The American Breast Cancer Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides “education, access, and financial assistance to aid in the early detection, treatment, and survival of breast cancer”, regardless of age, gender, and whether they are insured or not.

The ABCF is very dedicated to giving people access to lifesaving tests that they wouldn’t get otherwise. They have “provided more than 46,300 grants for breast cancer and diagnostic services through its Breast Cancer Assistance Program”. Not only this but this, 1,300 people got diagnosed with breast cancer and were able to take the next steps in fighting it. Without this program, these people would not have had the access to these tests and probably would not have known until the cancer progressed even more.

If you are dedicated to the cause and want to get involved, you’re in luck because they also do different forms of fundraising and bringing awareness!

One way The ABCF brings awareness to breast cancer is by their Paint it Pink Challenge. They inspire you to “be creative, paint something pink” then “post a picture of what you have painted pink and tag the American Breast Cancer Foundation on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag, #PAINTITPINK4ABCF”

They also “teamed up with the American Breast Cancer Foundation to help raise funds for out life-saving programs through the creation of a vehicle donation program”.

But don’t think you just have to donate cars, you can also donate trucks, cans, SUVS, boats, RVs, and motorcycles. But wait, there’s more! If you donate, you can “receive a top tax deduction for your generous vehicle donation”! It’s a win-win situation and plus, you can feel good about giving back!

One of my personal favorite fundraising options they have is the “Shopping With a Purpose”! They go into detail on how different retailers like Amazon and eBay work along side them to raise money for the cause. They describe how AmazonSmile is “a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you”. When you shop, Amazon will “donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization”. It’s another win-win situation, you shop and are able to give back at the same time! Sign me up!

But Amazon and Ebay are not the only brands that support the ABCF. Tons of brands like Under Armour, Medelita, Raymond Corp, Ford, and SLAC inc. all support the cause, and so can you!

If you look at the ABCF website, you can find different upcoming events they’re going to have like the “Women Rock Nashville Mother’s Day Concert”. The concert is the perfect place to “honor you mother or mother figure in your life with a potentially life saving donation this holiday”!

If you get a free second, I definitely recommend visiting their website to learn how to bring awareness and find ways to get involved from shopping to fundraising! Stay safe and healthy while giving back!

Link to visit the website: https://www.abcf.org/

The global water crisis is one of the most tragic things going on to this day. 785 million people don’t have access to clean/safe water at home. That is 1 in 9 people, 1/3 of the human population. Water is THE key aspect of life, but the Water.org organization says that “access to safe water can turn problems into potential”. Examples of how it can help include the fact that it can obviously improve health with access to safe water and sanitation. It has also been found “to increase school attendance, especially for young girls”. Not only this but it can also help the overall economy. People take so much time out of their day to seek clean and sanitized water, so if they had the access, they would be able to use this time to “pursue education and work” that could help “break the cycle of poverty”.

Matt Damon and Gary White founded the Water.org organization 10 years ago as they describe “a common goal to pioneer smart solutions to the water crisis”. Over the past decade, “Charity Navigator has consistently rated Water.org in the top 10% of global charities for transparency and financial accountability”, which is pretty impressive!

The Water.org organization works in 13 different countries around the world, located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

If you are interested in donating but don’t know how, there are tons of different ways that you can make a difference!

You can donate as an individual. Examples include:

Donating online, donating monthly, in honor of someone, starting a fundraiser, and competing for a cause, and shop and support!

You can also donate as a business and or group. Examples include:

Adding Water.org to your corporate matching program, starting a fundraiser, and holiday giving!

 

Water.org makes a huge impact on so many families by providing clean water! I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about Sophon’s story. Sophon, while pregnant, would have to carry heavy jugs full of water for miles to support her growing family. With a small loan, she and her husband paid for the installation of a rain storage tank. Before the tank, it would take multiple hours for her to collect and sanitize water. Now, with the tank, it is much easier to have access to clean and sanitized water, which is necessary for nurturing her son and keep herself well hydrated! Another case is a girl named Grace who lives in a village outside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 61,000,000 people lack safe water in Ethiopia. A survey proved that “women living in rural villages in Ethiopia walk more than three hours a day to collect water, often from shallow wells or unprotected ponds they share with animals”. In Grace’s case, they used a program called WaterCredit. “WaterCredit brings small, easily repayable loans to people who need access to affordable financing” to provide water and sanitation to homes. Today, Grace has access to clean water and is no longer burdened by the water crisis.

The world water crisis needs to be stopped.  While there is still a long way to go, Water.org has made a huge dent in the number of people affected by the crisis. To this day, Water.org has helped 27 million people get access to clean and safe water, along with sanitation. With your help, Water.org could one day help give everyone in every country the access to one of the most essential things in life. You can make a entire world of difference to someone else if you try!

Here is the link to the website if you are interested! https://water.org/

When you are driving down the road and see an amber alert on a board or get a text message, you might not think a whole lot about it, but in the eyes of a friend or family member, it is one of the most terrifying experiences ever. This is where the Polly Klaas organization comes into play. They have a 24/7 hotline that frantic parents and law enforcement can call to reach caseworkers. They “counsel parents on ways to search for their children” and help send out missing child flyers when necessary. They also provide support to parents of missing children daily. They work “with policy makers nationwide creating legislation like Amber Alerts to help keep children safe” and provide support for the child as well.

