Fun Run Season!

May Day has come, Cinco de Mayo is upon us, and Mother's Day approaches! Finally the arrival of spring! And with it, my favorite events, Fun Runs! You don't even have to be an athlete to participate. My inaugural event of the season is volunteering for Everett's first marathon, Heroes Half benefitting St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. www.heroeshalf.com My old lady knees may not be up to the task, but I can gladly hand out gatorade, bagels and bananas, surrounded by people nuts enough to run it. The esprit de corps at these events is really fantastic, and many of the events have crazy costumes, and festive celebrations at the end.

The first big one of the year coming up May 15 is Beat the Bridge, sponsored by Nordstrom benefitting Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. www.beatthebridge.org It's great that something you do for fun can have a good cause. Another really big event with an unbelievable sisterhood, fondly referred to as "The Boob Walk" is Race for the Cure on June 5th. www.komenpugetsound.org/komen-race-for-the-cure/. The really committed among those, many of whom are breast cancer survivors, also do the Breast Cancer 3 Day in September. http://www.the3day.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SE_landing_2011. If you want to join the ranks of pink boa wearing, water bottle fanny pack toting sisterhood, start training now! Last year it went right by our house and was inspiring to watch.

I can go on and on, it seems like there are events filling every weekend, for every form of athlete. If you have a particular interest, I may be able to help you get started selecting an event, or you're welcome to join me over the summer. A neat directory really capitalizing on this niche is www.charityathlete.org with a variety of events which benefit Seattle Humane Society or another charity of your selection. If you need some training, try Team In Training, where your dues go to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. www.teamintraining.org/wa/.

Finally, if your contribution is financial and not physical, please chip in to the fundraising efforts of participants to benefit the cause!

EVENT CALENDAR SNAPSHOT
May 8 - Heroes Half Marathon (Port of Everett) - St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital
May 15 - Beat the Bridge (UW/Seattle) - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
May 21 - Paine Field Fly Day 5K (Paine Field/Everett) - Muscular Dystrophy Association
June 5 - Race for the Cure (UW/Seattle) - Susan G Komen Foundation for the Cure
June 12 - Furry 5K (Seward Park/Seattle) - Seattle Animal Shelter
June 25 - Rock & Roll Marathon (Qwest Field/Seattle) - American Cancer society / Seattle Humane Society
July 9-10 - Seattle To Portland Bicycle Classic - Various; Seattle Humane Society
July 24 - Seafair Triathlon (Seward Park/Seattle) - Benaroya Research Inst.
July 30 - Seafair Torchlight Run (Seattle) - Ronald McDonald House
Aug. 14 - Danskin Womens Triathlon (Genesee Park/Seattle) - Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Sept. 16-18 - Breast Cancer 3 Day - (Seattle region 60 miles) - Susan G Komen for the Cure
Nov. 12 - Pineapple Classic 5K obstacle course (North Bend) - Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Tax credits and matching donations

Hope it's not too late for a reminder to claim your chairtable donations for a tax deduction! Remember tax day is April 18th this year. I meant to post this at the 1st of the month, but it escaped me. Better late than never. Likewise with taxes, we've procrastinated and are just now entering them. But all those donations come to the rescue! Albeit not dollar for dollar, but at 25%, at least it takes a bite out of the amount due! However each donation has to be itemized separately, so all those little $20 and $30 donations require separate entry. Next year I'll try to do more big lump sums. But the difficulty is always in the decision making; I like to spread the love! And no matter how minimal the amount, sometimes employer matching can double your contribution! There again it may not be dollar for dollar, but every little bit helps. It seems to be at the company's discretion, and I'm finding that big corporations like Boeing shy away from any controversial topics like medical research, but education is generally a safe bet! Also within the organization an individual philanthropist organization may match your contribution. I'm certainly getting all the solicitations in the mail! It never hurts to make sure your donation is going to a legitimate organization that will use the funds responsibly. Try http://www.charitywatch.org/ to research by organization name, or select top rated charities by category. Especially in high profile causes, such as the earthquake in Japan, not all charities are created equal. On the topic of Japan, aftershocks continue to disrupt recovery. While Japan has the benefit of an extraordinary infrastructure to respond to disaster, the international response has not been as generous as the response to Haiti. Contrast that to the oil spill in the Gulf, for which corporate entities and insurance interests were responsible for the recovery, instead of the donations of individuals and organizations. The implications of various natural disasters are very intriguing from the perspective of philanthropy. Next month on May Day, my favorite topic: benefit athletic events (like fun runs)! I'm always looking for running buddies!

Assigned reading

I missed the 2nd post in February due to a short month, single parenting (while Nathan was away on business in Sweden) and travelling myself (to San Francisco for my mom's 60th birthday). Hours spent home alone and at the airport, along with the persistent wintry weather have been conducive to reading, which I will share some topical selections for you to enjoy!

Reading for pleasure is a lovely indulgence, but reading with a cause feels so much more purposeful. Many of these selections have been introduced to me by my friend Brooke.

Three Cups of Tea: One man's mission to promote peace, one school at a time by Greg Mortenson
An inspirational story of one man's efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides by building schools in impoverished villages, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a man who would cure the world by Tracy Kidder
As a specialist in infectious diseases, Farmer's goal is nothing less than redressing the "steep gradient of inequality" in medical service to the desperately poor. His work establishing a complex of public health facilities on the central plateau of Haiti forms the keystone to efforts that now encompass initiatives on three continents by creating a charitable foundation called Partners in Health (PIH, or Zanmi Lasante in Creole)

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
New York Times columnist Kristof and his wife, WuDunn, a former Times reporter, make a brilliantly argued case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. Note particularly the authors' focus on individual action (such as providing a list of hospitals and schools to direct charity to).

