A visit to Gilda's Club, a grant to Sweet Relief, and a whole lot more

This year is zooming by so far. So much for my resolution to blog daily. Apologies to the none of you who are disappointed that this is not the case! Anyway, even when I'm busy, I'm trying to do my little things, so here are the highlights since our last catch up:

- On what would have been Sean's 36th birthday, we announced that for third time, the Sean McGrath Fund would make a grant to our old friends at Sweet Relief, this time in the amount of $1000. They're the first group that we've funded more than once, let alone a three-peat, and we're thrilled to be able to continue doing our small part to make sure their vital services to musicians in crisis can continue. We're awaiting the results of our January matching donor challenge, as the final numbers have yet to arrive from one of our online donation conduits, but we should know what the campaign's final tally in a week or two!

- A few days later, my SMcGF co-founder Jessie and I were able to take advantage of an opportunity we only get a few times a year at best: to visit one of the sites we help to fund! This time around, it was a donor reception at Gilda's Club NYC, where Sean went when he was ill and where Jessie went for support after we (but especially she) lost him. It was great for me to see the place and meet some of the folks involved day-to-day, and great for Jessie to return after a few years, this time as a supporter rather than a member. They're an amazing group, so get behind them if you're able--and most definitely tap into their services if you or one of your loved ones is stricken with cancer!

- On the Carroll Park front, I requested a quote on a map of the park during its renovation in 1892 (likely its first redux) that I found while up to my neck in Google research. It seems to be in the NYU archives, even though it's listed in the Brooklyn Historical Society online catalog. I would LOVE to get a reproduction framed and displayed in our park house! I came up with (I think) the genius idea of toting my laptop and printer/scanner to our potluck and this spring's volunteer reception, so that when folks have clippings and photos, they don't have to let their precious memories out of sight for a second while we duplicate them. I'm hoping to build a really sweet digital archive of all things park-wise over the past 30 years (as well as smatterings from the past 125 or so, I hope!).

- Also, since our last check-in, I packaged and shipped 11 items that sold on Amazon and half.com for the Sean McGrath Fund. I also got word from a music industry supporter that he'll be sending a couple of boxes of CDs soon to help replenish our inventory. Hooray!

Busy schedule = a week (plus) worth of little things!

I've had a zany week between work and personal obligations (including a pretty cool fundraiser for pancreatic cancer research at the Tribeca Grand). Here are some little things I've chipped away at since my last check-in:

- I've finally gotten the ball rolling on planning a benefit concert to double as my 40th birthday party this April. Asks are out to a couple of artists and venues, and though I've already hit a few disappointing roadblocks, I'm confident that we can pull off a pretty terrific event!

- We made a terrific leap forward in the freshly minted Found Money Tally 2012 on Sunday, when I stopped by the pet store after brunch to pick up some critter food and found a whopping $25 on the floor in front of the register! That brings the total so far this year to $26.43. A great start!

- On the Carroll Park front, I scheduled a pick up from City Harvest for the goods donated during our December and January food drives, looked into purchasing some vintage photos and maps to display in our park house, and scheduled a pot luck for our core members next month in advance of resuming our monthly meetings in the spring.

- Today I packaged and shipped 21 items that had sold over the past week or so on Amazon and half.com for the Sean McGrath Fund.

- Along with Jessie, my Sean McGrath Fund co-founder, determined our monthly grant for January. We'll announce it on Friday, which would have been Sean's 36th birthday. Stay tuned!

A good day to redouble our efforts to think and speak kindly

I had a house guest from Sunday to Thursday of this week, so I've been playing a lot of catch-up over this holiday weekend. I'm always glad to offer up my living room to a friend in need, be it for a visit, a stranded night out, or some post-breakup couch surfing. I've happily accommodated scores of friends, but no matter how low maintenance they are, it still puts a damper on the usual processes of daily life. I guess I shouldn't look at it as preventing me from doing other charitable odds and ends, but as a different sort of charity in and of itself.

