Day 281

The weather was just perfect for about 200 or more ATLiens to "Influence Culture through LOVE in action"!

Chandni and I had the opportunity to join Drew Benton and an amazing group of people at yet another Project Live Love Event.

This time around, however, we had the opportunity to lead a project at SafeHouse Outreach. Our group of 20 people from Echo ministries were absolutely fantastic.

We rallied at The Furniture Bank of Metro Atlanta, and then headed over to Safehouse with soup and socks. While some of the group stayed behind to cook and setup, most of the group went out to gather people from local parks around SafeHouse.

We did things a little differently at SHO today - instead of serving the meals out on the parking lot, we set up tables inside! Our group had set the tables and even brought these beautiful orange roses! We served soup, chips, and water. We talked to everyone, and had great conversations from video games to favorite football teams!

We did good. We had fun. And everyone walked away with just a little more understanding of how a simple conversation and just a little kindness can elevate someone's entire day!

We look forward to seeing you guys at the next Project Live Love Event on January 7th!

Happy Giving Everyone!

Day 257

Between work, evening meetings, and feeling a little under the weather, I used care2.com for my official giving.

I say official because Dona and I gave back in a different way today. We are working with Project Live Love to help with their Quarterly Live Love event - October 8th. We volunteered at their event in July and this time stepped up to lead a project. There's much work to do and we are really excited to be a part of it. If you'd like to join in the fun this time be sure to visit their site and register (there are a limited number of spots left).


On care2 I went through the click to donate section. I also signed petitions:

• to help end hunger for Hunger Action Month
• to keep our drinking water safe
• to end child trafficking in the US
• and to help end animal cruelty

The last thing I did today was help a fellow Giver with a special blog he is working on. Over the 9/11 weekend two families, of middle eastern descent, in his community were victims of vandalism. He has asked people to share comments with those families to make sure they know that they are a part of this community and that most people do not condemn them for the horrible 9/11 crimes. Check out his blog and please leave a comment for the victims: http://resolvetogive.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/post-christmas-resolution-day-263-%E2%80%93-in-support-of-each-other-please-comment/ 

Day 190

Dona and I had a fabulous DAY of giving today!

We volunteered with Project Live Love. A non-profit organization designed to influence culture through love in action by engaging, networking and mobilizing people who are motivated by love.

Today they had their quarterly Live Love event. An event designed to provide hands-on opportunities of service for individuals to meet community needs. They organize several different service projects for the day, from helping turn a house into a home for someone, working with at-risk youth, painting facilities, to hanging out with people in the park. Dona and I chose to do the Picnic in the Park.

We went to Woodruff Park with about 25 volunteers. We were handing out bottles of water, chips, and striking up conversations with anyone who wanted to talk. Dona and I saw several familiar faces from SafeHouse so we were ecstatic! We made new friends of course, had several fun conversations, learned to play chess, played spades, and got kicked out of a section by security!! Apparently Woodruff park has tables/sections designated for certain activities...with card playing being across the street! Thankfully, one of the security guards let us set up an extra table across the street, so we were able to play a good round of cards.

Towards the end of the afternoon Dona and I hung out in the park with some of our friends and were soon stranded in the park in the pouring rain! We ran for cover, got covered in sand and other grime that was blowing around, then did some strategic walking back to the car.

Since we were already downtown, we ended our evening at SafeHouse. Our same friends from the park were there, so of course we had to challenge each other to another round of spades (this is becoming our routine). There was some good trash talking - I'm also learning how to stop being nice and engage in trash talk during a card game - and some great laughs!

We both really enjoyed our day of giving, or rather our day of hanging out with friends!