What is the What by Dave Eggers
Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps.

If you are in need of a good read, pick up one of these, or recommend another good read with a good cause!

Mint season!

It's February, that means it's Girl Scout cookie and Campfire candy time! Nathan barricades the door from the neighbor kids, and I carry small bills in cash to buy mints at the grocery store! Ordinarily I'm too cheap to imagine spending $5 on cookies or candy, but as a top seller (and fortunate daughter of a top consumer!) I feel for those girls standing out at their little table! Several of the people on the blog stood out there next to me!

I think peddling mints taught me alot of valuable lessons. First was working hard, putting in hours in February to earn credit toward summer camp. Second was salesmanship; we always managed to get the bookings at the bank on payday (can't use the excuse of having no cash!), the hardware store on Sunday afternoon (husbands out on their honey-do list can't say no to little girls selling candy!) and the ferry line on Saturday (captive audience for 30 minutes at a time!).

I always buy from the girls at the store, because signing up on an order form at work doesn't teach the kids to work hard, appeal to people, and conduct transactions, valuable skills for later life. Thanks to my mom & dad for instilling the values of hard work, my girlfriends for standing at that table with me in the cold, and the Campfire and Girl Scouts organizations for providing the opportunity for kids to learn these values! Enjoy the mints this month!

MLK Day of Service

Happy MLK Jr. Day of Service, "a day ON, not a day off"! http://mlkday.gov/ I think this is a fantastic idea to transform a holiday to catalyze community service, and a reminder that and community opportunities abound throughout the year, with resources to match any interest.

I congratulate my sister, a teacher who is attending a United Way organized event today right up her alley - a bake-off at a Senior Center - and has found very interesting volunteer opportunities ranging from making sack lunches for a homeless shelter, to a fundraiser for the animal shelter with pet Santa pictures through http://www.seattle.onebrick.org/; http://www.volunteermatch.org; and another great local resource http://www.seattleworks.org.

With so many choices, it's easy to have decision paralysis, but I got started volunteering with a cause very close to me, beach restoration at the beach where Nathan and I spent sunsets during high school, through People for Puget Sound. http://www.pugetsound.org. Being involved with like minded volunteers also connected me to other opportunities, one of my new favorites is http://www.idealnetwork.com; essentially Groupon with proceeds shared with non-profits.

Charity doesn't always have to involve monetary donations; sometimes in-kind donations or volunteering are more personal and valuable. As we are remodeling our kitchen, I have been able to donate unused household goods to the YWCA womens shelter, https://www.ywcaworks.org/, giving back to a resource that was available to my aunt 25 years ago when she left an abusive husband with my cousins, then toddlers, one of my earliest memories.

As MLK Jr. Day of Service calls to attention community involvement and volunteerism, please share your experience of interesting resources that you have found to share the love!

New Year's Resolution

I'd like to share my New Year's Resolution with the people who have inspired me to make this commitment for the coming year and perhaps perpetuity. I have resolved to "Pay it Forward" in the form of charitable donations where the opportunity arises, and in the aspect of perpetuating this charity, to present to those who might be likewise inspired. It is not my intention to solicit donations, but rather to explore opportunities and organizations that may be compelling. Good intentions had previously been arrested by 'decision paralysis' of too many worthy causes to decide among. But along came Christmas with all the obligatory gift giving, and I found each individual identified with an intriguing cause, and so did nearly all of my Christmas gifting in the form of donations. (with the happy side effect of staying away from malls among last minute shoppers!)

I invite the recipients of those Christmas gifts to join along in this blog, and if you too wish to Pay It Forward, maybe pass along to another person who might likewise find inspiration. I will try to post new content monthly, and welcome participation from anyone who is interested. I will try to explore topics of seasonal interest, such as inspiring books, non-profit selection, and tax implications in the Spring; volunteer opportunities and environmental causes in the Summer, childrens programs and fundraising in the Fall, and holiday causes and giving in the winter.

Of course everyone may not be able to give monetarily, but there are so many opportunities to volunteer your time with a cause you identify with. MLK Day [http://mlkday.gov/] on January 17 is a national day of service with many local opportunities sponsored by United Way. [http://liveunited.org]

Finally, I'd like to recognize the individuals who inspired me, and the organization identified with them, which I will highlight individually throughout the year. Thank you all for inspiring me, and helping to Pay It Forward in 2011!

Campfire [http://www.campfireusasnohomish.org/] - Linda Howerton
Boys and Girls Clubs [http://www.bgca.org/] - Tom Howerton
Susan G. Komen for the Cure [http://www.komen.org/] - Janelle Howerton, Breanne Matejka
Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund [http://www.redcross.org] - Breanne Matejka
People For Puget Sound [http://www.pugetsound.org/] - Leslie Muntz, Vanassa Lundheim
Heifer International [http://www.heifer.org/] - Leslie Muntz, Allison Donnelly
Camp Korey [http://www.campkorey.org/] - Leslie Muntz, Eileen Hudak
KIVA [http://www.kiva.org/] - Leslie Muntz, Eileen Hudak, Brooke Fitterer, Michelle Pauley
Soroptimist International [http://www.soroptimist.org/] - Brooke Fitterer
Kindering Center [http://www.kindering.org/] - Brooke Fitterer
UNICEF [http://www.unicef.org] - Stephanie Buetow, Karen Bertram
Sno-Isle Libraries 'Books for Babies' [http://www.sno-isle.org/] - Kristin Page
Tacoma Humane Society [http://thehumanesociety.org/] - Shirley Muntz, Rufus Muntz
Snohomish Dog Off Leash Group [http://snodog.org/] - Rufus Muntz