Musings :: The Importance of Doing

The Mom It Forward crew asked their mom blogger community a few weeks ago to participate in the United Nations Federation and 92Y #GivingTuesday event that happens once a year on December 3rd.  The premise is to give back to your community in whatever capacity you can.  This falls in-line with the concept behind our dandelion moms Project Kindness so we were happy to participate.  I wasn’t able to organize our event on December 3rd but we scheduled it for the following Tuesday, December 10th.  I figured any time is a good time to give back. And hey, there are five Tuesdays in December so there is till time to be involved in #GivingTuesday!

We decided to support one of my favorite non-profits Project Night Night.  The organization was started years ago by a mom, Kendra Stitt Robins who saw that when she traveled with her then young son, he always found comfort if he had his favorite stuffed animal, blanket and children’s book with him. Thus, the idea for Project Night Night was born.  Each tote bag is filled with these three items and delivered to shelters for women and children across the country.  I love how this provides some comfort for a child who has found themselves homeless.  Each year they deliver over 25,000 tote bags to children in shelters.

I contacted our local PTA and asked if they could send out an email about the event.  Luckily, I was able to connect with Samantha  and she sent out an email to the PTA moms to support our #GivingTuesday event, and even my daughter’s school Principal, Ms. Holmes,  sent out a reminder as well!  My good pal, Noel, contacted her son’s Boy Scout Troop and rallied some of her friends to attend.   And the ladies over at Mom It Forward really helped out with the Eventbrite invite, banner and contacting the United Nations Federation on our behalf.  All in all, we had about 30 people attend the event and many more helped to donate items for the tote bags.  I am excited to drop off the 25 Project Night Night tote bags this next week as it was a culmination of many individuals and families who helped make this possible!

One of the things that was important to me in setting up this #GivingTuesday event was the impact and message it would send to my daughter and the other children who attended about giving back and helping others.  I gave a little talk at the beginning of the event and explained what we were doing, why we got involved and to whom the Project Night Night bags would go to.  My daughter is such a ham, she chimed in when she could, and overall seemed really excited to be participating in this giving back event.

I have to admit, I was pretty beat at the party as I had spent all that week gathering the items for the bags, contacting the media  (NBC Nightly News wanted to do a story on it but the scheduling didn’t work out – shoot! that would have been great for these two non-profits), and then getting set up for the party.  But after seeing how the kids were really involved and excited to be helping others – it really made me stop and be thankful that I was able to help out in some small way.  And I hope that this has planted a seed in my daughter about the importance of giving back to others and that it really does feel good to do these small acts of kindness.

~A big thank you to Beatta Bosworth for taking the photographs at the event!  And to all the moms who came to our #GivingTuesday event and the many others who helped get items for the tote bags.

Photo’s taken by Beatta M. Bosworth of BnB Photography.