But the Polly Klaas organization also works to educate children about in person and internet safety in order to prevent any child abductions they can. They work to inform parents and motivate children, not with the use of fear, but encouragement to be safe!

The entire organization started when in October of 1993, twelve year old Polly Klaas was kidnapped by a strange man with a knife who entered her room while she was having a slumber party. Everyone continued to search for her, and by the time her body was found in December of the same year, over 2 billion pictures of her had been distributed across the world. The search was conducted online, which was very new at the time, and through reproductions, photocopies, and faxes, a lot of the pictures were blurry. But one day, Gary French and Bill Rhodes called the police to inform them that the poster could be “digitized”, which would clear up the images. This was such a huge innovation because it used new technology to change “the process of finding missing children”.

“To this day, the Polly Klaas Foundation follows the path laid by these high tech pioneers, and continues to creatively use innovative technology in their child-find operations”.

The Polly Klaas Foundation has innovated new ways of finding children and educates parents and children on ways to be safe and prevent any sort of abductions.

You can donate directly on their website and can become an eVolunteer so you can distribute posters though out you community!

To learn more, please visit their website here: www.pollyklaas.org

 

Hi everyone!

Today I am here to tell you about the National Network to End Domestic Violence. The NNEDV was founded by a group of domestic violence victims who came together “to promote federal legislation related to domestic violence”. Soon after, they began domestic violence shelter programs across the country. In 1994, their efforts actually helped lead to the passing of the Violence Against Women Act, which was authorized by Senator Joe Biden. The law made history by being the first federal legislation to “strengthen the government’s response to crimes perpetrated against victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking”. The next year it actually became the National Network to End Domestic Violence. The organization still thrives today by bringing awareness to domestic violence through multiple platforms and encouraging and supporting victims.

The NNEDV organizes fundraisers like the “Chefs Take a Stand” to raise money for the cause. The “Chefs Take a Stand” is an event where chefs and mixologists get together to let the community come and taste test a variety of different foods. The fundraiser also includes a silent auction that has items donated by “local and community oriented businesses”. All of the profits made during the event go to the cause. The event usually takes place at the beginning of the Domestic Violence Awareness month in October.

Another way the NNEDV brings awareness is by using the “16 Days of Activism & 16 Ways to Get Involved”. This is 16 different ways to get involved on social media to bring awareness to domestic violence.

November 25- change your facebook/twitter background

November 26- know the hotline

November 27- host a movie night

November 28- fulfill a wish in your community

November 29- volunteer

November 30- sign up for action alert

December 1- share this PSA (located on the website- https://nnedv.org/content/16-days-16-ways/)

December 2- donate to NNEDV

December 3- hold an event on campus

December 4- change your language

December 5- join the conversation

December 6- donate a night out

December 7- adopt a family for the holidays

December 8- read a book

December 9- host a wine & cheese fundraiser

December 10- raise your voice and make a difference

The “16 Days of Activism” is “an international campaign to raise awareness and generate action to end violence against women and girls in communities around the world”. This way to get the information out and bring awareness is extremely effective because anything on social media can spread like wildfire with some attention. This is why when you share something on social media, it can make a huge difference.

I would just like to take a second to express my personal support for this organization. I have had a very close friend of mine killed by an abusive ex and I cannot express enough how important domestic violence awareness is. It is so important that we all do everything we can to protect those we love and even those we don’t know. Whether you volunteer, donate, or simply press the ‘share’ button on your phone, you could make a huge difference in someone’s life.

It is hard for just one person to try to make a world of difference, but when everyone comes together as a community, it can make a tremendous difference. We can all make the world a better place if we all come together to make a change.

Thanks for reading and I hope throughout this blog, you will find a charity that means a lot to you. I have found an organization that means a lot to me and I really hope that you can find one that you can support. Thanks for reading!

Here is the link to the National Network to End Domestic Violence website for more information: NNEDV.org

Hello world! My name is Anna and this is my blog!

I am currently a senior at Haywood Early college and I work at Kid Connection daycare where I teach. Over the last few months I have been trying to better myself, mentally and physically. It started in October when my friend told me about an online fitness program that her friend created. I have always been pretty self-conscious with myself so I went in with the intention of changing the way I looked. She sent me the program and the nutrition guide and I would start the following week. I went in thinking that the workouts would be so easy and only take me a few minutes, boy was I wrong. I couldn’t even get through the first set in the program without taking multiple breaks for a few days. Then on top of that, all I ate for the first week was chicken salads and almonds for counting my macros (fats, carbohydrates, and protein), which if you can imagine got old quick. I started to get really frustrated with my meals and keeping track of how many grams I was allowed per day. I talked to her about this and told her how frustrating the situation was so she told me to start experimenting with more recipes. With this I started to get more experimental and excited about cooking and eating my meals for the day. Then with my trainer’s guidance, I started doing more cardio and less strength training because I had injured my back while I was at work. With these two things combined, I started to feel more comfortable with being healthy, and it started to show as I started building more muscle and burning body fat. But it’s not just how I changed physically, I really started to change mentally. Going to the gym everyday helped me release built up stress, which took a lot of weight off my shoulders. It may sound odd but one day I woke up and just thought to myself that I love the way I am feeling and I honestly even forgot about the fact that I began my journey wanting to change the way I looked. Don’t get me wrong, I loved putting on clothes and realizing that they were now too big but it just wasn’t about that for me anymore. I started to realize that it wasn’t my body that I hated, I hated my perception of life and how I felt. I have to say, that month I had the best attitude, I absolutely loved myself and I felt myself being so much happier. Since then I have seen myself slowly go back to my old ways but I have decided that I won’t let it happen. I want to be happy and love life so I have decided to start back on the program. I have created this blog so that all of you can join me on my journey, and so that one day I can look back and see how one aspect in life can play such a big role in your happiness and to possibly inspire one of you to go on your own journey! I hope I get to share this experience with you!

