You see, fourteen years ago, Lee was raising her three small children and beginning a seven-year battle with a rare form of lung cancer. According to Wikipedia, she had previously given her then husband, Emery Rhodes, glass blowing lessons, and in them he created small glass cups, or “baby glasses,” which she would light with tea light candles to find solace during the difficult cancer treatments. Her friends started asking for them, so she hired local glassblowers in 1998 to produce more “glassybaby,” and began selling them out of her garage. In 2001, the Glassybaby company was officially formed, with the small, but durable, and colorful glass votives as their sole product.

Four years later, Martha Stewart received some glassybaby as a gift, and decided to have Lee appear on her show, and sales increased dramatically. In 2007, glassybaby moved to a studio and retail shop in Seattle’s Madrona neighborhood. In 2009, they opened two more stores in Seattle and a store in New York, and Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos purchased a large stake in the company because he was so passionate about the product. By 2010, sales hit $4 million and were up 50% from the year before. Sales grew more than 30% in 2011, despite the fact that naysayers said a company with a handmade product and goodwill mission would fail. Earlier this year, 2012, Lee was named Entrepreneur of 2011 by Entrepreneur magazine, the first woman to have won that award.

Needless to say, meteoric success has played an important role in this story. But what is more fundamental to its meaning, is the fact that, since its beginning, part of Lee’s vision has been for glassybaby to bring peace to others, not only through the warm light the candles emanate when lit from within, but also through actual donations made by the company to various nonprofits related to health, healing, and quality of life. They make those donations in three ways: 1) giving 10% of the gross sales of certain glassybaby directly to charities or organizations chosen each year, 2) donating the use of their studio and “hot shop” to nonprofits, and 3) donating glassybaby to different charitable organizations to both decorate their fundraising events and to auction off the glassybaby to support their cause.

The ultimate motivation behind all of this is that, during her cancer treatments, Lee met many other patients who could not afford even daily needs such as bus fare, childcare, or groceries. Today, most of the money donated by glassybaby goes directly toward meeting those basic needs. To date, Lee’s company has donated more than $900,000. The more glassybaby sold, the more money is given away to charity, with the eventual goal being to give away 10% of all revenue (as opposed to profits) to charities.

Like Megan Faulkner Brown, who we talked about recently, Lee has tasted not only the sweetness of success but of service. She says, “The reason I do this is to give back. We believe that if you commit to your mission, people will commit to you. Our mission is to help people find what they need to heal. We have built a community that loves and shares our mission.” And as she’s done so, she’s built a life that bespeaks triumph over the challenges that used to beleaguer her: summiting Mount Kilamanjaro last year after surviving cancer, and building a successful, charitable company despite the odds.

Did you know as recently as the 1970s, the average American belonged to half-dozen or more civic organizations that did volunteer work in their communities? Lions Clubs, the Masons, Rotaries, Chambers of Commerce, etc. Today, we’re lucky to be involved with even one. It’s no wonder everyone joins social media sites like crazy; we miss that connection, not to mention the opportunities for doing social good.

I’m one of those people who doesn’t have much outside organizational involvement, I admit. But when choosing a church for my family, one of the conditions for me was that the church “walked the walk,” instead of just talking the talk. My church does many outreach activities, including a monthly dinner at a homeless shelter. This outreach is particularly dear to me. As a recovering alcoholic, I know that the ranks of the homeless are filled with addicts who haven’t been able to find recovery, and reaching out to them with this dinner has helped me connect with them and serve as proof that recovery is possible. Helping the homeless has actually become a family issue; my husband does outreach and photography of the homeless here in Philadelphia as well.

But I haven’t stopped there. Because of my large social media footprint, I try to use that for social good as well. I help promote a variety of women and children related non-profit organizations, particularly those that focus on women’s health. It’s not the same as being hands-on, I realize that, but sometimes it’s better than nothing.

I want to instill social responsibility in my daughter; I’ve considered taking her to the homeless dinner but, unfortunately, the facility isn’t zoned for children. But I talk with her about helping people, about how important it is to reach out a hand and help whenever you can. One of the (very small) things I’ve done is helping her pick out (gently used) clothes and toys to give to our local battered women and children’s shelter. She loves knowing that her “stuff” is going to other kids in need. I’m not sure you can teach generosity, but I’m going to give it a shot.

I wish I could do more; as is typical today, time is at a premium. I work hard, and make my family a priority, and it can be hard to remember that there are plenty of families in need out there, too. One of the ways that I’ve managed to free up my time has been to make sure I keep myself focused and organized; it’s one of the great gifts that working with a startup (that happens to focus on organization!) has given me.

What are you doing to teach your children about social responsibility?

Featured image courtesy of Flickr.

