Green Panda Treehouse

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How you spend your money speaks volumes on what is important to you. If you spend the majority of money caring for your family and friends, then it seems reasonable that they are important to you. Why? Unless you’re indepently wealthy, you have a limited amount. Therefore someone or something is important enough for you to give it to them.

I bring this up because sometimes with bills, sometimes we forget that there are less fortunate ones and who could use some help. I know there are many college students who are low on funds. Perhaps volunteering your time is a great way to help others. The added benefit is that you can possibly learn a skill as well.

I’m opening the comments to the readers, what charities, etc do you support. If you can include the link, perhaps you can encourage others to help your cause. Besides our local congregation, we have also supported DonorsChoose.org where you decide which classrooms could benefit from your help. Besides personal finance, I support literacy projects that encourge students to push their boundaries.

My husband and I got home from visiting my mother out of town. When we came home, my husband checked to see if any mail came. We found out our car insurance premiums will go down $20/month. Yea! We got even better news, a school program we donated through donorschoose.org sent us a thank you note from the teacher and some cards from the students.

To give you an idea ,here’s the program description from the teacher:

I teach 8th grade English at an inner city middle school. With tightened budgets, it has been impossible to get classroom sets of high interest books that our students will read with enjoyment. During the 3 years that I have been teaching at the school, no class sets have been purchased for student reading and enrichment in my classroom.

Students will recognize the power of words to affect change as they read, write, and increase their vocabularies. They will become more tolerant of others and appreciate differences.

If we acquire the books that I have requested, ‘Diary of Anne Frank’, ‘Zlata’s Diary’, and ‘The Freedom Writers’ Diary’, my students will recognize the power of young people, to promote awareness of issues and to even change policies.

I believe that my students’ self-esteem will be improved, their knowledge of the world around them will be improved. I believe that they will identify with adversities in the literature and will recognize that they can overcome many obstacles.

We will read the books, we will write journals, and respond to the readings. We will create a tolerance project which will include audio and video presentations, letter writing, and a field trip. We will identify a cause affecting young people which we will embrace and support as a class.

In addition to boosting reading skills, donors who select this project will be promoting tolerance and global awareness and concern.

The pictures were wonderful as we got to put faces with the site. Since these are minors, I’m leery putting their pictures up without permission. We didn’t by any means donate much money (we‘re not rich in case you didn’t know), but if you read the cards, you’ll get a sense of how much these students appreciate the books.

Here’s two of the cards we got:

and

Let me say that it made my day.

Plug: If you want to support a charity, but have no idea which one, please consider Donors Choose. It’s easy and quite affordable. My first donation was $25, which was scraped up with not eating out for a week. You choose the project that means the most to you personally.

 Well, Friday is here and I feel good. The week’s challenge is over for now.

 I admit I did eat out this week when I forgot to pack my lunch. I still put all 5 days down anyways because it’s for a good cause. I estimated that I saved $20 by eating in for lunch. That $20 will go towards Money Management 101: Future Philanthropists in Training. I liked this teacher’s idea in particular and I feel it is money well spent. This program will help these students with personal finance and learn the value of being generous.

It’s not really much money, but I wanted to give something to a good cause.  I want to thank HC and Flexo for making me (and so many others) aware of this program. Thank you to everyone who donated time, money, and energey for this program. I’m glad so many decided to join this cause.

Next Monday is Blog Action Day, so expect a slightly different topic: the environment.