I Heart CBUS

Just saw this!

Dr. Mojoe is selling awesome T-shirts that have things on them like: I ♥ Cbus, CBUS, and an outline of the state of Ohio with a star where Columbus is!

They are grey jersey cotton shirts and are $32. They have them for men and women. I've not seen anything like it and I am thrilled people are representing our city via clothing. Get one today...I am.

Dr. Mojoe is a gnarly little boutique chain, btw, that's home-grown--it was founded here. There's three locations: Easton, Polaris and the Short North.

(this is not the shirt I was speaking of, though this is one of their options for guys. they don't have any pictures on their website but this give you a general idea)

New Ideas for Giving Back

I am all about giving back.

Here is a ton of easy ways to do that, both nationally and in Columbus.

(Many of the items on here come from Glamour magazine).

Mid-Ohio Foodbank

Go to this website (one of my favorites)...www.thehungersite.com. 

It's awesome because all you have to do is click the button in the middle of the page and that instantly donates 1.1 cups of food to starving people in the world. No money, no signing up...just click. That's it! I try to go to this site every day. And from this site you can go to the other tabs which lead you to several other sites that are similar but with different causes...but the same thing...all you gotta do is click. There's Breast Cancer Research Site (one click provides free mammograms to women in need), the Rainforest Site (where one click saves a certain amount of acres of rainforest), there's the Literacy Site (one click provides books to kids all over the world who can't read), there's the Children's Health Site (one click provides health care to sick children all over the world), and there's the Animal Rescue Site (where one click allows for pet food to go towards rescued animals). Sponsors are the ones who pay for the various causes, but clicks are what get the necessary help to each org. And 100% of the sponsor money goes to charity!!!!

Drink a lot of water? Well think about all the people in the world who don't have clean water to drink...and here we complain about tap water tasting bad. Just $20 donated to www.charitywater.org gives one person clean drinking water for 20 years!!!

As I spoke of in my other blog post, human trafficking is getting to be a baaaaad problem. Why not buy jewelry made by survivors of sex slavery instead of heading to Polaris for some earrings next time? Just go to www.madebysurvivors.com and shop away.

Ever thought about donating a cow or a goat to a rural family in need? Villages full of people who's main source of income is from their animals like cows, goats, sheep, water buffalo etc. can be found throughout the world. Some families could really benefit from having a beehive to make honey they can sell, chickens for their eggs and meat or a llama for it's fur...www.heifer.org is the genius organization that gives third-world families gifts they can really use!

Entertaining? Go to www.womensbeanproject.org and buy dips from there to serve at your next holiday party. The org employs and teaches homeless women life skills.

In the market for a new dress for that black tie event? Or are you searching around for celebrity collectibles such as guitars or clothing signed by your favorite tinsletown star? Go to www.clothesoffourback.org and bid on celebrity-worn or -donated items, where the money goes to charity. I've always wanted to wear a gown that Jessica Alba has worn to the Golden Globes or some fancy place like that or get get that signed Dwayne Wade basketball for my dad!

(This Pamella Roland cocktail dress that Eva Longoria Parker wore to a recent event was auctioned off for the winning bid of $900)

You just spent $35 eating out at your favorite restaurant. But for that exact amount, you could be providing bedding, clothing, school supplies, and other necessities to a child in need! You'd basically be making their day! Go to www.scaw.org instead of eating out next time.

Do you know how to garden or farm? Has anyone ever taught you? Probably not. And it's not something people are born knowing how to do. It's a skill, and sometimes, depending on where you live and the climate etc. it can be a daunting task, but one that's necessary for your life and the life of your family. $70 provides seeds, farming tools, and training for two impoverished families in Uganda. Just go to www.mercycorps.org and check it out. This will make a difference that will last for generations. (There's other locations to donate to as well such as Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Iraq etc.)

For just $10...that's about the cost of two movie rentals at someplace like Blockbuster, you can give an insecticide treated mosquito net to a child in a malaria-stricken country to protect them from malaria for up to five years! www.malarianomore.org is the site.

Think about those commercials urging people to donate money so that people with horrible illnesses around the world can get medical help they desperately need...well how do you suppose the volunteer medics and nurses get to the remote locations where some of the sickest people must sit and suffer? They can get to those people using bikes! It's as simple as that. Just $35 (the price of one or two nice neck-ties from Macy's) buys a bike for a health aid worker at inspiredgifts.unicefusa.org.

