Extreme couponing to feed the hungry

So how's this for a goal - before her 30th birthday next year, Lauren Puryear wants to deliver 30,000 meals to hungry people. 
Wow.

And Lauren is well on her way. This young lady with two Masters degrees and a PhD founded a non-profit  called For the Love of Others, LLC. It provides services for people who are homeless, who need help providing for their children, or who have mental health needs. And when it comes to food, Lauren is ingenious at stretching her agency dollar. Food donations from major grocery chains are a huge help, plus, like many of us, Lauren has taken to clipping coupons.
A lot of coupons.

She has become an extreme couponer. She clips and compares and buys from a number of different stores. Many of the items she buys now are free or nearly free, which places her well on her way toward her goal. 

The impact this woman makes is breathtaking.

Cruelty, inaction, and a pro-active project for change

An outstanding college student and musician, Tyler Clementi had just begun to open up to loved ones about being gay. Then his roommate at Rutgers captured an intimate video of him on a computer's webcam and shared it online. Others who saw the video didn't report this cyber-bullying, and Tyler became a target of ridicule. When he learned of this invasion of privacy and the rampant hate-speech against him, Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge.  

Like the rest of Tyler's home community, 10th-grader Christopher Rim was devastated by the news of Tyler's suicide. But Christopher didn't want to just sit back and be sad; he decided to act. He formed It Ends Today, a group of 18 students from his high school who traveled to different middle schools and high schools to educate teens about the importance of bystander intervention and the dangers of cyber-bullying.

The project grew and attracted the attention of celebrities including Lady GaGa and her Born This Way Foundation. Within a few years, It Ends Today operated 26 chapters in six countries with over 350 volunteers.



When Christopher went to Yale, he connected with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. They paired with Facebook and created InspirED, "a portal where educators, community leaders, young people, parents, and government officials can connect to positively impact school climates and the overall well-being of teens in the U.S."

Christopher's original project has expanded to now reach tens of thousands of people every year.

All because one teen decided to act.

More than a haircut

Mark Bustos works as a stylist at an upscale salon in Manhattan. His services are pricey, his clientele elite. He's fortunate, he knows that. And he likes to give back to his community.

So for the last few years, Mark has spent his day off every week giving free haircuts to the homeless. He does this right in the open, on sidewalks or in parks with his client sitting on a bench or an overturned milk crate. He likes the idea of being seen by passersby and hopes his action serves as inspiration to them. Just as he does at his paying job, Mark disposes of hair clippings and disinfects his tools between cuts.

When asked why he spends free time voluntarily giving away his services, Mark's answer is straightforward - we all know how good it feels to get a haircut. The transformation can give confidence to people who are at low points in their lives. Mark now has teamed up with a photographer, Devin Masga, to document before-and-after shots of his homeless clientele. These are uploaded to Mark's Instagram feed  and the hashtag #BeAwesomeToSomebody.

Gotta have sole

Nicholas Lowinger started donating his used clothes to a homeless shelter near his Rhode Island home when he was a small child. One day, he was present when a boy received a pair of his old boots. The boy was thrilled with the boots even though they were used and too big for him. Nicholas was touched by the boy's enthusiasm and decided to do something more.


So for his bar mitzvah project in 2010, Nicholas launched Gotta Have Sole, Inc. The mission statement of his non-profit's organization is to provide children living in shelters across the United States with brand-new footwear to call their own. Since then, he has gained private and corporate sponsors and has given away tens of thousands of shoes in dozens of states.



Nicholas' story and his organization have been featured on the Today Show and he has been given a Nickelodeon HALO Award. His organization has now branched out to include Gotta Have School , clubs, and other ways of harnessing support for others. He has recently been awarded an AXA Achievement Scholarship which he plans to use to pursue his desire to become a social entrepreneur and to be part of the solution to end global poverty.

To protect and serve, and finish the job

All too often, we hear about local police and members of the community they are charged to protect and serve locked in conflict. Tempers flare, fear reigns, violence is common. No one wins. We all lose.

So this story on the front page of the York Daily Record is a breath of fresh air.  It seems that in late July, Officer Andrew Shaffer of the Northern York Regional Police was called to a home. A man had suffered a fatal heart attack while mowing his lawn. Officer Shaffer notified the family and waited until the coroner arrived. A sad duty, no doubt, but probably all part of the job.

After his shift was over, Officer Shaffer went above and beyond his call of duty. On his own time, he went back to the same home and finished mowing the lawn.

The appreciative family contacted the police chief to make sure he knew about the officer's kindness.

Kindness for the dumpster diver

Ashley Jiron runs P.B. Jams in Oklahoma, a cafe specializing in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When she noticed some dumpster trash torn open with the food contents removed, she knew someone in her neighborhood was hungry. She decided to do something about it.

She posted this sign on the dumpster. Her kindness went viral when a customer shared the sign on Instagram.

This Uber ride led to Brazil

In late July, Liz Willock took an hour-long Uber ride in Philadelphia in Ellis Hill's car. The two struck up a friendly conversation and Ellis mentioned how proud he is of his son Darrell, part of Team USA at the Rio Olympics. As the conversation continued, Liz learned that Ellis could not afford to fly to Rio to see his son compete.

