Day 98 - Hardware for Houses

In the parking lot of Loew's of South Kansas City, the retail chain that has anything and everything to build or improve a home, there is a ReStore truck waiting to be stuffed on the weekends.  ReStore is the clearinghouse for new and used building materials for Habitat for Humanity, the international organization that builds the future. Items can be brought to the ReStore main warehouse or to any of their mobile collection trucks around town. Everything from nails to windows is collected - lumber, plywood, doors, toilets, sinks, tools, saws, drills, or in my case, a box of door handles and knobs, etc.   With Habitat you can volunteer as a novice or skip a day or 2 of work as a professional and help build a house from the foundation up. 


Nathan and Wayne working
 for Habitat for Humanity's
mobile ReStore

Day 97 - Dipped Apricots

I had a bunch of chocolate dipped apricots that I'd made that were just too tempting to keep in the house.  For years I've driven by the neighborhood retirement community, Claridge Court.  I didn't have enough apricots for all of the 200 residents but, in dropping them off, I finally got to see the place and learn about the $3.5 million expansion happening there. 

I order these on the internet and
dip them in chocolate



Day 96 - Cookies for Cancer

I was going to be a house guest and heard about Cookies for Kids' Cancer.  It's a perfect gift for anyone who loves to give or receive stacks of big delectable cookies in a myriad of flavors. They come wrapped in a gift box with a lime green ribbon. I chose Chunky Chocolate Chip and snuck a taste with my host's permission.  Delish!  100% of the profit from the hand-baked-to-order cookies goes to fund pediatric cancer research.  In addition to ordering their cookies online, the Cookie organization encourages cookie bake sales with profits going to further their cause.  Sadly, the inspiration and motivation for Cookies for Kids' Cancer came from the parents of Liam, a little boy who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer.

Day 95 - NoRTH is South

Deep in the suburbs of Johnson County, Kansas is NoRTH, a modern Italian cuisine restaurant, east of the state line dividing Missouri from Kansas, and south of the urban core of Kansas City.  It was Restaurant Week and about 90 restaurants in the Kansas City area donated 10% of all meals purchased from Restaurant Week menus to Harvesters, the community food network that has an amazing grasp on the needs of our city.  We started with zucca chips, grilled artichoke, Italian eggplant pizza with smoked mozzarella and loaded with caramelized onions and portobello. . . hungry yet?

Day 94 - Eye Care

We Care for Eye Care is one of the key projects of NCJW in the greater metropolitan area of Kansas City.  This program provides eye exams and glasses for children in need of them.  If an organization has done the groundwork and made the connections between who needs help and who can help, I'll jump on board and write a check.  Why We Care for Eye Care?  Because I just had an eye exam and bought new contacts lenses.  I see a crystal clear reason for supporting this program.

Day 93 - TOMS is a Movement

Buy a pair of shoes and you've bought a pair of shoes for a child.  In this incredible worldwide program of donating shoes, the founder of TOMS, Blake Mycoskie, got the inspiration for his company in 2002 while being part of the CBS reality show, The Amazing Race.  Seeing kids with no shoes prompted him to act.  400,000 pairs of shoes later, the buy one/donate one TOMS, short for a "better tomorrow", is thriving.  They're light and comfortable and there's a style, color and pattern for everyone's taste.  You'll soon see me wearing my TOMS, holding the TOMS flag and joining thousands of others in the One for One movement. 



My TOMS from the new Spring Collection 2011



TOMS display at Nordstrom



He started TOMS!



Day 92 - Children's Miracle Network

How many times have you been to Walmart and walked right past the big clear/yellow container below?  You won't exactly trip over it but you will catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of your eye.  Nickeling and dimeing in it could mean everything for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.  Locally, money raised in the jars goes to KU Medical Center which has a Level 111 neonatal intensive care unit and much more.  Nationally, there are 170 Children's Miracle Network Hospitals treating more kids and families than any other children's charities.  I donated for children and I believe in miracles.

Day 91 - The Heart Truth

I bought a Diet Coke in a plastic bottle with a little red dress on the label that in a slightly larger size would look great on Heidi Klum.  Why Heidi?  Because she's a supermodel and the Diet Coke Heart Health Ambassador.  Diet Coke and other Coke products have teamed up with The Heart Truth Campaign as a sponsor to raise funds and awareness for women's heart health.  FYI - heart disease is the #1 killer in America and is 5th for the amount of money spent in healthcare.  During the month of February, women's heart health month, there will be a big campaign with red flags, little red dresses, and heart graphics all over the place.  Don't forget to wear red on February 4th for National Wear RED Day.

Day 90 - 18 Reasons

This was so San Francisco.  Sustaining, ecological, decomposing, thriving, nourishing.  18 Reasons is a non-profit gallery and event space, founded by Bi-Rite Market around the corner.  Its purpose is to blend art, community and food and to encourage the idea to think of life as a system.  There are all kinds of demonstrations, dinners, tastings, workshops and events, 3 to 5 days a week.  The day I was there the theme was 'Lunch to Dye For, Edible Dyes Intensive with Lunch'.  Well, I was impressed.  I didn't stay to learn how you can make dyes from vegetables and turn them into textiles but I'm all about their ideas of swapping home cooked meals with others in the community or baking the same things as others and talking about them.  I made a donation and hope to, as they say, "deepen my relationship with food and create a just and sustainable food system."

