The Holidays and Charity

[nanashi]

It's that time a year again where people get lots of presents and spend money on useless things, without really thinking of much on what good they can do at this time.

Every christmas I try and do something nice for people in need. When I was younger and worked at wallgreens I'd buy a bunch of toys for the toys-for-tots drive. It wasn't much but I felt happy doing something that hopefully helped children have better holidays.

Last year I volunteered for an organization near me called Hosea Feed the Hungry. I went to the local jail and helped prepare the food for the next day. Hopefully I'll have time to do it this year. It was really really fun.


So I just wanted to make a thread to hear about nice things done around the holidays (Or whenever, really)

[MNJetter]

We used to do this thing at my church where volunteers would gather travel-sized toiletries and (regular-sized) canned foods throughout the year, and then at Christmas, we'd all gather together to stuff big empty coffee cans with toiletries and deliver them alongside food to needy families. We had a clothing drive every year too.

I have to admit it. I don't miss being a Christian, belief-wise, but sometimes I wish I still went to church, because I was doing a lot more charitable stuff when I did. Not that it's impossible to do charitable stuff and remain unaffiliated from a religious organization. Just I, personally, seemed to keep it in mind a lot more often back then.

[/|/@/|/@し]

I'm don't go to church, I'm not Christian, and I still like doing things for charity. It's just it's easier to during the holidays.. So it's very much possible.

I'd actually like to volunteer more but I probably won't have the time plus I feel a little strange volunteering to a program I don't know much about by myself. Which is why I don't... but holidays there are big groups of people doing it at once so it doesn't seem too scary for me.

On another note, you said it's impossible to do charitable things that didn't involve religion.. so I was wondering even if you did help a charity that was affiliated with religion, would that change anything? I personally wouldn't care if I volunteered somewhere owned by christians/muslims/hebrews/hindus ect as long as I wasn't pressured. I respect any religion and religious person as long as they aren't being hypocritical and looking down on others not of that religion. But would christains pressure someone to become their religion even if they just did a thing with them for charity.. @.@?

[Shuft]

WRT doing charity without religion, You should see if there's a Unitarian church in your area. A number of agnostic friends of mine go to a local unitarian church for the theological discussion. They are also very active in local charities (soup kitchens and such).

[Pierrot le Fou]

My family eschews the giving of large gifts in favor of trinkets and donations to the charity of the receiver's choice. Kids still get gifts, but the adults give something smallish to each other, and donate to charity, which I think is splendid.

[ellie]

At my church, every year about a month before Christmas they put up a "giving tree", which looks like a Christmas tree but all the ornaments on it is the name of someone in the community who is in need and an item they want/need. I always pick a little kid or two, and buy them the toy that they want, and also another gift as well. It's really fun shopping for kids, and then it's also rewarding knowing that I'm making some poor child's Christmas happier.

[MNJetter]

On another note, you said it's impossible to do charitable things that didn't involve religion..
Actually, I said just the opposite. I said "NOT that it's impossible to do charitable stuff and remain unaffiliated with a religious organization." I'm well aware that it's quite possible. And I, too, wouldn't care about affiliation if I were to do something for a charity.

All I said was that I, personally (as in possibly only me, not saying anything about any other person or group), have found that I do charitable stuff less now that I don't have a church around to remind me to do it. I think it's more an out of sight, out of mind thing than anything related to religion. Going to church, I heard about the church's charitable works every week in the sermon bulletin. Since stopping, there is very little reminder other than the commercials on TV that feature starving kids in some unnamed country and are as easy to tune out as all the other advertisements, now that they've been on the air long enough for their shock value to wear off.

The whole second paragraph was just basically an afterthought - me admitting that I'm not a perfect person. I wish the motivation to do charitable things was stronger when I don't have something prodding me to do it, but the fact of the matter is that I have been given the chance to go out on my own and prove my own sense of charity, and seem to be failing. Yeah, I've got student loans and whatnot to pay off, but it's not like I'm spending all my pocket money on them.

[erbiumfiber]

Our church makes onigiri for the homeless and distributes them 6 days a week. I made them when I went to a previous church that was part of the project and also donate money for the rice.

We already had the annual clothing drive for the homeless (it's earlier than Christmas because it gets cold long before Christmas). I always go to Uniqlo and buy a bunch of sweats and socks and gloves.

I'm doing the Oxfam gift thing for my daughter and mother (plant 100 trees in my case but you can buy a sheep or a donkey or school uniforms or a whole bunch of other things).

I've done the giving tree thing lots of times (there are lots of orphanages in Japan- I give the requested present but also include some cash in a card as I think it's awful to have no pocket money).

I like my charity to be pretty direct and personal so, for example, I've always given my used cars away (e.g., to the man who had been the nurse for my grandfather and desperately needed a car for work). I bought a house for a friend of my brother who has full-blown AIDS (he doesn't pay rent)- he's lived there over 4 years (it hasn't been full-blown AIDS for all 4 years- just recently). I also believe charity begins at home so I put my brother through trade school and also bought him a fixer-upper house. I had custody of my sister's adopted daughter for a year and paid for private kindergarten. I bought a condo for my mother to live in rent-free.

I would never give to something like the United Way where a large percentage of each dollar is spent in overhead.

I used to do a lot of singing and we always visited hospitals and nursing homes at Christmas and did Christmas concerts.

I feel like I should be doing a lot more. Maybe when my daughter graduates from college I can take a year or two off and do pro bono legal work. I always thought about becoming a nun and being really useful. However, the whole "poverty" and "obedience" thing is not for me (chastity- not a problem). Especially not poverty. I wish there was some worthy cause I feel like I could dedicate the rest of my life to, like starting an orphanage in a third-world country or the like. I really admire people who do those kind of things. I just don't feel passionate about anything in particular right now.

[RoxFontaine]

I don't know what I will do this year. Last year I took some of my students to the base and let them pick whatever they wanted.

Not Christmas related, but I'm actually working on putting together some sort of charity fund raiser for cancer research with Kobe Bryant and/or Andre Iguodala.

[nanashi]

Actually, I said just the opposite. I said "NOT that it's impossible to do charitable stuff and remain unaffiliated with a religious organization." I'm well aware that it's quite possible. And I, too, wouldn't care about affiliation if I were to do something for a charity.

All I said was that I, personally (as in possibly only me, not saying anything about any other person or group), have found that I do charitable stuff less now that I don't have a church around to remind me to do it. I think it's more an out of sight, out of mind thing than anything related to religion. Going to church, I heard about the church's charitable works every week in the sermon bulletin. Since stopping, there is very little reminder other than the commercials on TV that feature starving kids in some unnamed country and are as easy to tune out as all the other advertisements, now that they've been on the air long enough for their shock value to wear off.

The whole second paragraph was just basically an afterthought - me admitting that I'm not a perfect person. I wish the motivation to do charitable things was stronger when I don't have something prodding me to do it, but the fact of the matter is that I have been given the chance to go out on my own and prove my own sense of charity, and seem to be failing. Yeah, I've got student loans and whatnot to pay off, but it's not like I'm spending all my pocket money on them.


Ok.


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Anyway, I've been looking for stuff to do outside of Christmas so it's nice to hear all the stories from everyone. :3

[Jetsetlemming]

A local radio station is doing a charity drive called "campout for hunger" where the two morning show hosts stay in an RV in a local strip mall parking lot and have people come by to donate food. They get bands to put on concerts and prizes for donations, and typically raise hundreds of tons of food every year for local Philadelphia charities and soup kitchens. :O