FeeFiFoto Blog

Open Your Wallet And Give

We're on vacation for a couple of weeks and internet will be intermittent, so I'm offering up some older posts I hope you'll enjoy.  This one's from November, 2007.

See this man?  His name is Catalino Tapia.  He's a 63-year-old gardener.  He lives in Redwood City, CA and works maintaining trees and gardens in San Francisco.

He's also a philanthropist.  Read about him here:

"Catalino Tapia [came] from Mexico ... 40 years ago with a sixth-grade education and only $6 ... He became a legal resident and raised a family by working in a donut shop, a machine shop and then plant nurseries, before starting his own gardening business...

Tapia ... always had his eyes on the future…Even before his first child was born ... he was saving money for them to go to school.

Tapia's youngest son attended UCLA and then ... the University of California - Berkeley Law School. He's now a lawyer in Los Angeles...

Tapia wanted to do something to help the less-fortunate children in his community ... His son suggested Tapia start a foundation that would give scholarships to students ...

Who You Callin' A Heifer? Raising Money For The Heifer Project

Last month my mother offered to send a $10 contribution to Heifer International in the name of each grandchild, to help sponsor an animal of their choice.

What's Heifer International?  I'm so glad you asked.

"Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. For more than 60 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income...

Every gift of an animal provides direct benefits such as milk, eggs, wool, fertilizer, as well as indirect benefits that increase family incomes for better housing, nutrition, health care and school fees for children. Recipients “pass on the gift” of offspring of their cows, goats and other livestock to others in an ever-widening circle of hope.

Heifer currently works in more than 57 countries, including the U.S."

Cleo's school collects aluminum cans to raise money for Heifer.  Every year they raise enough to pay for a goat or a few rabbits; cans go for about thirty cents a pound and a goat costs $120, so those kids retrieve and crush about 400 pounds of cans a year. A flock of chicks or ducks or geese costs $20.  A trio of rabbits will run you $60.  You can buy shares in sheep, llamas, honey bees, pigs, water buffalo, and yes, heifers. 

Cleo tried to charm her way to an entire water buffalo, which costs $250; when her heavy-handed application of puppy eyes had no impact she resolved to conduct her own fund raiser.  She's collected a garbage bag full of crushed cans (five pounds = $1.50 -- woo hoo!) and she posted a fund raising widget on her blog.  So far she's received seven donations for a total of $44.

Feel like your life won't be complete until you can say you helped buy a water buffalo?  Here's your chance.  Click on over to Cleo's blog and tell her Fee sent you -- she'll understand.

Thursday Thirteen: The Season To Give

Is it worse this year?  I doubt it.  Every year I see stories about how the food banks are hurting, the homeless shelters are in trouble, donations are needed everywhere.  This year I seem to be seeking out more opportunities to give.  It makes me feel good, it sets a good example for my kids, and it helps someone.  So far:

• The sealed anonymous grocery bag filled with canned and packaged food that will go to some family in time for Christmas.
• The needy family adopted by Robespierre's sixth grade class.  He chose the fifteen-year-old boy who wanted a new pair of sneakers; we found Avia running shoes for half price at Sports Authority, and threw in three pairs of socks.
• The stuffed animal donations at Anthropologie for kids with cancer -- a furry brown horse with a fringy mane and tail.
• Ten dollars to the guys who stand out in freezing weather the Thursday morning before each Thanksgiving selling newspapers to raise money for children's charities.  Next year I swear I'll remember to take the paper so I can wave it out the window at all the other newspaper vendors on all the other street corners who appear concerned that I might not yet have participated.

Have You Seen What's Been Going On At "Boobs, Injuries And Dr. Pepper?"

It started on August 12 with Crystal's furious post about a disappointing visit to a Red Robin restaurant, made worse by the discovery that her 8-year-old daughter had left a backpack containing a Gameboy at the restaurant:

"I immediately called the store and spoke with Lexi, who ... told me that she did, indeed, have the backpack... She said that ... the managers lock up lost & found items, so not to worry.

I went in today to pick up my item and Lexi reluctantly informed me that it was gone...