Cecily Kellogg is the mom of near six-year-old daughter, a wife, and the social media strategist for AboutOne, an online family organizer that turns your phone into a remote control for your life, working with your existing calendar and contact tools so you can automatically organize, store, and share family memories and household paperwork. Through web and mobile apps, AboutOne guides you along the path to organization, rewarding you along the way for meeting your organizational goals.

Ten Bite-Size Alternatives to the Traditional Bake Sale

1. Ask your favorite bakery what they do with their day-old cookies. If they tend to have a lot of leftovers, give them the phone number of your favorite children’s charity to facilitate a donation of the cookies by the bakery to the charity. This makes a win-win-win situation for all: the bakery doesn’t waste all those cookies, the children get cookies, and you get an easy opportunity to serve.
2. Send some cookies or brownies to someone who needs a pick-me-up, in an Imperial Sugar Bake-It-Forward tin.
3. Buy something at a Great American Bake Sale near you.
4. Sign up to host a Great American Bake Sale.
5. Call your nearest assisted living center, and see if they would be okay with you bringing a plate of cookies in for their residents.
6. Use Facebook or Twitter to get a few friends to do a virtual/IRL “bake-off” with you, where you each make some sweet treats, take them to a neighbor or friend in need, and then “meet” together after to see how many people your positive actions affected.
7. Offer a giveaway on your blog to the person who bakes the most yummy or unique things for others.
8. Buy a special cupcake from the Sweet Tooth Fairy, to help prevent bullying.
9. Bake some brownies and leave a couple on a coworker’s desk, perhaps anonymously.
10. Like five food blogs today.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• 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?

• 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.

10 Bite-Size Ways to Give This Week

1. Give Scholarships Inc. a hand by looking at their website and suggesting five simple ways in which it can be improved. This opportunity is available through Sparked.com for four more days.
2. Give clothes or shoes you no longer wear to someone else via Freecycle.org, a nonprofit network that works to keep stuff out of landfills.
3. Give Leading Ladies of Legacy some of your expertise by designing a new ad for their Leadership Academy for Teen Girls. This opportunity is available through Sparked.com for one more week.
4. Give any unused or expired coupons you might have to the Overseas Coupon Program, which sends them to overseas military bases, where they can be used for up to six months past their expiration date to help military families save money.
5. Give extra thank-you cards to parents of your kids’ classmates so they can more easily prepare a Teacher Appreciation Week gift.
6. Give Dance Daze a minute by reading their annual fundraising letter and suggesting ways to make it more impactful. This opportunity is available through Sparked.com for one more week.
7. Give a Mothers’ Day or Fathers’ Day gift purchased on EarthFashions.com. All of the garments, blankets and accessories manufactured by this company are made with eco-yarns, which is a fabric produced with 100% environmentally friendly pre-consumer recycled fibers.
8. Give each of your children 15 minutes of your undivided attention.
9. Give some of your time, or your kids’, to play the Cerberus Mars game and help further scientific research into serious gaming.
10. Give a moment of your time to read a domestic abuse survivors’ story on Violence Unsilenced.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• 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?

• 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.

10 Simple Ways to Build Enthusiasm for Trees

1. Go buy a tree.
2. See if your kids’ school teachers will allow your kids to make short presentations on the benefits of trees, and help them put together a short Powerpoint presentation or crayon slideshow of how they clean the air or lower household energy costs.
3. Identify the types of trees in your neighborhood, favorite park, or along your favorite walking trail with your hubby or kids.
4. Donate $5 to Ms. Senecheck’s high school environmental science class in Barnesville, Georgia, through DonorsChoose.org, so she can buy 2 Nooks for her students to download wildlife guides to learn how to identify various trees and the fauna that inhabit them.
5. Play Tiltworld, an app, so you can accrue a lot of points, so a lot of mangrove trees can be planted in Madagascar.
6. Help to identify the trees around you if you live in San Francisco, and log them onto UrbanForestMap.org, so they can calculate the exact environmental benefits of the trees, which will help urban foresters and city planners to better manage trees in specific areas, track and combat tree pests and diseases, and plan future tree plantings.
7. Sell any used textbooks you have, or buy or rent a textbook for a husband, son, daughter, niece, or nephew at Chegg.com, which in turn plants trees.
8. Make tree cookies with your kids by either having them put green and brown M & M’s in rolled-out sugar cookies, or seeing if you can make one large sugar-cookie “cross-section” of a big tree, with rings, etc.
9. Make an art or craft project with the medium of your choice expressing your gratitude for trees. If you dare, post it on Facebook on Arbor Day.
10. Pick a tree in your yard or neighborhood to pay special attention to, clearing away brush around its base, pruning if necessary.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• 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?

•  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.

I am not a teacher, but I volunteer in many different ways, sometimes all at the same time. I help at my kids’ schools from classroom reading to delivering meals during parent-teacher conferences. I donate time to Cub Scouts as a den leader. I help at church with service meals and youth organizations and sometimes I even teach. And during Little League this year, my volunteer portion will simply be to get my kiddo to practice on time and buy snacks at the concession stand (Whew!).

