The Giving Phone

For February, I was going to make three $10 donations in honor of 3 of my best friends for their birthdays this month. Before I had the chance to do that, another one of my very good friends, Chris Murdoch, was involved in a life-threatening car accident. He is currently in the UMD Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, MD. His accident happened early morning this past Wednesday. The details of the accident are not certain yet, but what matters is that Chris is alive, but he is not all well. His family has been coming in from three different states to be with him and to watch over him and take care of his medical needs.. but this is expensive. There are many non-covered expenses that the family needs help with and a fundraising page has been set up for them. Please take a few minutes out of your day to help a friend in need, MY friend. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, there is a link posted on my page and on the For Christopher private group for friends and family. If you are willing to donate, please go to this link: http://www.giveforward.com/forchristopher. Any donations would surely be appreciated by the family.

Chris and I have been friends for four years. He was one of the first people that I met when I started attending school in Maryland in Fall of 2008. He's been a part of my life for the last four years and I can't imagine that ending any time soon. We've spent birthdays, summer holidays, and winter breaks together. We've had group sleepovers, dined at restaurants, stayed in hotels, had road trips, parties, hangouts. He's been an amazing friend to me, more than anyone will ever know. He's been a go-to friend for so many things in the past and he needs us now more than ever. It's time to help him out when he's helped us with so much in the past. Please donate what you can.

We love you, Chris. Please get better soon.

If you want to have an idea of what happened in his accident, read the articles below. If you have a strong stomach, watch the video in the last article. I broke out into hysterical tears when I watched the video. I KNOW that car. I've been in that car. I don't want to imagine what it was like to approach the scene of that accident and realize that I know the person behind the drivers seat. Chris's twin brother had to endure just that.

http://pgfdpio.blogspot.com/2012/02/bowie-volunteer-responds-on-crash.html

http://www.gazette.net/article/20120216/NEWS/702169747/1029/twin-in-critical-condition-after-emt-brother-responds-to-bowie-crash&template=gazette

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/02/travis-murdoch-rescues-twin-brother-chris-after-bowie-car-crash-72682.html

Chris didn't go to my school, but he knows the majority of all of my friends there. He has so many loved ones and friends who are praying for him from all around the WORLD. But please, if you can, send a monetary donation to help the family with these expenses that don't seem to be ending any time soon. If a donation isn't possible, then a prayer is all we can ask for. Thank you, friends.

http://www.giveforward.com/forchristopher

For the month of January, I selected the Lehman College's L.I.F.E. Alternative Break Program thanks to a friend I made while studying abroad in Florence this past January. Abel is a member of the Lehman L.I.F.E. organization, which stands for Leaders Involved For Everyone. He has participated in many community service projects and activities over the past five years and this year he will be going on a week long trip to Apopka, Florida to live and work with migrant farmers to help them grow, harvest, and sell crops.

Here's a description of the club and their trip on their donation page:

Lehman L.I.F.E. is a program within the Office of Community Engagement and New Student Programs at Lehman College, City University of New York that takes students to communities outside of the NYC area during Spring or Summer break periods to complete educational community service projects. During Spring Break of 2012 Students, faculty and staff will work as team to plan a service immersion experience in Apopka, Florida working with the Hope Community Center and volunteering on farms with migrant farm workers, participating in home stays with families and learning about immigration advocacy. Your donation to help our students participate in such an experience is greatly appreciated.

Looking at his Facebook Community Service Page, I think Abel will definitely do good on this trip along with his fellow Lehman L.I.F.E.rs.

As a community service participant myself, I admire those who give back to their communities and work to better the world around them. The world needs more people who are willing to reach out and help others. I have donated $30 to the Lehman LIFE - Apopka, Florida Program Fund in support of Abel and his community service work.

For this past Christmas, my best friend gave me a beautiful gift. She made a donation to The Polaris Project in my honor because she remembered how deeply I was moved by the cause when I started this project. The Polaris Project was the first organization that I donated to when I started The Giving Phone project. The Polaris Project is an organization that works towards helping victims of human trafficking by providing them with safety, housing, counseling, and vital resources for them to get back on their feet to begin living their lives again.

Catching up on my project, I selected Art Feeds as my charity for the month of December. Checking out the website, the organization was inspired by and made for children in need. Art Feeds gives free art lessons to children who have endured trauma in their lives and offers them a creative outlet for self expression and mental and emotional healing. The organization operates in Joplin, Missouri as well as Ghana, West Africa. 

