One of the first occasions that come to mind in February is, of course, Valentine’s Day – a day for recognizing relationships.  This February, in addition to your kids decorating boxes or making cards, consider having them focus on a different kind of relationship through e-Buddies.  e-Buddies is an e-mail pen pal program that pairs someone with an intellectual disability in a one-to-one friendship with a peer volunteer who does not have an intellectual disability.  e-Buddies is a Best Buddies International  program, a highly reputable nonprofit that is dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for friendships, employment, and leadership development for people with intellectual disabilities. Here are a few key facts about the program:

• Participants must be 10 years of age or older to join e-Buddies.
• As part of the application process, your child will need to provide the name and email address for three references (friends, teachers, coaches, neighbors, family members, etc.) who know him or her well and can answer some brief questions.
• Participation is free for people with intellectual disabilities and for peer volunteers under the age of 18.  However, there is a one-time fee of $50 for volunteers over the age of 18.
• Once your application has been reviewed and approved, you will be contacted by email to pair you with a new friend.  (Because of extensive interest, your child may need to wait several months before getting a pen pal.)
• And, most importantly, e-Buddies has several mechanisms in place to help ensure a safe and secure experience  including background screening of all participants who must adhere to a code of conduct as well as having all correspondence pass through e-Buddies’ central email system where monitoring takes place.

E-Buddies pen pal program is a shining example of an easy and meaningful giving experience.  To learn more, visit e-Buddies FAQ section.

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

Eating a meal together gets high points from both kids and parents according to a study commissioned by Share the Table: The Barilla Family Dinner Project ™ .   The study starts off by saying, “Sitting down to a family dinner is a ritual that many Americans have enjoyed from generation to generation. And while your family dinner might look different from the one you shared with your family growing up and might look different from your neighbor’s, there is one thing that more than three-quarters of family dinners have in common—they are seen by parents and children as the most important way to connect as a family.”  In fact:

• 70% of kids surveyed said, “I appreciate my parents more when we take time to share a meal together.”
• 87% of parents surveyed felt that when the family eats dinner together, they really feel they are doing the right thing as a parent.”

We say, spend time enjoying a meal together and use one of our Kids Weekly Dinner Topics as part of the conversation! Or, if you have a website, you can download our Kids Dinner Topics Widget so your readers have regular access to fun, thought-provoking, and sometimes serious questions.

Starting and continuing discussions about charitable giving will help your kids notice their own kind acts as well as those of others around them and pave the way for future good-deed doing!  Remember, it’s okay if a child does not have an answer. Listening first to siblings, peers, or adults who share their thoughts can spark thinking. Just by starting an exchange, you are planting valuable ideas that you can build on over time.

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

When our military women and men are deployed, they face the difficult decision of finding a place to love and care for their animals.  Several private organizations are dedicated to finding long-term companionship and care while the military personnel serve our country.  Perhaps you and your child would have an interest in raising funds for one of these groups, spreading the word, or even serving as a home for someone’s pet!  Here are groups that help find homes for animals of all kinds:

www. FosterMilitaryPets.com The mission of this program is to provide a safe and secure temporary foster home for pets of deploying military personnel until they return home.

www.Netpets.org Netpets.org’s MilitaryPetsFOSTER Project is a global network of individual foster homes that will house, nurture, and care for dogs, cats, birds, horses and all other pets for Military personnel only.  It’s recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense as the Pet Assistance Provider recommended by the military.

www.Operationnoblefoster.org This website is provided as a public service and staffed by Purebred Cat Breed Rescue, an organization that strives to provide a safety net for Purebred cats and support rescue efforts for all cats.

Consider helping to give a temporary home to pets whose owners are away from home providing a valuable service to our country.

© YesKidzCan!, 2010

The Athanas and Goldman families were having difficulties locating fun and easy volunteer opportunities to pursue with their kids in the Los Angeles area.  So, they started their own organization, 4GOOD  with the mission of helping other families give back as families.

The first 4GOOD event was for the Friends and Helpers Organization , which supports abused women and their kids. The Athanas and Goldman families brought their kids to the event to help stuff backpacks with donated school items.  “Not only did it feel great to get out there and do something to help, the truly amazing part was to watch our kids having fun while making a real difference.  It was exactly why we started 4GOOD,” says Erika Athanas. 

By participating in events created or identified by 4GOOD, parents can show their children the values of kindness, compassion, tolerance, community responsibility, and good citizenship while spending time together.  Research shows that children whose parents set the example of giving back and provide volunteer opportunities are two times more likely to volunteer as adults than children who are not exposed. 

Currently, 4GOOD’s focus is in Southern California, but their hope is to open chapters nationwide with the goal of having families continue to lead by example so kids grow up wanting to continue giving back  – 4GOOD.

We were so impressed with these young trail blazers that we wanted to share their remarkable efforts in their own words.

“Hi!  We are Molly and Carly and we are now 18 and 16.  Six years ago our grandfather died from esophogeal cancer.  We wanted to do something to remember him and to make sure that others would not get sick and die like he did.  We have been beekeepers since we were little, and we figured out that we could actually sell our honey and donate all the money to the help beat cancer.  We call our company Hives for Lives, and it is now six years old.

In total we have donated over $170,000 to cancer research with our Local Honey Local Money program.  Profits from our sales have gone to the American Cancer Society, the Penn Abramson Cancer Center, the Fox Chase Center, Stanford Hospital, St Jude’s, MD Anderson, the Mayo Clinic, Hunstman, Dana Farber, Sloan Kettering and the Susan G Koman for a Cure foundation.  We now have over twenty hives of our own hives and many more partner hives.  We have been in nine regions in Whole Foods Markets.  We are recruiting other kids to sell and raise bees along with us as HELPER BEES. We have sold in more than 30 states! So — if you love honey, let us know if you want to help!