See ya next time! 🙂

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog!

As you might have read in my last post, I talked about my overall fitness and health journey. In this post I’m going to go more into the mindset and motivation part of the journey. As you might recall, I went in with the idea that I wanted to change the way I looked because I was not happy. I always looked in the mirror and just didn’t like what I saw so when my friend referred me to her friend/personal trainer, I was super excited. She first had me take my weight and everything before the program and then every Sunday through the month. Let me just say that the first week really kicked my butt. I was physically ready for the workouts but I don’t think I was mentally prepared for what that meant. The first week I was so extremely frustrated because it felt like I always checked the scale and nothing was changing. I honestly got to the point where I just wanted to give up. But slowly with the help of my trainer I started to get more comfortable and confident with working out and eating healthy, I started to see my mood change drastically. Every morning I would wake up, make my protein shake, and head off to the gym. I couldn’t tell you how happy I was to step onto the treadmill or whatever I would be using that day. I would either put on some music to get myself motivated or I’d turn on a movie if I could. I’m not saying that it wasn’t hard because it definitely was. I just kept saying that by the end of the day I would forget that I even did it but I would feel so much better, and I did. I could be so stressed out and go to the gym and it was like I just decompressed. I noticed myself being so happier than I used to be. I have to say, this was really my motivation to keep going. I ended up realizing that it’s not that I didn’t love myself, I did, I hated the way I looked at life. I hated that I wanted to better my physical health but I completely neglected my mental health. Now that I look back, I regret not going into my fitness journey with a healthy mindset but I can’t express how happy I am that I have really come to be happy with myself. When you read this, I hope that if you decide to go on your own journey, whether it is physical or mental. Taking journeys, if it is in your career, fitness, educational, etc, they are what helps us grow. If we just live and don’t change at all, we are staying the same while everything around us continues growing. As I said in the last post, I’ve gotten off my fitness path but I have kept on the mental journey that I started. I love being able to watch myself grow constantly and have a happier outlook on life. I hope this inspires you and I hope that as you follow along on my journey that you can watch how much of an impact that a happy mindset can affect every other aspect of your life.

See ya next time! 🙂

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog!

Today I will be talking about something a little different. A couple of weeks ago, one of my good friends and co-worker was killed. Recently, my other co-workers and I have been experiencing a ton of grief. I bet you are wondering why I’m writing about this on my blog. I decided to write about this difficult topic because I want to show you all my physical as well as my mental health journey, which is filled with it’s ups and downs. I worked with her for almost 2 years and I can’t even express how blessed I am to have known her. When I say that she had such a bright and kind soul, I mean it. No matter what she always had a smile on her face and would always be willing to help in any way possible. When we found out she had passed, it was just heart breaking. We never imagined that it would have been her. I can remember getting the phone call. It didn’t even process in my mind until a minute later. I kept praying that it wasn’t real. Even after I felt numb, I still just couldn’t completely comprehend what happened. I always thought that grief was this horrible and awful thing but I found a quote that perfectly summed up what we were feeling.

“Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and the hallow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.”

I realized that grief is not a bad thing. It shows how much we all loved her. I only wished I could have loved her longer. It still makes me sad to think about her not being here with us anymore but I just keep thinking that as much as I am upset, it’s just that much more love that I am giving her, even though she’s not here. I will stay up sometimes at night and just think of memories I had with her. One day we had a bad day at work and when the kids got laid down for nap and she went on break. While this was her time to relax and decompress, she went to the gas station and brought us both back a pack of peanut and peanut butter M&Ms. This is the kind of person she was, kind and loving to everyone she knew.

I always see her as being someone who lit up a room when she walked in. She wouldn’t want us to remember grieving and being sad about her death. She would want us to use it to remember what a sweet and kind person she was. She would want us to embrace her life and learn from it. I strive to have a personality like she had, bright and kind. She would want us to take this love we have and share it with everyone. Every time I think of her I smile, I am happy because I know that it is how she wants to be remembered. Her death was very heart-breaking, but I am determined to embrace this tragic event and bring light to it, because even in the saddest times, she always found light in every situation. Thank you all for reading. I hope that this will help you if you too are experiencing grief in your life.

🙂