So Liz decided to do something about it. She set up a GoFundMe page, asking for contributions toward the $7500 it would cost for Ellis to see his son participate in the Olympics. The goal was met in just two days through the generosity of over 150 people, mostly strangers. Now when Darrell Hill competes in the shotput on August 18th, his dad will be in the stands to cheer him on.

Kudos to Liz Willock for seeing a problem, allowing herself to feel empathy, and then developing a solution. And kudos to everyone who read about Ellis' situation and contributed to that solution. We need more news like this.

Read the story here and here. 

These ladies share the joy!

I just read a short Facebook post about an inspiring young lady from Pennsylvania. Instead of spending time and money on a standard bachelorette party, she and her bridesmaids treated women at a local shelter to a day of pampering. A wonderful way to share her joy on this occasion!

I wondered how many other women, on a day that was supposed to be all about them, were equally unselfish. I found this article from 2015 - a bride-to-be and her bridesmaids prepped dinner at a local Salvation Army. Clothing she received as engagement and shower gifts was donated to Dress for Success. 

Generosity

I don't know the backstory of the folks depicted here.

The difficulties which brought the woman and her children to his store are not revealed. We can use our imaginations to fill in the blanks.

The store owner may wealthy, he may be struggling; he may have been born in this country or in another. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. What he does, the kindness he offers a stranger, matters a great deal. Her situation seemed to tug at his heart, and he followed that heart's lead. He did one right thing, and that made all the difference.

Unity in balls of yarn

What's red, was constructed by thousands of hands, and seeks to identify commonalities while celebrating the differences between us? The answer is UNITY, an interactive public arts project launched this summer in Alexandria, Virginia.

Nancy Belmont and the folks at Vessence Corporation are behind the idea. They decided to do something about the divisive labels so common in America today.

In an open green space they anchored dozens of poles, each marked with an identifier --  I am a parent; My ancestors came from Asia; I believe in a higher power, and many many more. Members of the community then tied their yarn around each of the poles whose labels described them.

Well over 1000 people later, the resulting canopy is an interwoven visual representation of the community. It tells a story of individuals and connections, of commonalities and differences that lend texture to the tapestry of our country.

UNITY is art doing what art does best - giving voice to the human spirit.

Unsung Heroes Project

Another site that shares great stories of personal integrity and courage is the Unsung Heroes Project. Not only does the site give story overviews, it provides resources for educators and collaborates in project-based learning opportunities for students, teachers, and parents. The project even offer cash-prize awards to students whose art communicates these untold tales to a greater audience.


Many of their featured projects, that is, stories which have been brought to the public through the arts, involve people who chose to do One Right Thing. One which struck me in its simplicity deals with the difficulties faced by the Little Rock Nine during the 1960s Civil Rights era. Those black students were the first to break the race barrier and be integrated into the all-white Little Rock School District. They had to walk through lines of jeering students and adults just to enter the school, endure untold threats and horrors in an attempt to receive an education. I'm sure they all remember those horrible days well.

And yet, even decades later, Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Nine, still remembers the names of two white students who showed her kindness during her ordeal, Ken Reinhard and Ann Williams. These two unlikely heroes didn't stand by when Elizabeth and the new students came to class. Ken repeatedly offered to walk with Elizabeth despite the verbal and phoned threats he received. Ann saw Elizabeth sitting alone in class and sat beside her, chatty and welcoming. The story of these small acts of standing up for what's right has been immortalized in this short film.

Focus on right

I've been to the beautiful, friendly city of Munich twice, once for pleasure and once for research. Because Munich is my novel's setting, I have spent many hours there in my head as well. That makes the recent horror there all the more painful. The news coverage gives us terrible details about the event, and in a short time everyone knows the shooter's name, age, and background. Perpetuating the perpetrator. Perpetuating the prejudice. 

And yet I'm sure someone in that mall acted valiantly. No doubt someone sheltered a frightened child, protected a potential victim at risk to his or her own self. Soon, I hope, we'll hear about a 'hero' we can all admire.  

Which reminds me of this seldom-told tale which got little (or no) publicity at the time about terror in another city I love, my hometown of NYC. The video below narrated by Tom Hanks was not made until years later. But stories like this are the ones that deserve the most publicity, the ones I hope we remember. 

On 9/11, the greatest boat rescue in world history plucked half-a-million terrified people off the south end of Manhattan in just 9 hours. Some of the boats were privately owned, others were Coast Guard vessels, ferries, tugs, and tour lines. In the uncertain and frightening events of that day in NYC, these courageous boat owners and captains risked their own lives, driving the flotilla right into the smoke and debris of lower Manhattan. 

I choose to focus on these heroes. I choose to tell stories about those who chose right. 

Choosing to serve, despite the negativity

People react in different ways when shunned by members of the community. These gentlemen chose a classy response to public anger. Click the link to see the video - it only takes a few minutes.

Way to go, Homestead PA police force. Well done.