making a difference!
Make a Difference in Someone’s Life This Week by Giving Generously!
10 Ways to Make a Difference This Week By Giving to Others
Week 5′s Summer of Service challenge, sponsored by Alice.com, is to give back to others in meaningful, selfless ways. This means identifying what your friends, family members, neighbors, and others really need by asking yourself, “What would be meaningful to them?” Then, put that into action.
This list below identifies 10 possible ways to give to others. Please share a comment with other ideas you have or things that have worked for you.
- Spend quality time with someone.
- Identify an act of service to perform for another and do it anonymously.
- Purchase a gift and give it to someone for being a great mom, a terrific friend, a nice neighbor, etc.
- Show your appreciation by telling others thank you, writing them a thank you note, or taking them a gift.
- Validate someone’s hard work.
- Identify a charity you support and make a financial contribution to their cause.
- Identify a charity you support and schedule time to volunteer your time for that organization.
- Identify a less-fortunate family in your neighborhood and help them in whatever way they may need help.
- Take time to hug each member of your family every day.
- Tell each member of your family that you love them this week. Add other important people in your life to the list as well.
How Will You Give to Others This Week?
-
What other ideas do you have for giving to others? - How has giving to others made a meaningful difference this week?
- How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?
How Else Can You Make a Difference This Summer?
Make a meaningful difference this summer by taking the Summer of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here’s how you can participate:
- Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
- Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
- Grab the SOS button in the sidebar and put it on your blog or social networking site.
- Enter to win each week’s giveaway. Check out this week’s prizes from Alice.com by clicking here.
- Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.
Yay for SOS!! This week we are giving away our gently used toys to a local charity. I love this as it teaches my children to be able to give away things that are important to them; helps them realize the plight of other children, AND it declutters my house. So many positives!
I also need to be giving a dinner to a neighbor who just had a baby. So many needs, so little time!
I donated to an orphanage in need this week, and got some delicious Navajo Tacos out of it!!! Wahoo!
I sent a text message to my younger brother telling him I love him and how much I appreciate him especially right now during a time of need (he’s in the hospital).
I like this list a lot!
I did a couple of things this week. The first one was really complimenting my mom for the amount of time and effort she put in to fixing up their bedroom as a surprise for when my dad got back from being out of town. I know it not only made her feel good that I complimented her, but the fact that I even NOTICED all the changes made her day.
I also spent the day with my mom, dad, and younger sister, and before I left to go back to my place I gave each of them a hug and told them I loved them.
I tutored a couple of kids last school year, and I got a very generous gift from one of the families. I wrote a very nice thank you card and sent it off. Also, I’m taking one of them to the movies for getting an A- on his report (which was like pulling teeth to get him to complete to the best of his ability, LOL).
I think this SOS is such a great idea!!! I have the button on my blog, too.
Thanks so much!!
Michele R.(CA)
Luvkittysmeowmail at Gmail dot com
Butterfly Whispers
My friend who is getting married told me that she is very stressed out about all of the things she has on her plate. I decided to help her by calling around and helping her book her blocks of hotel rooms and secure rates.
I like doing more anonymous deeds…paying the toll for the guy in the car behind me. This has inspired me to take it one step further and buy lunch for the family in the car behind me tomorrow as we head out of town. I love random surprises!
Hey I have two this week!
1) My kids are doing weekly lemonade stands and donating the cash to Share Our Strength an organization that makes sure children don’t go hungry! (they even make yummy cookies to go along with it)..
and
2) I recently added a paypal button to my site on the lower right hand sidebar.. my plan is when I help people with small things like creating a 125 button, or teaching someone how to use stumbleupon instead of paying me $5 they can donate a small amount via my paypal button to the American Diabetes Association… My husband is a Type 1 diabetic on an insulin pump.. and we are all about the research to help out!
I volunteered to help a friend learn how to monetize her blog. I also featured her and her Etsy business on one of my blogs to help her get store noticed and hopefully get her some business.
I hugged everyone in my family!