[momraine]

Tis the season for giving to charity.
First off I have to remind everyone that you can't post here asking for monetary donations for anything that is not an official 501 charity.
That said here is the question of the day:
How do you give this season, how do you teach your children about giving back, or do you?
I know we talked a while back about how several of us do the shoeboxes, now that the deadline for that is past, what else do you do?

[votemom]

we do the shoeboxes every year, always give to every red kettle we come across (anna and kate can hear the ringing bell a mile away - it's very exciting!), and our church does gifts for kids who have a parent in prison. the gifts are given "from" the parent... they don't know it really came from strangers.

usually at thanksgiving we try and help our local rescue mission.

there is so much more we should/could do. this post is a good reminder to be very intentional.

[momraine]

One thing I would like to do when my little ones are a little older. I spent Christmas eve with a friend one year. She came from a large family and they had a wonderful tradition.
I spent the night before at her house because we left very early. At breakfast her parents told us all about a family that they had learned about. (I think my friends's grandmother was a counselor that covered several public schools and each year found a family - this was of course before all the privacy laws)
Anyway, the family was devided into teams. My friend and I were around 11 and were given the task of shopping for the little 6 year old girl in the family. We were given a budget and her sizes and her likes. Two teens in the family shopped for food for the family, dad and an older boy shopped for a tree and decorations, mom shopped for the mom, other kids shopped for other members of the family (no dad in the family we were shopping for that year)
Anyway, we got the little girl a new outfit and a warm coat (our notes said she didnt' have one) and a Barbie and some clothes, gloves, pajamas, and a stocking, which we filled with candy and little things and we used glitter glue to put her name on it. We all went back to the house and after lunch did a wrapping session. Then we played outside for a while before a pizza making session. I had never made home made pizza and it was fun putting the toppings I wanted on it! Anyway, after supper we watched TV for a while and then the dad said it was time. We all loaded in the families van and loaded up all the gifts. It was getting pretty late by then. The gifts were all in boxes and the tree was real. Anyway, the mom and the little kids stayed home. We stopped about half a block from the house and then we each carried a box of goodies and we put them on the front porch, dad put the tree in a stand so it was standing up with the boxes all around it, then we all snuck back to the car except the oldest boy, he waited till we were all in the van and it was running. Then he knocked really hard on the door and ran to the van. He jumped in and we took off with the lights off till we got around the corner. We drove around a few blocks and then drove back by to see the mom and the kids dragging the last of the boxes in the house, big smiles on their faces. Then we went back to the house for hot chocolate and hot cookies. They had to take me home right after that, but I never forgot that day. My friend told me that they did not gifts themselves on Christmas, they slept in and had a big brunch on Christmas. She said they got gifts on thier birthday's, but on Jesus's birthday, they gave unto the least of these. My own family was pretty poor, but the families they found really were worse off than us. So it made me feel so good to be a part of that. One of these days I am going to talk my husband and kids into us doing that.

[dlhall]

We have an "angel tree" at church and each of my kids pick a tag off the tree with a specific request, and then I take the kids to the store to pick out the toy/book/clothing item that was requested. We wrap them up and return the gifts back to church and the teen group then distributes all the gifts. Our church uses the angel tree to help families from our parish, Project Gabriel, which supports unwed mothers who have decided to parent their children, and a homeless shelter.

My 7 year old daughter really gets into it and spends a lot of time picking out which tag she wants. My 3 year old doesn't get it yet, but someday he will.

Liz

[angelkisses0102]

We started at Thanksgiving...our church makes up boxes of food to be delivered to families for Thanksgiving...so the kids helped purchase the food. The best part for them was helping us deliver the box to the family of another church member. We also donated food at the kids aftercare...DS was very involved in that for some reason this year.

Our church also participates in the same program as votemom so each of my kiddos get a child to purchase a gift for...from the parent in prison.

We typically do an angel from the Angel Tree at the kids aftercare...but this year I am not so certain it is in the budget. At work we Adopt-a-Family...sadly this year it is a coworker in our main office who was in a horrible motorcycle accident right before Thanksgiving and suffered a traumatic brain injury. She is a single mom of two teenagers...so I am planning on using the Angel Tree funds toward that. But I will probably squeeze out the funds to do one Angel Tree angel.

I agree with votemom...so much more we could do...and we will find a way to do more. One thing I am trying to do more of is volunteering my time...I am trying to set a good example for the kids and have started helping out in the children's ministry at church every other weekend.

Great thread.

