I will work from a center that is loving, forgiving and grateful. I will focus on being mindful of others. I will be generous with what I give and not be concerned with what I get in return.

I may fall short from time to time, my thoughts and behavior may not always be the shining example of what I want to be, but falling short is not a reason to quit. I will not change my self-image because of a few bad thoughts or actions. But I will challenge myself everyday to grow above pettiness and small mindedness to become a better person. When I shoot for the stars and only hit the moon I am still on the right track. Today I choose to shoot for the stars!

The best cause blogs are ones that consistently demonstrate gratitude.  While the authors give without expectation as John describes above, these blogs are often some of the most popular.  You’ll see more blog comments, more Facebook and Twitter followers and more traffic to these blogs.  It’s easy to see why with the following example.

Each month the bloggers at Heroes for Children, a group that helps families of children with cancer, recognizes a volunteer of the month.  But that’s just the beginning.

In a recent post titled Cancer Can’t Stop a Child (My experience at cancer camp) co-founder Jenny Scott said,

For the past six summers, I have been blessed to participate in Camp Discovery, a camp for kids with cancer ages 7-16….Just because these kids are cancer patients does not mean that they don’t have a blast. When I tell people I go to cancer camp, I often hear “oh, how sad.” No, not sad at all….I love Camp Discovery. It’s become a part of me, of who I am. The people have become my family. I have a t-shirt that says, “Until cancer is cured….There’s camp.” I’m so grateful for Camp Discovery and the week I spend with the volunteers and campers each summer.

In fact many of the posts include the words thank you! They thank their volunteers, fundraisers, donors, families, businesses, you name it.  You can tell that they are grateful to be able to serve the many children and families who need assistance.

For a single person under the age of 65, the poverty threshold is an annual income of $10,836. In the state of California, a person who works full-time at a minimum wage job will make just over $15,000. That’s before taxes.

Read more Ten Things You Should Know About Poverty In America

Too many people have to choose between healthcare, utilities, rent or other necessities and food.  Take a look at the Hunger In America 2010 Key Findings from Feeding America for more shocking results.

Funding is a continual issue for food banks. The North Texas Food Bank is making an appeal to meet a big shortfall.  Other organizations seem to be fairing better, Food Banks Beating the Fundraising Odds in a Tough Economy. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports Online Giving Continues to Grow but at a Slower Pace.

This season of The Biggest Loser ended this week but the Pound for Pound Challenge benefiting Feeding America continues.

Twitter Talk with Evan Williams

The keynote with Twitter founder Evan Williams was totally packed.  I was in the actual exhibit hall but there were overflow rooms with a rebroadcast.  It wasn’t a keynote speech at all, but an interview. It was kind of like eavesdropping on a conversation, as if a thousand people were not watching.  They kind of rambled but there were some notable quotes:

“Whatever you assume when you start [a business] — you are wrong.”  Experiment, listen and correct.

Williams says Twitter is committed to reaching the “weakest signals.” In countries without good internet access they offer SMS.  Example…It helped disaster relief efforts after the earthquake in Chile.

That “anyone can publish on the web is still profound. We in this room take it for granted.”

Advice to entrepreneurs “Focus on one thing.” Great reminder.

Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator

This was cool…startups had 2 minutes to pitch their business to a panel of judges.  Kind of like Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank, except there was no offer at the end.  There are more pitches left and the finals will be tomorrow.  Thanks to Karen at Volunteer Spot for suggesting this session.

The Cause Lab: Ending Hunger

We came in late to this one and joined the discussion in progress.  I’ve never seen something like this at an internet conference. There were three discussion groups all talking about one aspect of how to tackle hunger in America.  In our group we discussed how to create hunger free communities – local level action.  There were a lot of great ideas from all three groups (each presented a summary at the end.)

Their website is WeCanEndThis.com also check out this movie: Hungry In America.

After the session I had a great conversation with two cool chicks from Participant Media, who produced the Academy Award nominated documentary Food Inc. If you have not seen it, rent, Netflix buy a copy ASAP.

How to rebuild Haiti by Robert B. Zoellick POLITICO.com

Mourners gather in Haitian capital one month after deadly quake on CNN

What if Haiti’s Earthquake Hit the U.S.? by Te-Ping Chen, Change.org

Hope for Haiti proves Telethons still work in the text era on TunedIn, a blog about television by TIME’s TV critic James Poniewozik

Haiti Earthquake: One Month Progress Report from the American Red Cross

Honoring the lost, rebuilding from the rubble by Helen Hawkings, Oxfam International blogs

To Help Haiti & Others, Companies Need to Get off Their Assets by Joe Waters, Causeshift

Haiti relief underscores deeper needs by Todd Cohen, Inside Philanthropy

Ellen was actually there with a mission team from Dallas and happened to be in the Dominican Republic on the day of the quake.  She was able to call out on her cell phone to let family members know who was ok just before cell phone coverage quit.  Later her son Burt called from a Houston TV station and interviewed her on the air.

Sadly one of the other volunteers on the Haiti trip, Clara “Jean” Arnwine, did not survive the event.  On an unrelated trip, Rev. Sam Dixon of the United Methodist Committee on Relief also passed away.  They are two of many who gave their lives in the service of others.

