Non-profits

I have not been able to work very much in the past several years. Maggie’s health needs have been very unpredictable. Alternatively, the needs are stable and the nursing care is unpredictable. Either way, it has not been conducive to steady employment. Sometimes I am so busy I don’t know how the days whiz by. Other times I find myself twiddling my thumbs while Maggie is at school. You would think my house would be cleaner, but it is not.

Because of my inability to work and my uncanny ability to avoid household chores, I do a lot of volunteer work. It is good for me and good for the community. I am on the board of a couple of different non-profit corporations which allows me to give something back to the places that have helped Maggie or other kids facing challenges of many kinds.

One of those nonprofits is Advokids (www.advokids.org), which deals with children in the foster care system in California. The work they do is so important. They are teaching foster parents, families, prospective adoptive parents and anyone who will listen, how to make the foster care system work FOR the kids instead getting bogged down systemically and causing further damage to the kids it is supposed to help. Either Advokids helps kids get out of the system faster, either back home or if that’s not possible into a permanent home.

Advokids annual fundraiser is next weekend. It is a Casino night and the event will be a lot of fun. Check it out for yourself. (http://www.advokids.org/advokids_casinonight.html). If anyone out there wants to attend this event, or make a donation or any type, please check it out at the webpage or message me and I will tell you. We will not raise anything near the amount we did last year because of the change in the economy. Certain sponsors just could not come through this year. Nevertheless, Advokids, like many nonprofits, makes a little money go a long way. Some of the staff work for nothing so that more dollars can be used for the work

Of course, most of you are nowhere near here geographically. Even if you cannot do this, I am asking everyone to remember those non-profits out there in your community making things a little better for some segment of the community. In these difficult economic times, their work is even more important. Consider donating what you can, whether it’s time or money. They need all the help they can get. And you will feel good too.