10 Bite-Size Ideas for Serving Actively

1.  Walk instead of drive next time you have an errand within a half-mile of your house, easing the burden on our environment a little and helping your body a lot.
2. Dedicate your participation in an athletic endurance event to the American Cancer Society through their DetermiNation program. Visit this link for details or to find a sponsored event near you.
3. Take this quiz of the American Heart Association so that they can give you a personalized walking plan.
4. Subscribe to the RSS feed of the National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There program, to get ideas for outdoor activities.
5. Think about what it’d be like to have breast cancer, then request an information brochure about an upcoming Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
6. Take a busy neighbor’s dog for a walk.
7. Contact your local Girl Scout council about doing a one-time tutorial event for a troop on skiing, geocaching, in-line skating, or another outdoor activity.
8. See how many doors you can open for someone else in one day.
9. Crumple up some pieces of paper, break out some hula hoops, and get together an indoor snowball fight with your kids.
10. Have a Just Dance, Wii Fit, or Dance Central with your kids or hubby.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• What other ideas do you have for serving others by being active?
• How has being active made a meaningful difference for you or others 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 Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season 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.
• Enter to win each week’s giveaway. Check out this week’s prizes from Curious George and PBS Kids by clicking here.
• Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.

The first is an innocent memory—carrot juice. I remember my friend talking to me about how her mom was drinking lots of carrot juice. I had never heard of carrot juice before and I giggled as I conjured up the image of trying to extract juice from something as strong and juice-less as a carrot. I giggled a lot, because this was a regular occurrence at their house. My friend explained it helped her mom feel better. I wondered why my mom didn’t drink carrot juice!

The second is a memory that was perhaps one of the best lessons my parents ever taught us—the spirit of giving to others. For Christmas, my parents always selected people in our community to help. One particular year, they chose this family across the street. My mom then shared her plan to do the “12 Days of Christmas” to this family. I rolled my eyes, not wanting to sing, but she explained that we would anonymously drop off a gift or gifts each day (the number of gifts would increase from 1 to 12 as the days increased). Now we were talking. What were the gifts going to be? Who was going to deliver them? How would we stay anonymous?

Our entire family played a role. We helped choose the gifts, wrap them, deliver them (that was the funnest and scariest part). We would go back home afterward and laugh and tell stories over and over of how we almost got caught. And somewhere between the tactical side of making sure our treasures made it from our house to theirs, we all felt the spirit of Christmas deep inside of us. I can’t tell you what I got for Christmas that year, but I can tell you that that same spirit burns inside me every time I think of this experience.

My friend’s mom ultimately died after a very long bout with breast cancer. She raised six amazing children and was an example to everyone.

How You Can Help

During the month of October, Mom It Forward is proud to support Hanes as they promote breast health and to raise breast cancer awareness.

“Brighten someone’s day, by sending a little comfort their way. For each new comfort package you create and send, Hanes will donate $1 to NBCF up to $25,000.”

How has breast cancer touched your life? Who will you honor the month of October to raise breast cancer awareness? What steps will you take to improve your own breast health?

You might call her a fantastic chef.

She is a Mommy, a friend and a fighter.  I call her an inspiration.

Those who inspire most deeply tend to be the people who lead by example.  Rachel from A Southern Fairy Tale does just that.  She is dedicating her blog to fighting breast cancer for the entire month of October.  As is typical of Rachel’s sweet nature and wit, she is calling it Blogging for Boobs.

Last year she did a huge giveaway to drive traffic to her site to increase awareness and raise money through Ad revenue.  This year, she is stepping up her committment.  She is donating her entire site to the cause.  Come October, her blog will turn pink and she will have guest posters sharing their stories, their tributes and information.  Items have already been donated so she can do weekly giveaways – and she has set up a special page called, what else – Blogging for Boobs  where people can donate directly to the Susan G Komen foundation.

Why is Rachel doing this?  Not because she has to.  But because she knows you and I have likely been touched, in some way, by this disease – and she knows a cure is in our future – if only we can continue to fight, spread awareness and raise money.

For Rachel, it is her mother-in-law and at least three friends who’s moms have been affected.  These women serve as a reminder of the pervasiveness of this disease.  And it is for them that Rachel is Blogging for Boobs.

About the Author: Danielle Smith is a mommy to two smart and sassy small people, as well as the founder and primary author of ExtraordinaryMommy.com. You can catch her hosting a brand new live show, The Spin Cycle, on MomTV.com every Wednesday at 9pmEST. She also hosts a show on Blog Talk Radio and contributes to WhyMomsMatter. Danielle is thrilled to be contributing to MomItForward as ‘giving back’ has always been an important part of who she is and what she hopes to teach her children.

Design-her Gals is a site where you can create a “gal” who looks just like you (or in some cases just like you’d like to look!). Choose her eye and hair color, hair style, outfit, and accessories (wish I owned those shoes in real life!). You can then put your gal on a variety of products including business cards, notepads, to-do lists, luggage tags, and water bottles. But as fun as the designing is, the donating is even better because a percentage of all sales goes to the Gal to Gal Foundation.

The Gal to Gal Foundation was started by Jeanne Fitzmaurice, Design-her Gals’ Go-to Gal (i.e. owner). The foundation’s purpose is to help grant wishes and provide other important benefits for Stage IV breast cancer patients. The inspiration for G2G came when Jeanne learned through a friend’s experience with Stage IV breast cancer just how scarce funds are for those in this critical stage, a stage when health insurance benefits may be reduced or canceled and hospice care hard to find. “We want all Stage 4 patients to make the journey to their next destination with as much style and grace as they’ve shown traveling through this one.”

In October of last year Design-her Gals and FranklinCovey launched a collection of new products dedicated to help raise funds for the Gal to Gal Foundation. You can now carry your super cool Design-her Gals memo paper, calling cards, and perpetual calendar in a one-of-a-kind, super chic tote! Who knew you were choosing to make a difference to women with breast cancer while choosing which avatar to put on your coffee mug? Design-her Gals gives you a way to creatively express yourself and in turn you’ll be giving to the Gal to Gal Foundation. Design and donate, baby. Design and donate.