Yay! Yesterday (Oct. 30th), the “Build Our Library, Build Their Brains!” project was fully funded! This is one our Skip a Lunch readers donated to (among others). Ms. Branch wrote us a thank you note as follows:

Dear Brian, 

Thank you so much for your generous donation! My students have been working very hard this year to become better readers, and they will be thrilled to receive new books. I know this will increase their motivation to read, both in class and at home. The books will provide students with more opportunities to read different books and not be stuck on the same books over and over again. Support like yours helps our school be able to meet the needs of a very diverse population.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2008 Blogger Challenge, what a great success story! There are many many more projects that need funding, so don’t stop now! Go find a project that you believe in either because of the subject, the proposal, or the location. Find more here. Thanks!

Pound for Pound

Have you heard about the Weight Watchers program called “Lose for Good“? It’s a great idea. For each pound lost by a Weight Watcher member, Weight Watchers will donate the cost of 1 pound of food to Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger. The maximum amount is $1 million dollars which is a lot of food (and a lot of pounds lost!). It’s incredible that, to date, members across the country have lost 4 million pounds during the program… 4 MILLION. Wow!

This leads to me hunger. What a great time to donate to your local food bank, Share Our Strength, or Action Against Hunger.

The photos featured in this post are actual photos of donations made in IL. Awesome! Photos courtesy of Mary Dalton.

Thanks to Natalie for another great idea. Save a Bunny is a non-profit volunteer oriented animal rescue organization. They’re located in Mill Valley, California and provide a no-kill shelter and foster center.

They have donation opportunities as well as merchandise for sale, and most importantly, volunteer opportunities. For those living in and around Mill Valley, this is a great cause to devote some of your spare time to, as Natalie does (Natalie’s adopted 2 bunnies from here).

Save a Bunny was founded in 1999. Their mission is, in their own words:

We serve both the people and animals in the community through education, adoption, outreach, and rescue options. We believe that the humane and responsible treatment of animals reduces the number of unwanted and homeless animals and contributes to a more tolerant and compassionate society.

We believe that all companion rabbits are worthy of a safe, loving home regardless of breed purity, pedigree, or temperament. We incorporate this valuable message of acceptance and open-mindedness into our educational and adoption outreach events, training of shelter staff, community in-service programs, and through pet-assisted therapy with at-risk youth and senior citizens.

We encourage people to adopt spayed or neutered rabbits from shelters and rescue groups, such as SaveABunny, rather than purchasing an animal from a breeder or pet store. All our rabbits are spayed or neutered, and undergo medical and temperament evaluation before being placed up for adoption. We carefully screen potential adopters and require that all rabbits from SaveABunny live indoors as a treasured member of the family. We provide free, ongoing support to adopters, and we make a lifetime commitment to the safety and well-being of the rabbit.

Our adoption contract outlines terms for the proper care of a rabbit and specifies that the rabbit be returned to SaveABunny if the terms of the adoption contract are violated, or if the adopter can no longer care for the rabbit.

Let’s do what we can to help out this great organization. I mean honestly, who can resist a cute bunny?

Thanks Natalie for this wonderful, and very different idea.

It turns out that Jose Canay Vi (photo bottom right) is the last man in the world that knows how to make the traditional Mayan hand-woven straw hats shown to the right. Jose is 84 with ailing health and is losing his vision. The Limitless Horizons Ixil organization is trying to raise funds to teach others his craft before its lost forever. They’ve launched the Hat Rescue Project and they hope to raise enough to teach a class of 30 people his craft.

Very nifty idea, and the Limitless Horizons Ixil organization has many other ways you can help the Ixil region in northern Guatemala where 80% live in poverty on income less than $2/day … much of this is attributed to the 36 year civil war from 1960 till 1996.

Photos were provided by, and used with permission of Limitless Horizons Ixil

Just got an email from Cindy, the Director of Volunteer and Corporate Relations at the Special Olympics Hawaii. This Friday is the “Freezin’ for a Reason” event where celebrities take a plunge into a pool of icy water to raise money for the organization. It starts early, at 6 am! Brr…

Some notable plungernauts include Sam Choy, Leland Kim, Minna Sugimoto (KHNL), and Amber Lynn Hyden (KITV). It’ll be at Sam Choy’s Breakfast, Lunch and Crab Restaurant (580 N. Nimitz Highway).

Cindy needs volunteers to help behind the scenes. If anyone has time please send an email to me at blog@skipalunch.com and I’ll send you her contact info or contact them directly at volunteers@specialolympicshawaii.org. I’m both an annual donor as well as a past volunteer. I was a timer for one of the relays a few years back and it was a blast. Has anyone else helped out at the Special Olympics? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear about your experiences, thanks!

And now for a “close to home” idea. The Hawaiian Humane Society needs our help. Here’s a breakdown on what your donation dollars can do:

• $15 – helps provide shelter, veterinary care and love for a homeless pet.
• $25 – helps teach a class of school children about compassion and respect for animals.
• $50 – helps prevent overpopulation by sterilizing an animal at the Humane Society’s clinic.
• $100 – helps rescue and care for an animal from an abusive home.

Another update on the DonorsChoose.org 2008 Blogger Challenge:

We managed to fully fund a project, yay!! We bought Frindle for a classroom and the teacher sent the thank you note to me below (the “We Need Frindle” project is one that I donated a small amount to). Here’s the project page. Basically:

My students need 1 teacher’s copy of “Frindle”, by Andrew Clements, along with 2 audio book copies and 30 paperback copies. The cost of this proposal is $288, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know how we’re doing and that indeed, we’re helping classrooms make ends meet. Hopefully we’ll get more photos from the students in that classroom, those always make me happy!

See the thank you note below:

Thanks to everyone for their donations to the 2008 DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge (read more about it in this post). The money raised helps teachers make ends meet in our public schools. In the general blog category we’re currently 13th place while we’re currently 9th place in the Topical/Local blogs category. We’ve raised $224 dollars! Yay!

For those who’ve donated, thank you very much. Be sure to save a receipt for your tax write-off! To everyone else, there’s still time to donate! Just click here and choose one of the projects I’ve selected. Couldn’t be easier! Thanks again. B.

Wow, it wasn’t even a week since I posted this about DonorsChoose.org and donated to a library project in Waianae. This morning I see Boing Boing has jumped into the fray of the 2008 Blogger Challenge. Had I known I’d have waited to donate via this challenge but alas, we’re starting from $0. Please, if you could spare the money-lint, look in your old jeans, under your couch cushions, in the hamper — anywhere. Spare some change and lets make the 2008 Blogger Challenge a record-busting one! I’ll start things off with another donation shortly. Go! Fight! Win!

Be sure to click through my link in the ad below or on the left so we can see our results cumulatively and get credit as a team, thanks!