[MamaChinch]

We did some shoeboxes locally for the homeless shelter and Delaney's class has adopted a family locally that is in need. The kids have been bringing in coins to fill a huge jar in their classroom. Yesterday Delaney came home from school all excited that the jar was completely full ! It was so great to have her excited about helping other children, she even told me all about how the parents didn't have enough money for Christmas presents.
We are putting her old toys in a bin to make way for her new toys and I am planning to take her to a place in town and have HER drop off her toys. She was more willing to give money than her old toys, though, so we have to work on that, but she's doing it!
In the past, I have done a lot of volunteering this time of year, hopefully when she gets older she can also. And, yes,of course we always do more!

Lorraine ~ That story mad me cry, that is trully one of the best things I have ever heard!

[Mykidsmom]

We have an Angel Giving tree at church and each kiddo chooses a tag and we shop for the gift. We signed up to ring the bells with the red kettle for this coming Saturday (wish for semi-warmish weather). We did the bell ringing last year as a school service project and kiddos very much enjoyed it.

[GCS]

We sponser a local family through our church mission every year.
Buttercup's class is doing a hat and mitten drive for other needy preschoolers.
Big Boy's class did a food drive to sponser our local food shelter at Thanksgiving and is doing a toy drive for Christmas.
Their after school program has a toy drive as well and they are both participating in that.

We also hit every red bucket we pass. I think its especially important during tough times for us that the kids see us give to others. Drives home the fact that there are always others worse off than you.

[mcanvasback]

I am trying to do a lot this year. I am donating Isabella's crib with a ton of nice bedding. Toys for Tots though the Chamber of Commerce, of which I am a member. Providing for a needy family through a program with our local newspaper.

I am trying to teach Bella, she is going with me to donate the crib and I have explained to her it is for a baby whose family caanot afford to buy one - not sure she gets it, and I'm sure the thrill of the Salvation Army buckets is getting to drop the money in but she will get it soon enough.


But...the neatest thing - John, a member of my Kyrg Yahoo group is a missionary in Tokmok, the tiny village my daughter is from. He does a ton of work with the two orphanages there, the baby house where Bel was and the older child orphanage where she would have gone at age 5........(don't like to think about that one)

Anyway - these older kids have never ever had Christmas and he wanted to take them to a McDonalds type restaurant as a Christmas treat, plus dress up as Santa,and maybe the circus! So he put the word out to our group and we raised $1000 (enough for about 60 kids) in about 5 minutes! He then asked for another $1000, which we also raised. This is actually the hugest thing these kids will ever have experienced. Most of them have never left the orphanage.

I thought you might like to see the cute note the orphanage workers who are organzing this outing wrote to John.

'Skeedka" means discount!


"HI John
Today we was in Bishkek and we talk with manager in "VEFA" about make for kids SKEEDKA for beefburger. The manager will give for us 15% for kids this is will cost 136som ( this is $3.49 for each kids)
for Prince kidsmenu:
Cocacola
hamburger
french fried
little toy
For old people like we will cost 159 som ( This is $4.08 for each pers)
$4.08 for :
Cocacola
hamburger
french fried
not toy for us
I send for you report how many people and kids, and you can read and change if you have other idea.
In Tokmok orphange 18 kids and 2 workers ( Who will go with kids in Bishkek )
In Orlovka orphanage 30 kids and 2 workers ( who will go in Bishkek )
Asela's kids 2 kids and 1 mama ( who will go in Bishkek )
Larisa's kids 3 kids
Our kids 2 kids and 2 workers ( This is Sergey and I )
Aigula's kids 5 kids and 1 mama
Rahima's kids 1 kid
drivers 2 drivers

TOTAL 61 kids ($213) 10 old people

Sweet! TIS THE SEASON!!!

[MamaChinch]

Oh my gosh, that IS note very cute! How wondeful you all did that, wouldn't it be fun if they gave the adutls toys, too???

[mcanvasback]

Originally Posted by MamaChinch

Oh my gosh, that IS note very cute! How wondeful you all did that, wouldn't it be fun if they gave the adutls toys, too???

they would probably love the toys, they have so little

[kretzklan]

My DH's office adopts a group home each year. We buy gifts for the adults with disabilities that live there. Sadly, most of them will not receive gifts from family or often have no family members left. The kids get to go pick out the gifts. I don't know if they understand it (the younger two). We do the toy drive that their school sponsors. We don't do a whole lot else during the holiday. We try to spread it out over the year. We give donations to a homeless shelter that is for families exclusively downtown. They allow us to actually bring our donations in and we get to meet some of the families living there - who are assigned to the donation room. That is an eye opening experience and they are thankful for every item we bring. The kids could not believe that there are children who are homeless. They assumed homeless people were alcoholics and drug addicts only. Each time we put out a donation on our porch (the charities here do pick up) - we discuss where the items will go and who will benefit (we try to do a different charity each time). They especially like when we give to the Vet organization that passes it along to disabled veterans (or the money from selling it)!