How to Celebrate National Volunteer Week

This week is a dedicated time to recognize all the amazing people who volunteer in their schools and communities, making a difference and doing good!

Celebrate National Volunteer Week by finding time to volunteer with your family with simple, yet meaningful, tasks like:

• Beautifying a neighbor’s yard or walkway—think raking leaves, planting flowers, or watering their garden.
• Collecting and delivering canned goods to the local food bank or gently used items to a local shelter.
• Creating service out of the hobbies your family already enjoys.

Or take a moment to personalize a token of THANKS & appreciation for the volunteers in your own life:

• Shout out those ultimate school volunteers on Twitter, Facebook, or in the school E-newsletter (Check out 5 Volunteer Recognition with Social Media Ideas).
• Write a meaningful Thank You note to snail-mail or hand-deliver.
• Hop on over to Pinterest for inspiring gifts, sweet treats, and homemade volunteer recognition ideas.

And don’t forget, our friends at VolunteerSpot want to celebrate volunteers—and teachers during National Teacher Appreciation Week beginning May 7^th—with a $500 Do Good sweepstakes and Starbucks gift card giveaway. You can win for yourself and for your favorite school or charity.

Please join us in spreading the word and saying Thank You to those who make an extraordinary difference in our schools and communities.

VolunteerSpot’s DoGood Sweepstakes includes $500 for your favorite school or charity and Starbucks gift cards for you. They are giving away a Starbucks gift card every day from April 9-29 and one school or charity will win a $500 cash prize on April 30^th. BONUS: if more than 50 people from the same organization enter and tell Volunteerspot about their favorite school or charity on the VolunteerSpot Facebook wall, they’ll pay out $750! The cash prize can be used to sponsor an appreciation celebration, purchase equipment or supplies, or to fund a needed program. (Must be 18 to enter. Promotion is U.S. and Canada only.)

How will you thank volunteers or teachers in your area?

 Featured image courtesy of Flickr.

In a former life, Carissa Rogers was a molecular biologist. In her current life, she is the chief researcher of bloggy karma, parenting dos (and some don’ts), new recipes, and for spice she pretends to be a photographer. Carissa writes freelance for the ‘goodncrazy’ of it! She started blogging in February of 2008 and publishes her good & crazy thoughts on GoodNCrazy.com. Also find her on Twitter and Facebook.

10 Bite-Size Ways to Act on Service

1. Recycle something this week, like a Ziploc bag, then register and keep track of what you do at RecycleBank.com, to earn points towards real-life rewards for your earth-friendly actions.
2. Find an app that gives you rewards for exercising, like GymPact, then go exercise or be active somehow, and get some cash.
3. Design a fun graphic for the Gaming Nature Center to help them in their work of providing a place where people can be active in nature. This challenge is available through Sparked.com for only a few more days.
4. Translate and transcribe a YouTube video for EOTO (Each One Teach One) World, which provides a global community for  human rights activists. This challenge is also available through Sparked.com for only a few more days.
5. Pick up a pack of birthday candles, some streamers and balloons, and supplies for a few activities next time you’re at the grocery or dollar store, and then drop them off in the grocery bag at your local Ronald McDonald House or YWCA.
6. Make a list or spreadsheet of everything in your family’s Disaster Supplies kit this week, and an action plan for what items you still need, maybe getting an item a week, to complete your kit.
7. Donate $5 through DonorsChoose.org to help Ms. Duke, a high school teacher in Columbus, Ohio acquire special ACT test prep books for her students.
8. Actively play hopscotch with your kids today.
9. Walk around the block once after dinner tonight and act like you enjoy it.
10. Read about the symptoms of stroke so that you can know how to act if someone you know starts exhibiting those signs.
    

    How Will You Give to Others This Week?

    • Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
    • What other acts of service have inspired you?
    • 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?

    • 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.

     

1. Read this AAA article about preventing road rage.
2. Share a story like this one about teen drinking and driving with other parents of teens and check out Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Power of Parents section for tips on how to talk with one’s teen about responsible drinking.
3. Help brainstorm ideas to drive “likes” to the Facebook pages of various nonprofits (through Sparked.com) that fund clean water projects in the developing world, train leaders, and care for orphaned children in Kampala, Africa.
4. Contribute $5 to the purchase of two external flash drives for a social studies classroom in Los Angeles, California, through DonorsChoose.org.
5. Ride a bike or walk to a close destination to which you would normally drive this week.
6. Buy a cup of coffee or some fries for the person behind you in the drive-through. Jacqueline Way, who we love, talks about how she did this here.
7. Donate a new or used thumb drive to Inveneo, a nonprofit that puts technology tools in the hands of people and organizations in the developing world.
8. Brainstorm ideas to drive “likes” to the Facebook pages of the Project to End Prostate Cancer.
9. Help NYC Medics conduct their humanitarian efforts by making their logo fit into their Facebook page profile.
10. Buy a $3 Drive-a-Drunk glow-in-the-dark bracelet to help this organization provide free rides home to people who get drunk.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• 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?