Take Care and Good Health!”

Molly and Carly, molandcar@hivesforlives.com

Making time to teach our kids community service and charitable giving isn’t always so easy and convenient.   At YesKidzCan!, we continuously look for ways to bring simple giving experiences into the everyday lives of busy parents, and for those of you with kids who love slumber parties, we have the perfect community service idea.

We’ve created a downloadable community service kit called “Slumber Party to Support Foster Kids,” and you can access this kit for free by “liking” us on our Facebook page @YesKidzCan.  The kit details how to host a slumber party where guests bring lightly used or new suitcases, large duffel bags, or back packs to donate to foster care children. This simple act of kindness will provide foster kids with a place for their personal belongings and allow them to gain a sense of dignity when moving to a new home. Unfortunately, these kids often move from home to home, and during these difficult transitions, they carry nothing more than a plastic trash bag with their possessions. To make matters worse, most kids average seven moves while in foster care.

The community service kit contains adorable invitations, a card to decorate and insert inside each donated bag, games to play during the sleepover such as crossword and word search games, a fun relay with suitcases, age appropriate movie suggestions that touch on the issue of foster care, and more.

The Slumber Party to Support Foster Kids kit provides everything you need from A-Z to host a special community service event for your child, but remember, you need not invite 20 kids – even just a friend or two will make this event memorable and meaningful.

© YesKidzCan!, 2010

It’s a bird!  It’s a plane!  No, it’s Miss-DoGooder!    To us, she is a super hero of the blogosphere – bringing her unique spin on fun and creative projects that are doing good in the world.  Miss Do-Gooder (a.k.a. Susan Wildes) shows people what happens when fashion, entertainment, celebrity culture, cool contests, and corporate philanthropy collide.

She covers everything from the serious (supporting kids cancer research) to the sublime (time to buy cookies for Girl Scout troops) to every cause-related topic between  (pets, finding a job, literacy, beauty products, the military, and more)!   And when subjects are particularly difficult (such as the earthquake disaster in Haiti), she finds a way to bring the message home with a soft touch.  An example of her gift for a “spoonful of sugar,” if you will! 

Her cartoon character says it all! Her writing and insight into all things good are fun, sassy, fierce, and on point.  In the world of giving back, we can’t wait to see what tall buildings Miss Do-Gooder will help us leap in a single bound! 

 © YesKidzCan, 2011

YesKidzCan! has the unique distinction of being a social entrepreneurial company.  This means we are business dedicated to bettering the world, and we donate 100% of our net profits to children’s causes. One way that we support our beneficiaries is by offering products for purchase that you can use with the kids in your life to create fun giving experiences. 

Through the online store, Zazzle, your can buy fun t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, binders, mugs, tote bags, and aprons with messages like “Have Good Fun” and “Have an AOK (Act of Kindness) Day!  And, you can also purchase items with “YesKidzCan!” on them which is, of course, the name of our company as well as what we believe:  Yes, kids can change the world one kind act at a time!

Consider purchasing one of these items to reinforce an important message in an easy and enjoyable way.  Or use these items as giveaways for an activity or event with friends, family, clubs, or school.  Or, simply enjoy!  Your purchase will help kids lead the way in changing our world for the better.

 © YesKidzCan!, 2011

Meet 5-year-old Magnus Knudsen.  He can teach us all a lot!  With his fifth birthday approaching, rather than preparing a gift list like most other children, Magnus asked his friends, family, and classmates to donate money to help sick children at the Cincinnati Ronald MacDonald House.    Magnus presented the Ronald MacDonald House with $288. 

What would inspire a young child to show this kind of generosity?  Perhaps it has something to do with his mom.  She is a two time brain tumor survivor who has been ill most of Magnus’ life and continues to deal with the effects of treatment. Magnus’ family understands the need to support each other through hospital visits, treatment, and recuperation periods.   His life lessons – even at the young age of 5  –  translated into a better quality of life for other families dealing with illness. 

 © YesKidzCan!, 2011

Early this week, we shared ways you and your kids can turn $5.00 or less into a charitable giving effort that carries a lot of value.  Here are several more ideas to consider!

• Send a free e-card:   Your kids can inspire or motivate someone to do something good or act kindly by sending a free e-card for different occasions.  Your choice helps support various causes! Visit Care2 with your kids to select and email your card.
• Don’t let shipping costs get in your way:  For no money at all, your kids can send much-needed items to children in war-torn areas through Operation Give, a nonprofit that helps collect and distribute toys and necessities to kids in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Have your kids go through their toy boxes to find gently used items including stuffed animals, puzzles, or picture books.  Or, they can donate school or art supplies.  (See their website for more needed items.)  Here’s the best part:  Thanks to FedEx, shipping is free!! Go to Operation Give’s donation page  to contact them about shipping instructions. 
• Show your kids how far a small contribution goes.  There are many organizations that have programs that encourage small donations or micro-contributions.  Here’s a sampling.  For just two dollars, you and your kids can save two children from Malaria by donating this small amount to MassiveGood, a world-wide effort dedicated to stopping the spread of deadly diseases in developing countries.  It is part of the United Nations Millennium Foundation.  For just one dollar, you and your kids can help stop deforestation. Through Avon’s initiative, Hello Green Tomorrow , you can help plant one million trees in South America’s Atlantic Rainforest.  One dollar equals one tree!

Whether it is one click of your mouse, one dollar, or one hour of time, encouraging your kids to participate in small acts of giving can have big results for your family, for your community, and for people around the world.

© YesKidzCan!, 2011