a little... what's the word we're looking for? Panicky?
No worries. We've had the AOA elves out compiling a list of local holiday gifts that are fun to give and pretty easy to get.
Check out the full list after the jump. And by all means, if you have a good last-minute gift in mind that you'd like to add, pass it on.
Happy shopping.
Holiday gift guide: Candy!!!
Candy!
If you've been waiting to find the perfect little extra gift, or you're just looking for something nice for someone you know so well, today's gift idea might be just the ticket.
Because let's face it: locally made candy might very well be the best thing since --- well, itself.
Here are a few of my favorite local candy shops and some of their most popular holiday treats:
Holiday gift guide: children's museum memberships
Nothing says happy holidays like exploring earthworms.
Maybe you know some kids that seem to have more stuff than they know what to do with. You want to get them a gift but you don't know what they have, you don't know what they need, and you don't know what the hot new toy is.
Today's holiday gift guide suggestion is something kids can appreciate in December, or in June (and that parents won't have to clean up).
Holiday gift guide: local history
Your Capital Region history questions, answered.
Maybe it's just our inner geek, but we love knowing the back-story about the place we live.
Learning who stayed in that old hotel back in the day, what ghost haunts the music hall or the correct pronunciation of Kosciusko just kinda makes our day in a weird little way.
Today's local holiday gift guide suggestion celebrates exactly that type of local history geekdom.
Holiday gift guide: Rolf's
Smokey holiday goodness.
On the 4th day of the gift guide AOA gives to you:
The gift of meat.
... said Wendy Voelker about The organic milk shortage