Anyway, in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wanted to share two nuggets that came from Beliefnet's Daily Buddhist Wisdom email this week. I share not because I embody the thoughts behind them, but because I aspire to (and hope you do too):

Not disparaging, not injuring, restraint in line with the Patimokkha, moderation in food, dwelling in seclusion, commitment to the heightened mind: this is the teaching of the awakened.

- Dhammapada, 14, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Someone who is about to admonish another must realize within himself five qualities before doing so [that he may be able to say], thus: "In due season will I speak, not out of season. In truth I will speak, not in falsehood. Gently will I speak, not harshly. To his profit will I speak, not to his loss. With kindly intent will I speak, not in anger."
 

- Vinaya Pitaka, translated by F.S. Woodward

And, here are the latest little things...

- Saturday I packaged and shipped twelve items that had sold over the previous few days on Amazon and half.com for the Sean McGrath Fund.

- Sunday I contacted my alma mater, Plattsburgh State University, about an item I had read in our alumni magazine about potentially reviving coordinated alumni volunteer projects. Since the alumni gatherings in NYC are often for baseball games (zero interest) or more staid dress-up gatherings, I'd love to help get some started that involve a little more dirt under our fingernails! I'm also hoping we can somehow do a fund drive in memory of our friend Neil and possibly get some of his cartoons from the college paper scanned and posted. I think it would be a great memorial!

- This morning, I met up in Carroll Park with the vice president of our group so that we could weigh the items donated in our December and January food drives. The gross on those two combined was 384 pounds, which is admirable but not as big as it will be next year, when we put into place some of the things we learned with this, our pilot year!

Don't confuse your OPPONENT with your ENEMY

Since the last time I checked in, a news story broke at least around New York City and Philadelphia, when some thugs wearing one team's hockey jersey severely beat two men wearing an opposing team's jersey outside of Geno's Steakhouse (ground I have trod upon many times). Further details aren't important, because the crux of the matter is what I want to focus on: the animus that seems to hang heavy in the air these days around both sports and politics, which is most certainly crossing over from violent rhetoric to actual violence far more often than I can remember in my lifetime.

It was only a few weeks ago that I read the story of an Iraq vet gravely wounded at his own homecoming party because some idiot held on to some sort of beef over a long irrelevant sports outcome. It's hard not to see similarities between the toxic bile being spewed by people about those with whom they disagree politically (not necessarily politicians--though they can be quite rancid--but rather the shouting, polarized sign-waving hoi polloi). When we do nothing but lob verbal bombs (or worse) at one another, it reinforces the damaging conflation of an opponent with that of an enemy. For a country whose majority professes a vehement devotion to the parables of Jesus of Nazareth, it seems unfathomable that so many would so often sink to such flagrant disregard for kindness, understanding, and caring...not to mention sportsmanship or civic goodwill. Cut it out!

Anyway, here's the latest round of little things:

- On Thursday, I composed and sent our Friends of Carroll Park e-blast through Constant Contact, and posted the info to the group's Facebook and Twitter.

- On Saturday and Sunday, I volunteered at the Carroll Park food drive from 10:00 am to 4:00 p.m. I can't say I was disappointed, since I didn't set my expectations very high (folks are in a much more generous spirit in the lead-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas than they are at the beginning of the new year), but there was a pretty underwhelming response this weekend (125 items) compared to previous ones (519 in November and 216 in December). But hey, it's still putting food in the mouths of hungry New Yorkers!

- Sunday night I packaged and shipped nine items on Amazon and half.com for the Sean McGrath Fund, which sold over the previous few days. I also repriced all of our inventory on both sites, so hopefully we'll move a few more items these next few days!

Inspiring people to live well is the best legacy one can leave behind

I found out this evening that an old college friend died suddenly on Tuesday at the downright juvenile age of 43. He had a heart attack while getting a checkup, ain't that a bitch?

We'd mostly fallen out of touch in recent years, but he had such amazing energy, ebullience, humor, and artistic talent that my memories of him remain as vivid and vibrant now as they did twenty years ago (as I expect they will until the day I expire). It was crushing news to be sure, but I'm also taking it as a stark reminder that we never know when our own ticket is going to get punched. Instead of letting life's uncontrollables get the best of us, we should all strive to live with as much warmth and bonhomie as Neil did.