As an 'artist', a 'teacher', and a person who generally loves children, this organization struck me with the story of its foundation and the comfort of knowing where my dollars are going to. Every dollar donated goes towards purchasing supplies for the classes and the lessons. $1 covers the cost of one art lesson for one child for one day. $10 covers the cost of a single child's entire art supply kit.  Art Feeds has a few generous donors who cover overhead charges so that smaller donations go directly to the cause. I donated $30 to the cause and I trust that Art Feeds will use it well.

I saw a retweet on Twitter by Frank Warren of PostSecret saying that someone had donated to a campaign to prevent suicide that would be matched by Frank Warren. I clicked on the link and it brought me to this page: http://give2max.razoo.com/p/postsecret.

Frank Warren needs your help.

For Give to the Max Day: Greater Washington, PostSecret Creator Frank Warren is fundraising for IMAlive: the world’s first text based peer-to-peer network for suicide prevention. Frank will be generously matching all $10 donations up to $15,000 on November 9, 2011.

Remembering that I've been overdue on my monthly donations of $30 to charitable organizations, I took this chance to make up for it. In September, I ordered a t-shirt from Sevenly.org that donated a portion of the proceeds to ending human trafficking with the organization NOT FOR SALE. The shirt cost $27 and $7 was donated to the organization. I just donated $100 to the IMAlive organization.

An Online Crisis Network

The first online network with 100% of its volunteers trained and certified in crisis intervention.

IMAlive offers text-based services for suicide prevention. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or is in need of someone to talk to and would prefer not to use the phone, then please check out https://www.imalive.org/ to chat with someone who can help. Yes, my donation comes with rewards, which is nice, but as always, the fact that I can help other people with my money is what this project is about.

This campaign caught my attention because I am going to see Frank Warren at my school next week for Love is Louder Week. I'm excited!

Online and in communities around the world, the movement is raising the volume around a critical message - -- that love and support is more powerful than the external and internal voices that bring us down, cause us pain and make us feel hopeless.

If you are interested in donating to this cause, act fast because this campaign through Give To The Max/PostSecret is only for today 11/9/11. (Frank Warren will only be matching $10 donations today, up to $15,000). http://give2max.razoo.com/p/postsecret

July 28th, 2011

A few weeks back, I wrote about how the movie Taken had deeply affected me and sparked my interest in learning more about human trafficking and its victims. While doing some research, I came across The Polaris Project, an organization that aims to end the human trafficking of men, women and children from all countries, U.S. and foreign citizens alike. They help victims with their physical and mental health needs while providing them with safe housing, counseling, and preparing them for life after trauma.

I signed up for the e-newsletter and this week's alert caught my attention: Emergency Client Needs – We Need Your Help!

I read the short article, and keeping this project in mind, I clicked through to the Amazon Wish List of the Polaris Project to see what was needed.

I picked out a few items for the expectant mothers to have when their little bundles of hope and joy arrive. I tried to get as many small items as I could to add up to about $30. Rather than purchasing the listed cleaning supplies, I wanted to buy things that would be more useful and physically cherished by the recipients. I purchased a pair of onesies ($7.99+$4.99 shipping = $12.98), a nightlight ($9.99, free shipping), a 4-pack of baby socks ($5.99+$2.99 shipping = $8.98), and a bassinet pad ($5.99, free shipping).

In total, I spent $37.94 of my earnings from my on-campus job.

I was also able to attach gift notes to the recipients:

I hope that my purchases/donations this month will make a difference in the lives of the women and children who receive my gifts.  Human trafficking is a horror that none of us could possibly imagine. These women survived a living hell. This is the least I could do.

The Giving Phone

July 27, 2011

This little baby is my new cell phone. My old contract had just expired and I was due for a new phone. My EnV3 was perfectly fine, minus the short battery life and numerous scratches on the face, but I was ready for something bigger and better: This project.

As an environmentalist, the best option would have been to keep my EnV3 for another two years or so, until it completely died out on me, but I decided to move ahead and get a slightly upgraded phone for practical reasons.

My new phone is the LG Octane for Verizon. It's no flashy smartphone, but it's got the few basic functions that I actually require (call, text, camera). I did go ahead and splurge on a $3.69 clear plastic cover for it, if you can tell, after dropping the phone on the pavement on the second day that I had it (broke my heart).

The phone originally cost $109 and had a $50 mail-in rebate, so it really cost $59 for the phone itself. I also purchased a Micro SD memory card for it for $10 (I've never had one, but they seem to be quite useful).

This brings the total for my new cell phone to: $3.69 + $59 + $10 = $72.69.

Not bad, I think. Note: my parents paid for the phone and SD card. I bought the cover case from Amazon.com. I would have paid for it all, but they insisted on paying, since they were happy it wasn't an expensive smartphone. They don't know about my ideas for this project.

So here it begins. It starts with this little phone.