• 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.

10 Autism Nonprofits to Support

1. Westchester Jewish Community Services offers individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities a range of clinical and residential services to enable them to reach their highest potential. They provide group residences and supervised apartments for high functioning young adults to foster independence and socialization.
2. Alpine Learning Group. Their mission is to provide learners with autism and their families comprehensive, scientifically-validated educational and behavioral services designed to foster individual growth and personal achievement.
3. A Touch of Understanding’s mission is to encourage acceptance and respect for all individuals. They offer educational programs designed to increase understanding of differences, thereby minimizing discrimination and social isolation suffered by children and adults who are perceived as different for any reason, but especially those with disabilities.
4. Kind Tree – Autism Rocks celebrates people on the autism spectrum through art, recreation and community.
5. Organization for Autism Research funds studies that examine the efficacy of current treatments and methodologies.
6. Quality Services for the Autism Community seeks is to help individuals with an autism spectrum disorder to live meaningful and fulfilled lives in society.
7. Snack and Friends seeks to fill a void in the lives of children, ages 3-18, with autism spectrum disorders and other similar developmental and behavioral disabilities by providing after-school and weekend recreational programs designed and staffed to address their needs.
8. RE Spectrum Community was developed to assist and guide families in creating change, both within their immediate families and among the autism community, through therapeutic support, recreation, and community activities for the whole family.
9. Pacific Autism Center for Education’s mission is to provide programs for individuals with autism and its related developmental disabilities, so they may experience the satisfaction and fulfillment that accompany learning, self expression, self-care, productive work and interpersonal and community experiences.
10. Advisory Board on Autism and Related Disorders offers autism autism support groups, resources, conferences and events, information on applying for medical assistance and health insurance, and information on autism treatments and research studies.

This list is far from comprehensive; there are so many organizations doing such great work in so many facets of autism care. If there are others that you know, please feel free to comment here about your experience with them.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• 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?

• 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.

How to Make Your Spring Break Service-Oriented

Spring into action with these 10 fantastic volunteer ideas:

Give Back and Get Outside

1. Walk a 5k/Charity Walkathon: Make giving back and doing good even healthier! Grab the kids and participate in an athletic event where registration proceeds are donated to a good cause.
2. Community Clean Up:  Care for the earth around you by gathering your family, friends and neighbors and organizing a community clean up.
3. Disaster Relief: Severe weather has affected a large amount of the nation within the past year. Encourage your family to donate a day of clean up or rebuilding for an affected nearby town. Alternative:  Collect school supplies and donate to a hard-hit school.
4. Animal Shelter/Adoption Event: Contact your local humane shelter and ask if you can help at the next outdoor adoption event. This could be transporting animals, bathing and grooming, or just helping handle animals as potential adopters visit.
5. Pool/Birthday Party Food Drive: The next time you host a pool or birthday party, ask for canned and non-perishable food donations as “entry.” Donate the collected goods to a local food bank.
6. Plant Flowers at a Local Shelter: Grab bright colored flowers and spend a day weeding, mulching and brightening up a local homeless shelter’s yard or walkway.
7. Bake Sale: Whether it’s your school, church or nonprofit, chances are goodies are up for SALE this spring break!  Check out VolunteerSpot’s free  bake sale ebook, find recipe ideas on Pinterest and get bakin’!
8. Lemonade Stand:  Kids love this novelty fundraiser that can be set up right in the yard.  Great for practicing math and getting to know the neighbors. Consider donating the profits to a local organization!
9. Get in on the Easter Egg Hunt fun: This age-old tradition is a super way to get outside and enjoy the weather.  If your spring break coincides with the holiday, volunteer to help fill or hide eggs and chaperone kids during the hunt!
10. Help Local Organizations: Contact your local food bank and find out if there are open volunteer spots for your family to help sort, stock or pack food one day.

Need some ideas for organizing your own Spring event (e.g. School Carnivals, Field Days, or Teacher Appreciation Week)?  Free online sign up sheets save TIME and energy. Check it out today at VolunteerSpot.com!

What spring events are you organizing right now? Are you using volunteers and if so, how are you utilizing them?

In a former life, Carissa Rogers was a molecular biologist. In her current life, she is the chief researcher of bloggy karma, parenting dos (and some don’ts), new recipes, and for spice she pretends to be a photographer. Carissa writes freelance for the ‘goodncrazy’ of it! She started blogging in February of 2008 and publishes her good & crazy thoughts on GoodNCrazy.com. Also find her on Twitter and Facebook.