What Can I Do? Making an Impact at Home - #putchildrenfirst
Selling dolls. Racing dragonboats. Drawing pictures. There are endless ways to have fun and help children in need at the same time, as Canadian supporters of SOS Children’s Villages, young and old, from all over the country, keep proving.
Many parents, of course, feel a personal connection to children’s causes. Grandma Polly, from Kootenay, British Columbia, had supported orphans for a while even before she raised $1000 from the sale of her Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and donated the proceeds to SOS’s Niger Food Crisis Fund. In Ottawa, four mothers organized Moms Making it Happen Charity Brunch and Silent Auction, a very successful fundraiser for a new SOS Children’s Village in South Africa. After making arrangements with the Stonebridge Golf Club to host the event and with Ann Meehan of CTV Ottawa to emcee it, they gathered donations for Silent Auction items, invited an inspiring guest speaker, and provided a delicious buffet brunch. Tickets sold out, and their efforts raised nearly $4500.
Kids can get involved, too, and learn more about the challenges other children their age around the world can face. School bake sales, movie nights, or game days are easy events to organize. To motivate students a little more, teachers can promise to dress up in costume, dye their hair, perform a song and dance to music chosen by their classes, and so on, if a fundraising target is met. In the past, one professor even offered to shave his head if his friends, family, students, and colleagues managed to raise a thousand dollars for SOS in Bukavu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A soccer theme is always a good way to engage kids, and adults can participate in sports-related events too. The ScotiaMcLeod Fixed Floaters, for instance, raced in the Toronto International Dragon Boat Festival, raising $30,000 for the SOS Village in Kigali, Rwanda and claiming third place.
One-time events are fun and usually successful, but you can also work activism into your everyday life. Stan Raydon operated a tow truck, and when his boss challenged him to do something meaningful with the tips he collected, he decided to start donating them all to SOS, an action which helped children in need and boosted his company’s image at the same time. There are many ways to help for those who don’t have any money to spare, too. Volunteering with SOS can take many forms: for example, Breanna, an artistic International Development student, designed a set of e-cards developed from the organization’s photo archives.
Whether you want to donate your own money to sponsor a child, get your family, school, or workplace involved in fundraising, write to your government representative to express your views on Canada’s role in international development, volunteer your time with SOS or another charitable organization, or do all of the above, everyone can do his or her part to make the world a better place for children.
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Canadian's wishing to support SOS Children's Villages are encouraged to sponsor a child, sponsor a village or to make a direct donation. Your support ensures that SOS Children's Villages can continue to provide a safe and loving home to orphan and abandoned children worldwide.