Here are some wonderful opportunities I have come across to give back. Send me your favorites!
Creating Hope is a non-profit organization that was founded by Jeanette Shamblen, a 36 year old wife and mother, and breast cancer survivor of four years. She found that daily expression through her watercolor painting was essential in coping with the treatments and separation from her family during her six-week hospital stay.
Jeanette passed away July 3, 2003, with the Creating Hope legacy in place. It's mission is to help people cope with cancer through self-expression and creativity, inspiring them to find their way through each day - towards survival. Visit their website at www.creating-hope.org to show your support.
Cartridges For a Cure was founded by Eli Kahn, who was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia when he was just two years old. After four years of chemotherapy at Johns Hopkins Hospital the cancer went into remission. Eli recently had his bar mitzvah and decided to do his community service project raising money for the hospital's cancer center to find a cure for childhood cancers.
Instead of asking people for donations, he searched online for things that could be recycled for money and found that used print cartridges create 85 million pounds of waste per year! He has now partnered with Empties4Cash, a California based recycling company. His goal was to raise $1,800 by his bar mitzvah, a goal he didn't believe was doable. But with a little help from his friends he ended up raising $6,500!
If you want to participate in this worthwhile cause, which was featured in the Jan/Feb 2008 Positive Thinking Magazine, and reduce some of the 85 million pounds of waster per year, go to cartridgesforacure.com and fill out the online form. Empties4Cash will send you, at no cost, postage-paid boxes or bags, each imprinted with a bar code to ensure the money goes to Johns Hopkins.
Each recycled ink jet cartridge is worth anywhere from $1 to $5, and each laser toner cartridge is worth up to $20. Sounds like a great way to give back to me!