If you're thinking about getting someone you love a pet this holiday season...say a kitten or a puppy, ADOPT! Adopt, adopt, adopt. Rescue one (or more) of the hundred-thousands of homeless and abandoned animals today and give a furry friend another chance at life! Check out iams.com (Home 4 the Holidays campaign) or petfinder.com to find your perfect pet companion. How can you resist?!

And who knew giving back could be as easy as helping a fellow Central-Ohian family who's struggling to make ends meet right now (we all know 2008 hasn't been too kind) by paying something like their heating bill. Go to www.modestneeds.org to make a simple thing like a heating bill really warm up the holidays for a local family. (Listed by zip codes)

I shouldn't have thrown that old printer of mine away. I didn't know there was a way to donate it. A website called www.dogoodchannel.com has listing of non-profit orgs that are in need of all kinds of items like TVs, phones, furniture and such.

Donate to Mother Earth! She could use some extra money to help her combat our human damage and global warming. Terrapass.com allows you to put your money towards offsetting the carbon produced by vehicles, planes etc. this holiday season. Reduce your carbon footprint!

Next time you buy a bottle of wine, don't go to the store! Buy from www.hopewine.com. Hope Wine proceeds help right Autism and AIDS. Similarly, gals, when you go to buy makeup next...head over to the Mac counter at Nordstrom or Macy's and buy from the Viva Glam line. Viva Glam helps combat AIDS by funding research to help cure it!

Whether you know a teacher her in Columbus or not, go to www.adoptaclassroom.org and sponsor a classroom where you can buy needed supplies for the teacher/students. Sadly, too many schools go without the proper tools, books, supplies, and more that are needed to successfully teach kids, while other schools, particularly those in the suburban, ritzy areas get all the resources they need and then some. It's quite unfair, especially when you hear of teachers using their own money to buy things for their classrooms. Last week there was a story in the news about a teacher who was selling advertising space on his homework and tests to fund things in his classroom, such as supplies. Why? Because the school/district was cutting funding. Can you imagine? Seeing ads on your kids' homework assignments. There's enough of that on TV already! But desperate times call for desperate measures. It shouldn't be that way. YOU can change that!

And lastly, donate your un-used frequent-flier miles! 2009 is right around the corner so just give those sky miles away to someone who really needs to get somewhere...a mom who just found out her child is sick and needs to fly cross-country to the hospital, or American soldiers who want to come home from Iraq or Afghanistan and could use a free ride at Operation Hero Miles.

More organizations to Google...

One Acre At A Time

Yellow Ribbon Fund

Room To Read

Caring Bridge

In 2 Books

Save The Children

Care

Critical Exposure

iGive

We-Care

Music Maker

Puppies Behind Bars

Rainn

bogolight.com

Chapter One Organics

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I'm a modern-day Abolitionist, are you?

Every holiday season we look towards charities and non-profits to find ways to give back to the community, to a cause and to those in need.

My charity of choice this year (and forever more) is Love 146.

It was through my church that I became aware of this group, Pastor Rich at Vineyard Church off of Cooper Road in Westerville played this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJiWCHpFRs

If you do nothing else, please just watch this video.

All I had to do was watch this video and it became clear to me the absolute and utter need we have in this world at this time to reinstate abolitionism. Ironically, other news tidbits, reports, non-profits etc. keep popping up lately about the issue of human trafficking and sex slavery in my life. It's like every week I hear something new about this issue, an issue I was aware of in the past but wasn't as compelled to do something about/didn't see the direness in the situation. I really believe someone is trying to tell me something--they're trying to tell me this is the cause I should be supporting, and after watching that clip, visiting their website, and checking out their Blogger blog, I know this is what I want to devote my time to.