While much of the hospital survived the quake there was a lot of damage. Ellen showed us some photos from inside the buildings and it was very apparent that cleanup and repair would have to be done before they could be utilized again.  In addition to the damage, the aftershocks meant that the children and staff had to live outside in tents (like thousands of others in Haiti).  Here’s some info from the website about the damage:

ICC is committed to providing immediate medical emergency response and long-term aid. The grounds of the eye clinic are being used as a field hospital. A medical team from Germany arrived yesterday and are working alongside ICC medical staff to provide emergency medical treatment. ICC is committed to the immediate needs of the people of Haiti, but also to the long-term help that will be needed. As such, we will be rebuilding the hospital to continue to provide services to people as we have done for over 40 years. Click here to view pictures displaying the hospital’s damage (captured by Melanie Yates).

Here is another update from the ICC website just posted today:

Following is an update written Friday by ICC USA board member Dr. Jeannine Hatt, a pediatrician from Texas who traveled to Haiti with a team of doctors last week. She worked at Grace Children’s Hospital in conjunction with the Haitian staff to treat children affected by the earthquake.

We have been in Haiti this week working at Grace Children’s Hospital in the out-patient clinics. The in-patient unit is closed because the hospital was so damaged in the earthquake the children who have been abandoned are living under tarps on the lawn. Others have been discharged to their parents or transferred to other hospitals that were not so damaged and/or are functioning. GCH hopes to get a large tent set up soon with the help of the military and reopen their service there. They have restarted their reproductive health, adult and pediatric, HIV and TB services and have their lab and radiology up and running on a limited basis. The Haitian staff who work at GCH all have their ‘horror stories’. All have had great loss and suffered psychological, if not physical, trauma. But they still show up for work and put on their best faces.

Ellen encouraged everyone in attendance at our retreat to make a donation to help the work of ICC continue. If you are really brave, like she is, you can ride in the Hotter N Hell 100.  One of the largest cycling events in the country, HHH takes place in August in Wichita Falls TX.  Several years ago ICC became the first charity that was allowed to participate as a fundraising event.

This is a century ride with a 100 mile course, but there are shorter courses too.  Ellen rides in the 25 mile route.  Cycling is not really my thing (would rather walk) but maybe this year I can dust off my bike at at least do the 25 miles.  This will be the 7th summer we’ve spent in Wichita Falls so it’s about time we did the HHH, at least this would be for a good cause!

Here are the two posts that I submitted:

How to Fundraise for Haiti Relief Efforts on Step by Step Fundraising

and  Grace Children’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince Survived Quake here on Cause Blogger

A few other posts that I liked:

This Full House provides a badge and linking code for Doctors Without Borders

View from the Playpen shared a story about a 2 year old being reunited with his mother

and Emma’s comments about the images we’ve seen on the news resonated with me:

I don’t think these images that I have seen all over the news & internet over the last few days will ever leave my head.

I cried as I searched for images to include in this post , But why am I crying? I have not lost family, I’ve not lost my son who is the important thing to me .. My tears will never compare to the tears falling from the faces of those Mothers/Fathers who have lost their children.

This latest report from the field:

We continue to asses the structrual damage that the hospital suffered, and in the next few days will be opening the hospital grounds to serve as a triage and treatment center in conjunction with other aid groups.

I emailed ICC directly to find out how to help:

Sandra,

Thank you for writing. We appreciate your support and prayers!

At this time, financial donations are most urgently needed, as shipping items to Haiti requires logistical efforts that are impossible at this time. We will be using the funds to offer immediate relief as well as to help with needed repairs at the hospital. In the next few days, we hope to be able to offer the facility to be used for the relief efforts. We will keep you updated on our website as much as possible! If, in the future, opportunities come up to collect items for the hospital or other relief efforts, we will let you know.

Thank you!

Ann Simmons
Communications & Development Coordinator
International Child Care, USA
3506 Lovers Lane, Suite 8
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
(269) 382-9960
(800) 722-4453

So like most natural disasters the best thing to do is to donate money and/or organize local fundraisers to raise funds rather than try to do supply collections.  Here’s a Donor’s Guide to Global Emergencies from Joanne Fritz, Nonprofit About.com Guide (on Twitter @joannefritz .)

Visit the ICC & Grace Childrens Hospital Website

Here’s a video news segment from local TV

Other organizations that were already in Haiti mobilized immediately to help:

@redcross @MSF_USA @PIH_org @oxfam @oxfamamerica

The Health Care for America blog is advocating its position on the healthcare debate.  With the news on this issue changing every day, or every hour even, the authors are posting several times a day.  The fast and easy web publishing medium of blogging makes this possible.

For example, they were able to post a link to the Senate bill with commentary nearly as soon as it was released.  They’re also posting daily roundups of articles in the news, photos, and videos.

You can see that many of the posts are short and very tightly focused on one narrow aspect of this broad topic.  With blogging you don’t have to be long winded or overly concerned about scholarly writing!  Your writing can be quick, conversational and to the point.  When time is of the essence blogs get information and calls to action out fast.

Greenpeace has an inspring video, Inspiring Action on Earth Day.

The EPA has had many home produced videos submitted to it’s Earth Day Video Project.

Here’s the Earthday Video Mashup from CTN Green.

Practical tips for saving money with your car and preventing CO2 emissions from Ideal Bite: Under Pressure

Treehuger posts New Definition of Waste Explored in a Webseries (Video).

Mashable posts 5 Inspirational Earth Day Videos.

This one I just think is cool… she makes cheeseboards out of old bottles.  I have a kiln that was given to me, by a really nice lady.  How long has it been sitting in my garage, not fired once? I actually was excited about accepting it for the express purpose of learning how to work with fused glass, not ceramics. This would be a great project for me to start with!