Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

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On September 11th, I paused for a few minutes on my couch to listen to some of the tributes given during the CBS Early Show. Some time was given to promoting a new website MyGoodDeed.org.

Today, I finally looked it up. At first, I thought it was going to be all about celebrities and politicians getting a good name out there for themselves…there are quite a few big names in the testimony section. But it’s a nice idea, I hope it catches on.

Something caught my eye, a project of collecting personal hygiene products for underprivileged children, and it brought back some great memories. I used to be the secretary for a non-profit child health care group, and each year at Thanksgiving we’d decorate large boxes with Christmas wrap and drop them off at all the local churches. On the side of the box, we’d list needed items such as dental supplies, SOAP, shampoo, socks, combs, etc. These boxes would sit in the church foyers and the church members would have three weeks to fill them. Then our group would all gather together with donated gift bags (the community stores often donated our wrapping supplies and other fillers for the bags) and fill them up. We’d have things geared for three different age groups: preschool, elementary, and jr. high/high school.

It was a blast, kind of like playing “elf”. Our local SRS office made sure that the gifts went where needed.

Often, all it takes is one family willing to go the extra mile. Why should we leave these types of things to the local child health care board? One family could host a party at church for any interested and in no time they could have a dozen boxes dressed out and ready to drop off around town. In fact, I like this idea so much, I’m already musing the possibilities.

You could focus your donations on:

• the local crisis pregnancy center–they’re always in need of baby items and maternity clothes
• the domestic violence shelter–think of the women and children whose Christmases will be so vastly different. Perhaps a stuffed bear might make bedtime a little easier. Maybe a gift basket of frivolous items for the hurting wife?
• do you have a homeless shelter in your community? Contact them and see if your church can collect canned goods or other donations for their Christmas banquet.
• perhaps the ministerial alliance can come up with a list of local children according to their ages/genders and what specific needs/wants they might have.

As you can see, this idea has possibilities. It would be a great 4H project, or community service project for an older homeschooled child.

I’m excited, how about you?

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