As I type, my sweet, generous daughter is softly crying on the sofa. She feels bad FOR ME because she knows that it was hard for us to afford the lunch outing and we can't replace the Gameboy. She is more crushed, however, that someone stole from her. What a terrific lesson for a child who bought that Gameboy with her own money."

Soon afterwards her post was updated by the following:

"EDIT: A member of our US Army just emailed me. He shipped Virginia a Nintendo DS. I am constantly humbled by the generosity and kindness of you all (several of you offered to PayPal funds or buy one and send it to her) and I can't thank you enough for the gift you've given me."

I Can Still Get In Under The Wire

Camie’s Kitties wrote:

"For everyone who posts a knock knock joke on their blog with a picture Thursday, May 1st, we will donate $0.50 to MuShue, LillyLu and Iris ..."

... some furry friends who recently lost their home in a fire.

So here's my joke:

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Fido.

Fido who?

Fido knew you were coming I'da baked a cake.

Corny?  Ungrammatical?  What do you expect?  I made it up and it's 11:45 pm.

I have to post a picture too, so here's one:

Read more about the dog in the photo.  And more.  And more.  And just one more.

Do dogs rule and cats drool, or is it the other way around?

Visit FeeFiFoto and put a photo of your dog or cat on a personalized gift item for Mother's Day.

Courageous Humanitarian Voyage

Shannon, from Rocks In My Dryer, is on a humanitarian blogging expedition to Uganda, where she and other bloggers will be blogging about relief efforts there.  Read about her trip here, and please note the button in my right hand column.

Thanks.

Giving

Staci Schoff, A Mommy With An Attitude, laments the Scrooginess she feels when she contemplates that her kids don't need anything more for Christmas than an effective lesson on the necessity of giving back:

"This time of year people call me Scrooge, because when they ask me what my kids need for Christmas I always answer that they need someone to come and haul away three-quarters of the useless junk they already have. But it annoys me to be compared to Scrooge, because the spirit of giving at Christmas is about giving to people who actually need something (which I am all for), not about giving a bunch of crap to my spoiled kids.

I asked J to help me pick out gifts for a child we sponsor, showing him a catalog with things like vaccines, wells, mosquito netting, map puzzles, jump ropes and backpacks. He looked unimpressed by the selection and said, “How about if we give her some Star Wars DVDs instead?”

“That’s not a good choice,” I said, “because she doesn’t even have a TV to watch them on.”

“Well,“ his eyes leapt out of their sockets, “I think we should send her a TV then!”

So I explained that people don’t need TVs. “People need love, healthy food, clean water, medicine, shelter from the elements and peace,” I said, “That’s all anybody needs.”

...

The Best Kind Of Seed Money

See this man?  His name is Catalino Tapia.  He's a 63-year-old gardener.  He lives in Redwood City, CA and works maintaining trees and gardens in San Francisco.

He's also a philanthropist.  Read about him here:

"Catalino Tapia [came] from Mexico ... 40 years ago with a sixth-grade education and only $6 ... He became a legal resident and raised a family by working in a donut shop, a machine shop and then plant nurseries, before starting his own gardening business...

Tapia ... always had his eyes on the future…Even before his first child was born ... he was saving money for them to go to school.

Tapia's youngest son attended UCLA and then ... the University of California - Berkeley Law School. He's now a lawyer in Los Angeles...

Tapia wanted to do something to help the less-fortunate children in his community ... His son suggested Tapia start a foundation that would give scholarships to students ...

Hand Over The Money

Laura over at Mum's The Wurd writes about cotton pajamas for all ages from Hatley Nature.  Besides offering wonderfully comfy-looking jammies and other casual stuff, Hatley is also giving 20% of their online sales profit to Breast Cancer Research throughout the month of October.  This reminds me of something I've forgotten to write about until I read Laura's post.

I've been teaching my kids about charitable giving since they were old enough to drop a quarter in the Salvation Army box.  It recently occurred to me that I could increase our family's philanthropy while generating more income from which to give.

I offered our school ten percent of any purchases made through a link to FeeFiFoto.