How many of you have turned off the television because the news stories were sad, gruesome, sensationalistic, or tiresome?  Thankfully, there is a place to turn for good news.  The GoodNewsNetwork is a clearinghouse for sharing positive, compelling news stories from around the world.  The site has different sections to peruse including Family Life, Recreation, Business, Earth, Health, and even one called Inspired!  Each of these sections gets more specific with topics such as Pets, Sports, Celebrities, Science, Religion, and one of our favorites, Great Kids.  No matter what your area of interest, GoodNewsNetwork captures the compelling and rewarding information on that topic.

You can access all the site’s features via registering.  It’s free and easy, and the site does not sell your name. Once registered, you can participate in discussion forums, upload photos, request e-newsletters, email features to friends, share your comments, and submit your own good news to the editor. And if you are interested in regular batches of good news, you can subscribe to receive The Top Ten Good News of the Week (with the Video of the Week) — a collection of the best stuff on the site.

It is indeed good news that there’s a website that serves as a positive daily reminder for all of us – whether activists, social change agents, or individuals working toward a better world – that great progress is happening everywhere.

The Peace Corps offers kids (ages 9 and older) an online social game opportunity to simulate the role of a Peace Corp volunteer by challenging kids to help make the village of Wanzuzu a better place to live.  Kids select the various obstacles to overcome like water contamination, educating village girls, malaria and more, and when they succeed at the challenge, the village prospers and the quality of the villagers’ lives improves.  Kids learn well through play experiences, and Wanzuzu gives parents that rare moment where they can teach their kids something meaningful through an online game.

Many of you have needed a simple community service project idea for a scout meeting or other group activity, but couldn’t find the convenient AND meaningful activity.  We understand this dilemma.  That’s why we regularly profile groups that help busy parents, teachers, and community leaders involve kids in easy and inspiring charitable activities.

Today’s group is Operation Gratitude, a nonprofit organization that puts smiles on troops’ faces around the world by sending care packages addressed to individual Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines who have been deployed.

The organization has a website section especially dedicated to boys and girls scouts filled with great community service projects and craft activities for charities including:

• making bandanas, neck gaiters and scarves;
• collecting Halloween candy and organizing other types of collections;
• writing personal greeting cards, and more.

In addition, they suggest a “Troops for Troops” activity for scouts’ cookie, nut, and popcorn sales programs in which scouts encourage buyers to purchase extra products for donation to Operation Gratitude.

Operation Gratitude makes it easy for kids (whether a scout or not) to show their gratitude to our troops. Pick a special holiday project that will give men and women in the military support they can carry with them year round.

We’ve all hosted or gone to a party where there are lots of lovely leftovers, extra paper products, remaining decorations, and unopened drinks.  One organization sees these extra items as goodies that can go to homeless shelters, senior centers, relief agencies, or recycling centers.

Special E is a green business that literally rescues items left over from special events such as weddings, banquets, galas, conferences, bar mitzvahs, or first communions and then repackages and uses the items for donations to family shelters, relief agencies, hospitals, and other nonprofit organizations.

The overall process for using Special E is simple:

• You (or your caterer if you are using one) calls the company to explain what event you are holding and the items you’re using.
• Once the event is over, Special E sends a “rescue squad” to the event to assess the items that are no longer in use.
• Special E identifies a list of nonprofit organizations that will receive your supplies and coordinates the donation.
• There is a fee associated with this unique service that ranges depending on the size and type of event.

As you are party planning, you can involve your kids in the process.  You can share the staggering fact that 32,000,000 tons of food are thrown away each year. But by coordinating with Special E, you are providing food, special touches, or recyclable items that reach far beyond your party guests and family!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could buy your favorite sports or concert tickets and generate a donation to a charity you care about at no cost you?  That’s why we love the idea behind Charity Partners, a nonprofit organization that focuses on developing everyday giving opportunities for people while they purchase ordinary items.

Charity Partner’s first fundraising program is geared to music and sports fans and is called Tickets-for-Charity.  The concept is simple.  Tickets-for-Charity offers the same or better price for tickets of big name entertainment, sports, or theater events.  With your ticket purchase, a donation is made to your selected children’s charity.  Better yet, 100% of the donation amount made from ticket sales goes to your cause.

Currently featured music gigs on their website include U2, Widespread Panic, USHER, and tickets for sports events such as the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics.  Tickets-for-Charity prides itself on offering hard-to-get seats.

Pick a concert you can go to with your kids.  Have your kids help you select tickets to give as a special gift.  You will have fun or give some fun – all the while directing much-needed funds to charities!

Family togetherness is on everyone’s mind with Thanksgiving this month.  One group that makes bringing families together in service that much easier is Doing Good Together.  Doing Good Together is a nonprofit organization that inspires and helps families volunteer.  In addition, it provides tools and support to schools, businesses, and community and faith groups to help them effectively engage families in service.  As they say, whether you have five minutes or five hours to give, whether you have an infant or a teen, whether you are doing well or working hard to get by – your family has a contribution to make. They have resources that can help you or your organization: 

• Offer ideas for family service projects;
• Present a workshop for families, teachers, community leaders, or employees on simple ways to weave service into our hectic lives; or
• Create family volunteer events like Family Service Night (a volunteer evening event with 5 to 10 “stations” that offer a simple, hands-on service project for families (such as stuffing birthday bags for kids in need to creating blankets for kids who are sick and more). Doing Good Together makes the volunteer process accessible and easy so families can participate together.  Isn’t that what it’s all about this Thanksgiving?

