Together We Rise

Week 37: Together We Rise

Together We Rise improves the lives of foster children, who “often find themselves forgotten and neglected by the public”. They provide kids living in the foster system with resources and teach volunteers and the public about the foster care system and the issues that plague it. 

“The foster care system can be a confusing and sometimes disheartening place, but through our fundraising and network of passionate volunteers, we strive to give foster children a brighter future, a sense of normalcy and belonging.”

Thousands of volunteers, partners, CASA advocates, and social workers to transform the experience of being in the foster care system. They provide a way for people to have a meaningful way to impact a child’s life who is in foster care, even if they cannot foster children themselves.

They provide thousands of foster youth things like “new bicycles, college supplies, and suitcases so that children do not have to travel from home to home with their belongings in a trash bag”.

While the video above is not connected to Together We Rise, I remembered this short film and the story it tells of one child’s experience while writing this week's email. I highly recommend it, but be forewarned - grab the tissue box.

Together We Rise is working to improve the foster care experience and to and to provide a “helping hand that foster youth need so that they may go confidently onto their futures.”

I want to be part of that. This week we can.

Here’s to being a helping hand. 

Together we rise,

Jodi

The White Helmets

Week 35: The White Helmets

The subject of the Oscar-winning documentary of the same name on Netflix, this week’s organization is The White Helmets.

“When the bombs rain down, the Syrian Civil Defence rushes in. In a place where public services no longer function these unarmed volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need - regardless of their religion or politics. Known as the White Helmets these volunteer rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth.”

The White Helmets are volunteers who risk their lives to save people on all sides of the conflict - pledging commitment to the principles of “Humanity, Solidarity, Impartiality”.

They rush in to search for life in the rubble, even though more bombs may attack the same site while they do so. These volunteers are heroes. Beond the lives that they save, the White Helmets also deliver public services to nearly 7 million people.

“Bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, students and many more, the White Helmets are volunteers from all walks of life.”

These heroes have saved 95,024 lives to date and this number increases every single day. We can support them. For $4.68, you can buy safety goggles. Donate other supplies, or donate to help wounded White Helmets get back on their feet. 

It is an honor to support heroism and these brave volunteers this week. 

Have a good week,

Jodi

The Simon Wiesenthal Center

Week 34: The Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

Hello beautiful GIVE52’ers. I hope you do not mind this early email. I simply couldn't wait until Monday. I want to send my love. 

I research and write each week’s message the week before, but now, as I am trying to process the events in Charlottesville… well, I feel I have to say something and that we can do something together.

Watching these events, it is hard to believe that this is 2017 in America. I grew up at Jewish day school hearing from survivors of the Holocaust about the horrors they went through and their insistent proclamations of “never again”. I’ve listened as they told us as young children to stand up for what is right, to fight for those who are persecuted, and to never let hate fester in your heart. I was just a little girl when I heard from these heroes, people who survived against all odds, but those talks stay with me and I keep replaying them in my mind now. Now, as I watch actual Nazis and white supremacists in our streets. 

I am reminded of two great quotes from two great men:

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
— Nelson Mandela
“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”
— Viktor Frankl

It is my great hope that we can find our way through this together, to stand up for what is right, to condemn the hatred we have seen, and to do it all with love. 

Love for each other, love for our fellow human beings, and clear-eyed focus on the good we want to see in the world.

So, this week, please join me in giving to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

You can learn more about their mission in fighting hatred here. 

This project has been a huge source of joy for me every week. I have loved every minute of connecting with you, of hearing your stories, and learning what lights you up and sparks your passion.

You give me hope. You make me believe that, even in dark times, we can aspire to “the ultimate and highest goal which man can aspire”. 

Through love and in love,

Jodi Spangler