I have lived a very blessed life, not an easy life or a simple one or filled with all that I imagined or dreamed while I was growing up. But still I am blessed. My mother used to tell me “If you wake up breathing in the morning it’s a GOOD day!” She died much too young from heart disease. She knew what she was talking about.
Being blessed with abundant health, amazing friendships, connections, a passion for teaching and sharing all that I know, with four amazing children and beautiful granddaughters are just the beginning of all that I am thankful for each and every day.
As the season of gratitude, abundance and joy engulfs so many of us, I want to ask my readers one favor. Just ONE! I don’t think I could ever ask more of you but it’s one gift that will reverberate through a thousand lives.
Here is a link to an article about my friend, Margaret Trost, and the organization she grew out of a trip to Haiti.
(Photo courtesy What If? Foundation website)
Margaret founded the What If? Foundation ten years ago as a Haitian-run food program for the children in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Port-Au-Prince. They are still feeding thousands of people each week, unstoppable in their zeal not to allow the tragedy of Jan. 12 or the travesty of failed mega-philanthropies to allow their neighbors to go hungry.
Please read this article from beginning to end.
Then send the link to that article to 12 of your friends (or more) by email and ask them to read it. Tell them that you just made a $12 donation on the What IF? Foundation website. (Why 12? Because the 12th of January is when the earthquake occurred.) That’s all I’m asking–the cost of a couple of fancy lattes at Starbucks.
Ask your friends to do the same: read the article, forward to 12 friends, donate $12 to What If? Foundation. Feed a child for an entire month.
If you send $12 and your friends send $12 and their friends send $12, do you see what we can accomplish?
The world has turned its back on Haiti, but What If? has stood with the Haitian people through every tragic, painful, hopeful, angry, hungry moment and allowed the gift of good food, education and joy to remain if even for a few moments each day. Read the article. Send the link. Send $12. Change the lives of thousands!
Here are some more ways you can help spread the word:
Send your friends a lin
k to the What If? website with your personal recommendation.
Join our Cause on Facebook and ask your friends to join as well.
Search the web using GoodSearch and invite your friends and family to do the same. Every time you do a search a penny will be donated to the What If? Foundation, and every penny adds up! Its free and easy – learn more here.
Forward our e- newsletters to your friends.
Share a What if? Foundation overview packet (brochure, bookmark, DVD, Annual Report) with your faith community, congregation, rotary club, etc. Contact our office to request a packet.
Recommend What If? Foundation President Margaret Trost’s book – On That Day, Everybody Ate: One Woman’s Story of Hope and Possibility – to your friends, book club, school, and anyone else who you think might enjoy it. Click here for more information about the book.
And enjoy this very special thank you from the children in Haiti.
As Margaret says: “Piti piti na rive.” Little by little, we will get there.
May you and yours enjoy warm food, much laughter, intense gratitude, light and joy in this year of Hope, 2011.
Much love and as always, many thanks for reading my posts. Yvonne
PS: Do post a message when you participate in our $12 fundraiser! It will make my day!
Best gardening dates will return New Years to get you ready for spring, but our friends at Kitchen Gardeners International show you how you can grow a garden, even in the snow! ENJOY!!
“It is important for people to realize that we can make progress against world hunger, that world hunger is not hopeless. The worst enemy is apathy.”
