Charity Challenge

We all know that this year has been fiscally hard for many people.  There are more people then ever in need.  Many of us are stretching the dimes as far into dollars as we can.  As a group, we plan on donating proceeds from the Niagara Homecoming to different charities (TBA).  What I challenge you to do is find a creative way (not just writing a check, although that’s REALLY nice too) to donate to a local charity. 

• Maybe you give up your daily trip to TimHo’s and put the money aside. 
• Maybe packing a lunch once or twice a week
• Maybe you collect your change each day for a week, month, year
• Maybe you have a Christmas Exchange, but ask everyone to also bring in gloves or hats to donate

At my place of work, we have a snack machine that raised their prices this year (due to the high cost of fuel, etc).  We decided that it wasn’t worth a dollar to have that snack fix.  What I do now (because none of us were planning ahead and bringing in the chocolate) is purchase items from the store such as 12 packs of cookies, single serve bags of chips, candy bars and then I sell them to the at only a small profit (maybe a nickel or a dime on each item-we sell the cookies, candy bars and chips at 50 cents).  We have chosen Community Missions for our “Chips for Charity” and since the inception in July, we year to date have $100.00 to donate.  We will be donating the money shortly so that it can be used for Christmas.

It wasn’t hard, but it took thinking outside the box.  We plan to continue this into the new year, and I will donate the money collected to one of the charities we choose for Niagara Homecoming.

I challenge everyone who reads this:  WHAT can YOU do and can you beat US?!