Good Search

www.goodsearch.com is a new search engine that when used, donates money to charities that are signed up. This includes The American Baptist Churches of Connecticut, where my mom works.

Here is my philanthropic request for you. Instead of using Google to do searches, next time use GoodSearch. Where it says "Who do you do this search for?", type in [American Baptist Churches - Connecticut]. Then put in your search words. Your search will save the charity and every time you do a search, it will raise money for them. Now I'm not asking you to go do 100 searches at a time, that will get them into trouble. But go ahead and use it for a day, a week, a month, or even forever!

The Joys of Volunteering

A couple of months ago, David and I joined our Neighborhood Association, also known as the NCPCA which stands for North City Park Civic Association. Upon joining, we found out that the President's wife needed help with the newsletter. Here's where David and I jumped at the chance to do some volunteer work.

The newsletter is 6 pages and runs every month. I project manage it, gather the articles, edit them all, then pass it on to David who does the full layout. I take it back, edit it again, send it to print and have it delivered to the President's house where his wife has a group of volunteers that hand deliver it to 1,400 homes in our neighborhood. Labor intensive? Um yeah. You can view January and February here.

The last time we volunteered was two years ago to pack Baskets of Joy that are delivered to the needy during the Holidays. Unfortunately David had signed us up for this event that started at 7am, the day after our annual holiday party. When we arrived, still drunk from the night before, we were too late to stuff the baskets. Not wanting to leave without helping, we were put to work delivering the baskets in the downtown area. It was a meager 4 hours out of our day, yet the majority of the people loved getting their gifts.

It makes us wish we had more time to get out there and do more for people. What can you do in your city?