I am a modern-day abolitionist. I am going to do my part to make sure the atrocities of enslavement, particularly of women and children, is removed from the world. We worked too hard to rid our nation from slavery, and so I feel I can do my part by promoting slavery be abolished in other areas of the world.

ab·o·li·tion·ist n.
A reformer who advances the abolition of slavery

Child Sex Trafficking & Exploitation demands a movement of modern day Abolitionists.
Abolitionists work toward the abolition of Child Sex Trafficking & Exploitation - they become a voice for children unable to speak for themselves

• Abolitionists Use Their Voices
• Abolitionists Take Action

Abolitionists work toward the abolition of Child Sex Trafficking & Exploitation - they become a voice for children unable to speak for themselves

• Abolitionists Use Their Voices
• Abolitionists Take Action

There is a Facebook group dedicated to this organization, under the Causes section. You should join it and see what is on the message boards on there and chat with others about how we can begin to mend this problem. On there, I signed up for the cause and there was a petition that's being sent to President Obama to urge him to put pressure on governments that allow human trafficking to go unchecked in their countries to get them to stop it, and also, to work on the problem of it in our own country (tons of young women are sold into sex slavery in San Francisco and they're forced to live in and work at "massage" parlors and give "massages" when really they are being bought for sex).

Also, look up the name of a woman named Somali Mam. I first heard of her through Glamour magazine. She rescues young girls, some as young as 5, who've been sold into slavery and prostitution and puts them in safe homes...she escaped and is a former victim herself.

Deck the Halls, for real. The best holiday lights in Cbus!

Maybe this was a tradition in your family, like it was mine...we'd drive around the neighborhood division that had the best holiday light set-up each year. No matter what city you live in, there's always a neighborhood you can pin-point where families raise the bar and go all-out on their Christmas decorations. It's like that movie from a few years ago where two men, who were neighbors, were in perpetual competition to have the brightest, most exciting, spectacularly decorated house during Christmas time. I imagine this sort of thing actually happens.

(courtesy of Getty)

We always drove through this neighborhood when I was a kid, where many of the houses were decorated so well, the families entered competitions and without a doubt, each year, this particular house always won. Their decorations actually moved! They used motors to propel ice-skating penguin and reindeer figurines up and down their roof! Cut-outs made from what was probably wood inhabited the entire front and side yards; even the driveway. At this time, we lived in a state that didn't really have cold weather. Snow was a foreign concept to the people of this town, so getting to see or actually play in snow only came by manufacturing it. This particular family must have bought yards and yards of that fake, fluffly, white fabric that looks like cotton balls and covered every inch of their property with it. That, or they used that fake, spray snow. They took this holiday very seriously. Plus, dozens of people would do drive-bys each day just to see the marvel that was this home turned mini-winter wonderland.

Since then, I have yet to see any holiday home decorating come close, though it is always fun to take an evening drive in search of a house that comes close...

So where in Columbus are some fun holiday-light sightings?

• Upper Arlington (between Tremont and Yorkshire on Gilford Rd.) has some pretty awesome lights

• One street (18 houses) in Pickerington is completely decorated. This is THE street to head over to. Hall Ridge Dr. is the name of the street.

• The Columbus Zoo: this is not a residential example, but the zoo has some of the most amazing lights each year! Typically called ZooLights or WildLights, or something to that effect, the zoo always has intricate lighting exhibits, ice skating and hot-cocoa. The event goes on til Jan. 3rd.  starting at 5 pm and it's free with zoo admission which is $10 for adults and $7 for kids and seniors. (Deal alert: Wendy's is doing coupons for the event so go grab a burger and get yourself a coupon to WildLights while you're at it!)
  


• There's German Villiage's light celebration with carolers, real roasted chestnuts, and more and you can walk or drive around the town to see people's decorations.


• Easton Town Centre, as you could already guess, has beautifuly decorated christmas trees and then too, horse-drawn carriage rides each year.


• In Gahanna, there's Creekside, where all along the creek's edge are lights and lit figurines that are great for the little ones to view. Be aware, you'll have to actually walk around outside to get the full effect so dress warmly and try to go on a warmer evening


• Alum Creek State Park (in Delaware) does a huge light festival that you can drive through so as not to freeze your buns off. It costs $10 Mon. - Thurs., and $15 on weekends. And it goes all the way through to the end of the December!

• The neighborhood of Clifton Mill in Clifton, OH, is lit and decorated from head to toe. This is one not to be missed.

Got more tips on the best neighborhoods for viewing Christmas decorations/lights? Tell me about it!