Anyway, now for the "little things" since my last check-in:

- After work on Tuesday I stopped by Carroll Park to replace the outdated signs in our five bulletin boards with newbies promoting this weekend's City Harvest food drive and the volunteer reception we're throwing this spring. Unfortunately, it was well below freezing and terribly windy, so fumbling with keys, locks, tacks, and posters was far more of a chore than usual. I was (blessedly!) foiled halfway through my mission though, when the bulletin board key snapped off in one of the locks like it was made of saltine. Obviously those little guys aren't made for that kind of prolonged cold. I guess that since it's so unpleasant out, folks aren't lingering to read the material in our bulletin boards anyway, right?!

- After getting home and thawing out, I took to Twitter and Facebook to announce the $2500 matching donation grant challenge we received for January contributions to the Sean McGrath Fund. I hope we can drum up enough support to receive the entire sum!

- Wednesday I sold, packaged, and shipped 11 CDs to raise money for the Sean McGrath Fund.

A little way to change the blog about little ways to change the world

I launched this blog with the best intentions of making updates as regularly as I could. It didn't take long to realize that my goal was a loftier one that I was going to be able to realize, especially with a full time job and a pretty full slate of volunteer obligations year-round.


Rather than just let the flame go out entirely on this idea, though, I'm refocusing LWTCTW. I'll still do topical updates when I find an interesting way for any/all of us to make a pro-social impact, but I'm going to actually use my page in the way the earliest web logs were intended: as a personal journal. I won't bore you with the ups and downs of my personal life, mind you--just check in with updates on my own daily efforts to make a positive impact. Some entries will be short and sweet, some will be longer and more opinionated, but it's my sincerest hope that none of them will be tedious!

Anyway, here's the first batch of do-goodering that I endeavored in the new year:


- Met up with a music industry supporter who recently cleaned out his closets so that he could hand off a few hundred CDs and books donated to the Sean McGrath Fund, then sorted and listed them for sale.


- Printed 200 sheets of flyers for Friends of Carroll Park (promoting January food drive, April volunteer party, and 2012 calendar of events) at home; had them cut at Staples.


- Sold, packaged, and shipped 8 CDs to raise money for the Sean McGrath Fund.

I have a core of four or five charities that I support most frequently and fervently, so these entries will be repetetive, but the stats nerd in me is already looking forward to crunching the numbers at the end of the year. I hope you'll at least occasionally check in along the way!

How hundreds of strangers generated almost $200 for my favorite charity in 2011!

We're comfortably inside the confines of 2012 now, and I've crunched all the numbers to determine the grand total of money I found for charity over the course of 2011! The final breakdown is thus (at least as far as U.S. tender is concerned):

.01 x 1008  =  $10.18

.05 x 45  =  $2.25

.10 x 116  =  $11.60

.25 x 34  =  $8.50

1.00 x 13  =  $13.00

5.00 x 1  =  $5.00

In addition to the American currency tabulated above, I also found six Canadian pennies and one Canuck quarter (altogether worth $0.30 at today's exchange rate), one dirham from the United Arab Emirates ($0.27), and a Swiss 2 franc coin ($2.13).

Altogether, that makes $49.23 in money either lost (in elevators, on the floors of bars or rock clubs), discarded (on sidewalks and subway stations), or abandoned (in the drawers of empty desks at my office). Knowing that some of that cash would have inevitably been thrown away makes me even more happy to direct it to the Sean McGrath Fund at Princeton Area Community Foundation, where it can effect some positive change in its own little way!

My friend Miranda promised at the beginning of the year that she would make a matching donation, and I'm glad to also be the first to report that January 1 marked the launch of a matching grant program up to $2500 in total donations made this month, multiplying that meager but respectable $49.23 into $196.92. That's no small change! 

If you'd like to make a donation to get doubled by the patrons behind the matching grant challenge, you can donate online here (click the orange button and specify "Sean McGrath Fund" in the comments section), or if you'd rather donate by check, just print and mail the form here (once again, specify "Sean McGrath Fund" on the form).