Give

Here toward the end of the year, I'd like to share with you a list of the groups we enjoy giving to. Perhaps you'll find one you'd like to support as well. In no particular order:

Growing Gardens - http://www.growing-gardens.org/ They help low income families, communities and schools start food producing gardens with expertise, materials, plants and money.

Commercial Alert - http://www.commercialalert.org/ a national organization based here in Portland with a grassroots campaign to establish a culture that can't be bought. They are particularly concerned about the aggressive way advertisers target children.

Center for a New American Dream - http://www.newdream.org/ They help Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice.

Oregon Cultural Trust - http://www.culturaltrust.org/home/index.php Give money to the cultural trust AND to your favorite participating arts organization and get an Oregon tax credit. See their site, but if we give a $100 to the Trust and $100 to an arts organization, we get a $100 credit. So you give $200, but it only costs $100.

Jefferson Dancers - http://www.pps.k12.or.us/depts/arts/dance/ We give money every so often to this great group that does a whole lot for a decent sized group of kids, many of whom don't have many advantages.

The Dougy Center - http://www.dougy.org/ - They help families deal with the death of a family member. Ed has had some students significantly helped by this organization, and a couple counselors from the organization gave a presentation at a preschool meeting last year, and they do good things for really very sad children.

The Haven Project - http://www.havenproject.org/ This isn't quite the baby project it was when we first learned about it, but boy is it neat! They get a group of underserved kids together with a group of professional actors and writers, send them off to camp to write and produce short skits that are generated from the kids' ideas. They've grown, and now they're able to give kids even more significant theater experiences. Everything they do is pretty cool!

Fanconi Anemia Research Fund - http://www.fanconi.org/aboutfa/FA.htm A crummy hereditary bone marrow disease that impacted Ed's extended family. Recent advances give an excellent prognosis for Ed's family, but always more research is needed and support for families.

Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital - http://www.dovelewis.org/ They were very helpful in the treatment of Taz many years ago, and with many such organizations it seems always in desperate need of money!

Community of Writers - http://www.communityofwriters.com/ A cool organization with an unfortunate acronym, that brings writers and teachers together to improve the writing skills of students.

NW Earth Institute - http://www.nwei.org/ - they develop programs that empower individuals and organizations to protect the earth. They focus on encouraging individuals to take responsibly for the earth help them to make changes in their practices to tread more lightly. They have developed curriculum and a mentoring program for six discussion courses designed to build community and raise environmental awareness. I am pretty darn excited to begin my first discussion course through them this weekend, Healthy Planet, Healthy Children. They have a national network, http://www.nwei.org/pages/national.html, so you may lave a local group where you can take your own discussion course.

Friends of Trees - A Portland/Vancouver organization that plants, cares for and teaches about urban trees. They have numerous community tree planting events every spring and fall. http://www.friendsoftrees.org/home/index.php

Tell us about some of the groups you are passionate about.