Sky Choi

In 2008, 11-year old Sky Choi founded The List Kids, an organization dedicated to helping the kids of brave Iraqi men and women who have assisted the US military in Iraq.  What a lot of people don’t know is that during the Iraq war, many Iraqis helped the U.S. military as translators, clerks, construction workers, and more.  Because of their connection to the U.S., they and their families often faced danger because of the assistance they have provided American military personnel.  For safety, many Iraqi families would end up relocating to the United States.  Most of these children have known nothing other than war and must now face the challenges of integrating into an unfamiliar society.  

The List Kids reaches out to the Iraqi kids whose families are resettled in the United States.  During their first year, the kids receive monthly care packages to facilitate their transition to a new country and home.  To date, Sky and his two cousins have sent off more than 1,100 care packages of books, toys, schools supplies, sports equipment, or homemade cards.  Here are some easy ways to support Sky’s wonderful efforts:

Spread the Word:   Tell your kids Sky’s story by visiting the website or watching The List Kids Video. 

Raise Funds:  Brainstorm with your kids how to support this effort by setting aside allowance money or other ways to raise funds.  You can explore hosting a fundraiser which could work well for students who need to fulfill community service requirements.  (The List Kids provides flyers and other promotional items for successful fundraisers).   

Send Cards:  Your kids can make home-made cards or select store-bought ones to include in care packages. 

Donate Items:  The List Kids appreciates having books, toys, puzzles, educational materials, games, other items for their care packages.  Check out what they need on their Requested Items page.  The List Kids also has Wish Lists at both Amazon and Target.  Just click the links to their sites and go to Gift Registries and Lists to find The List Kids’ pages.

Talk about a wonderful way to have kids in the U.S. build a positive dynamic between Americans and Iraqis.

 © YesKidzCan!, 2010

America Recycles Day has been going on since 1997 across America on November 15!  A Keep America Beautiful Program, it is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting recycling programs in the U.S.  Here’s one day where kids, families, neighbors, educators, and community leaders can work together to show what can be accomplished.  You can start with a few fun examples.  Tell your kids that when they recycle 10 cans per week, you save enough energy for 30 hours of TV watching per week!  Or, when they recycle 15 plastic bottles a week, you save enough fiber to make 156 t-shirts per year! Here are some other things to do:

Kids and Family:  Take the America Recycles Day Pledge as a way to start or continue a conversation about recycling.  You can also organize an event with your family or neighbors including a community-wide garage sale; a furniture swap; a magazine donation drive to local hospitals, schools or nursing homes; or turning in toner cartridges, batteries, or computers.

Schools and Community Groups:  Organize a recycling event where kids can take the lead.  Host a waste-free lunch or party with reusable or recyclable items including napkins and silverware. Coordinate a letter-writing campaign to local officials or newspapers encouraging recycling.  Have a poster contest for the best America Recycles Day design.

There are loads more ideas on America Recycles Day website.  You and I may call it recycling.  But our kids will call it fun!

© YesKidzCan!, 2010

You can’t think about Thanksgiving without thinking about a meal shared with family or friends.  It is pretty well understood among adults and kids that a lot of families are not in a position to enjoy a big turkey dinner and rely on the generosity of others to have any kind of food on the table.  Many of us are familiar with or have partaken in Thanksgiving food drives, serving meals at soup kitchens, or delivering meals to those in need – all extremely worthwhile efforts.  This Thanksgiving, however, what about supporting hunger differently?  Use the Internet to put the giving in Thanksgiving.

Learn about Hunger:   One in eight Americans struggle with hunger.  And nearly 1 billion people around the world will go hungry tonight.  While a serious topic, one way to teach your kids about it in a more low-key fashion is by taking Feeding America’s Hunger Quiz.  Just taking the quiz is a great activity.  But if you want to go further, discuss ways that would work for your family to support hunger relief.

Play an Online Game:  Yes, you read that correctly.  There are a growing number of online games educate kids on tough topics like hunger or are simply fun games to play – but by playing them — money is donated to worthy causes.  One of these games is Free Rice.  When you and your kids play this website’s word games, each correct answer translates into a donation of 10 grains of rice to the United Nation’s Food Hunger Program with the goal of ending world hunger.  As your kids learn new vocabulary words, they watch a wooden bowl become increasingly filled with grains of rice. 

Click Once for Food:  Even for the busiest of us this holiday, there is an easy way to give back thanks to The Hunger Site.  This site harnesses the power of the Internet to work toward eradicating world hunger. All you need to do is visit the site, and click the yellow “Click Here to Give – It’s FREE” button.  That’s it.  For every click, site sponsors pay for food to go to those in need.  You and your kids can become part of the 300,000 visitors who have done so – resulting in over 671 million cups of distributed food.    

Sponsor a Child:  Consider starting a life-changing tradition this Thanksgiving by sponsoring a child in another country who needs essentials like nutritious food and clean water.  You can identify a child you would like to help by going online to World Vision, a highly reputable organization that offers opportunities for you to sponsor children in impoverished countries.

Holiday time is busy.  But the Internet offers quick, easy, and meaningful ways for you and your kids to become online activists!

 © YesKidzCcan!, 2010