50 Pounds for You!

Can you imagine the heightened awareness and tantalizing excitement nearly rupturing out of you in hushed giggles and smiles, edging around the local grocery store unnoticed to the everyday shopper (a young mom with a few under-7-year-olds trailing behind her like a line of ducks while she compares labels obliviously in the canned foods isle, a middle aged business man picking up the milk in a hurry on his way home, long black coat swishing in his swift step, a few edgy teenagers donning the latest sensation fashion, laughing at a volume that would be unexpected from any other demographic, an ancient couple fragily ambling through the produce in thick-soled all-white velcro sneakers and slacks, a college basketball player in university sweats carrying protien powder and cheetos in his basket, and even someone much like yourself, whatever that may be) as you sneak envelopes filled with 50 dollars into these peoples baskets and carts when they arent looking? This happy secret inside of you (that will only be disclosed when each of these unaware people find some extra money annonymoulsy slipped in with their belongings) struggles to get out in your light, quick steps and short breaths, and you just CANT WAIT for each of your beneficiaries to find their prize, even though when they do, you will be long gone. As I'm sure most of us would think, this would be a stunt I would quite enjoy if and when I had the money to do so. Luckily for this man, he did...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-16359868

Merry Christmas!

Good in the Hood

Richie Romney is a jolly kind of person with a face that flushes red when he laughs, which he does a lot, especially in our setting- a friend's hyper, noisy birthday party carrying on around us. However, he manages to tell me about Good in the Hood, the non profit organization he helped start. In the summer of 2009 it was a ‘service group’- a few friends making cookies or raking leaves for people in the neighborhood, NBD. Today, it’s a full-blown incorporation (I had to double check when he threw the ‘inc’ on the end of their catchy, rolls-off-your-tongue name). By full-blown incorporation I mean more than 1000 volunteers building houses, throwing quarterly fundraising parties, tutoring refugees, hosting Christmas banquets and silent auctions, and performing almost weekly miscellaneous service activities, plus plenty of mainstream media coverage and a documentary in the works. So how do a couple of early-20’s kids run that kind of momentous project? Because really, its one massive project of projects. “None of us are graduated so its like we’ve pulled out Non Profit or Dummies and started learning.” Plenty of work for founders Richie Romney and Daniel Dudley, but mostly these two and their gang of volunteers are just playing around on their playground of service. “One of the best times was taking refugee kids trick-or-treating. It was a huge rumble on everybody’s doorstep and I had to try to get them in line to say please and thank you, and it was crazy with all these kids, there’s little Batman punching everyone to get to the front of the line for candy..” Good in the Hood is ballooning with energy, contagious with cause. Between the 1000 + volunteers and ‘countless hours’ of service given, it’s a win-win…win-win-win-win kind of deal. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to jump in? Being a part of Good in the Hood or even just learning about it just sits right, adds a spice of satisfaction to how you think about the community. Keep it up, you non-profiting good-doing kids!
dogoodinthehood.com

Here It Is...

Society is us, around ourselves.
What we think creates what we see, and what we see creates what we think.
We make society into what it is, and society makes us into what we are.
So, where in this self-perpetuating rhythm, is the start?

I say we start with the good.