The market that founded 18 Reasons



Beautiful produce at the Bi-Rite Market

Day 89 - Zumbathon

In San Francisco, Lifting up Lives offers 30 minute exercise and dance classes 3 times a week for women in domestic violence and battered women's shelters.  The women are in transition, waiting to move out and move on.  They are depressed and most spend a lot of time sitting around and watching TV.  As we all know, yoga, dance, and other types of exercise work in a positive way, improving mental health and wellness and building self-esteem and confidence. As a fundraiser, Lifting up Lives had a 90 minute 'Party in Purple Zumbathon' in the brightly colored Women's Building. Nine Zumba (Latin-inspired dance fitness program started in Colombia) teachers revved up an enthusiastic group who zumbad a lot longer than I did.  I did get my money's worth knowing it was for a good cause.



Ellie, Sophie, Mark the director and founder,
 Rosa, a social worker
All work for Lifting up Lives



A zumba instructor said,
"when in doubt, dance it out."

Day 88 - Edible Schoolyard



Thanks to the famed Alice Waters, the 'eat what you grow' guru of Chez Panisse, there are organic gardens and kitchen classrooms popping up around the country.  The Edible Schoolyard, a program of the Chez Panisse Foundation, has actor Jake Gyllenhaal as a promoter (and me as a supporter) of its projects to get kids thinking about the relationship between healthy eating, the environment and their community.  1000 lucky students at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, California, get to eat what they've planted, harvested and cooked in the edible kitchen and garden on their school grounds.  English and History classes can meet in the kitchen to prepare foods from other cultures and countries. Science and Math classes may convene in the garden amongst the dinorsaur kale and the carrots.  Some kids who struggle in the classroom do well in the Edible Schoolyard.  The kitchen is also open after school hours where, under supervision, young cooks can try recipes - as long as they clean up afterwards.  Thanks Lees, for checking it out with me.

    

         

Lucky Martin Luther King Middle School
students who participate in the
Edible Schoolyard program

Day 87 - Be The Match

I did it!  Today I inspired one person to join Be the Match Registry, a bone marrow registry.  She did it online and you can, too, either online or in person.  A few years ago I signed up myself.  My husband had gone with me, ready to sign up, too.  Embarrassingly, he found out that he was too old. . .let's just say that he was over the maximum age limit of 60.  If you meet the guidelines, they will send you a registration kit and info.  All you have to do is collect a swab of cheek cells and wait for the call that may never come.  If it does and you're a match for someone, you'll have the opportunity to save a life.  The actual cost is $100 for testing and tissue typing but, because people have paid it forward, there is no charge for registering - though donations are always welcome.

Day 86 - A Miner Miracle

Kathy Miner was in the fashion business in New York and wanted to do something meaningful with her life.  With her connections in the fashion industry, she gets sample clothes from Ann Taylor.  She purchases full runs and sizes and mostly in-season garments from DKNY, Michael Kors, Joan Vaas, Anne Klein, Jones New York and more and sells them at 50-80% below retail.  How and why?  When you earn the Oprah Angel Network's 'Live Your Best Life' Award, you have to be doing something good.  Profits from the store, A Miner Miracle in San Francisco, go to a non-profit organization that provides professional clothing and image consulting for low-income men, women, and young adults looking for jobs.  Love my new coral (this year's trendy color) august silk brand cardigan bought at half off.

My new coral sweater



Day 85 - Water of the World

Water.org has the really cute movie star, Matt Damon, as the face for getting clean water to one billion people on the earth.  For drinking, cooking or bathing, safe water saves lives.  Putting it into perspective, $25 buys one person access to clean water - for life.  Proudly, the only coffee represented on the Water.org website, the The Roasterie from Kansas City, MO, gives at least 1% of the purchase of a bag of Water.org coffee towards clean water. That means that we here in Kansas City have our own really cute safe water supporter, Danny O'Neil, founder of the Roasterie and known as the 'Bean Baron.'

My Roasterie French Press
ground bag of coffee



Day 84 - Martin Luther King Day

'Make it a day on, not a day off' was the government's slogan this year for Martin Luther King day.  As part of President Obama's call to service, Martin Luther King day has been designated as the MLK Day of Service.  So here's what I and a room full of old, young, and in-between volunteers did that day.

We chose to spend  a couple of hours at Associated Youth Services, an organization where about 4,500 youth in crisis in the state of Kansas are given hope.  AYS does health fairs at schools.  They run an alternative school for 12-19 year olds suspended for 90-100 days and help them catch up and graduate.  They run drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programs.  They have parent support groups (in English and Spanish) to help families deal with the stress of troubled kids, some who are part of the juvenile justice system.  Associated Youth Services has a statewide foster care program.  With that background in mind, we went right into eating donuts and drinking juice or coffee.  For our project, we made birthday cards for  foster kids in the system.   With strips of colored paper, markers, crayons, and glue we made cards for kids who may never have had a birthday card nor a birthday cake made especially for them with their name on it.  The cards with phrases, 'You're special', 'You have a secret admirer', 'Have a happy day', 'Someone is thinking about you today', will make a kid smile ear to ear.  

Strips of paper



Art supplies

                                                      

My card is somewhere in that pile

  

This card will make someone happy



                             

Some are so creative



All age volunteers working hard