I have always been skeptical about making monetary donations. I was just a kid when the NKF scandal first broke out but I can still vaguely remember I was forbidden to make donation calls when the annual fund raising show came up on television; an activity I enjoyed doing on behalf of the adults in my family.
Fast forward 20 years, I started Your Sustainable Store to save the Earth (literally). But I also want the business to be able to help people in need. I started to read up on the many charitable organizations out there. Monetary donations can be done easily with the click of a button via a credit card. But to donate in kind, I had to call up and email to find out what exactly was needed.
Helping Joy does a lot of work to help underprivileged elderly who are living in cluttered and unhealthy conditions. They needed a coffee table for a new project because the existing one was in a poor condition that had to be discarded for safety reasons. So my girl friend and I went coffee table hunting! We found a right sized one in a great condition at Salvation Army's Praisehaven Mega Family Store. Instead of just purchasing a brand new coffee table online, we upcycled one and at the same time contributed to another non-profit.
We gave the coffee table a good wipe down with the help of the friendly staff on site and delivered it ourselves to the beneficiary the next morning. On the same morning, we delivered 6 tins of Pediasure 850g milk powder to Club Rainbow. I never knew milk powder is so expensive these days! Hope these 6 tins of milk powder will somehow make a difference to the families of chronically ill children.
There is so much good to be done in the world, and I’m just getting started.