Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Giving (Cows)


When we last left our heroine, she was pondering giving. Emotional giving, to be specific. And yes, I’m still pondering.

Meanwhile, however, I’ve been noticing instances of more tangible giving, which, let’s face it, does offer some emotional rewards.

For example, yesterday I was out in my driveway at 7:00 A.M. facing the most monstrously ugly of all gigantic snow berms. The wet, mucky feet of snow from the road, which had been packed down and driven on by cars all day, was finally scraped up by the plow in the middle of the night and deposited … where? In my driveway. Of course. The subsequent drop in temperature meant that I had large boulders of ice cemented together in a mountain whose summit reached just over the hood of my car. Clearly I had done something to offend the county plow driver.

But, alas. This is life. If only I had gotten up 45 minutes earlier, I might not have been there, huffing and puffing with my shovel, red-faced and sweaty in my desperation to dislodge recalcitrant icebergs. But it was extremely important that I get my car out of the driveway immediately.

IT WAS A POWDER DAY!

And suddenly, there was my neighbor, Bill. Bill runs a plow service, and is contracted by various other neighbors to plow their driveways. And while he was on his way to one of those houses, he paused, put his plow in reverse, and scooped away my entire berm. Now that is giving, people! It took him 30 seconds, and he saved me a morning full of frustration. (A morning of good cross-training, too, I know. But powder skiing is much better cross-training!) Needless to say, I’ll be checking to find out Bill’s favorite brand of bourbon.

Another revelation about giving came from John and Hank Green’s Project for Awesome. In addition to being the author of two of my favorite YA books of all time, (Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns), John has a massive presence on the internet, along with his brother Hank. Specifically, they have a mighty popular youtube channel. Every year they utilize this presence to raise money for charity in their Project for Awesome. I'll refrain from explaining all the details of how it works, but their basic idea is that by working together, we (as in, all of us) can do amazing things. This year, they raised $100,000 for charity, all from small donations. Yup. That’s awesome all right.

Just to repeat: If we all work together, we can do amazing things.

And finally, in my observations of giving, I saw that my favorite author-blogger is running his own blog-fundraiser for Heifer International.

First of all, what a great name, right? I love Heifers.

Second, here’s what they’re all about (from the HI website): “Heifer International is a global nonprofit with a proven solution to ending hunger and poverty in a sustainable way. Heifer helps empower millions of families to lift them out of poverty and hunger to self-reliance through gifts of livestock, seeds and trees and extensive training, which provide a multiplying source of food and income.

They give cows to needy people! And llamas! Llamas are very popular right now.

(Photo courtesy of Heifer International / Darcy Kiefel)


Also, they give goats.

It’s an excellent organization, and I’m excited to be a tiny little part of the fundraising. You can be a part of it, too! Following Nathan’s example, I (along with my awesome, agreeable husband) pledge to donate $1 to Heifer International for every comment you leave on this post between now and midnight on Christmas Eve. So, comment away!


Of course, I do have a financial ceiling for this donation, (which I won’t share with you, so as not to discourage comments) but let’s see if we can reach it. If you’re a lurker around these parts, now’s the time to come out of the woodwork.


You can only comment once, but if you make a comment worthy of a response, I’ll also donate a dollar for my response comment. (Hint: Ask me questions!)


In your comment, please tell me:


a) Your name

b) The corner of the planet in which you reside
c) (optional) A goal or wish for 2011


Remember Anne’s comment from my last post? Let’s see if she’s right.



And finally, my own wish for 2011 is that we all work together.

40 comments:

  1. Cen't believe I'm the first one ..

    Hi, my name is Thorsten and I'm from Reinfeld, Germany (currently very snowy, but too flat for skiing). My goal for 2011 is to get more control over how I get to spend my days, my wish is that more people realize what a great medicine sport is. I'm sure Gretchen can attest to that ...

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  2. Thanks for the reminder that every little bit and small gesture really add up. I saw that last Saturday during my annual holiday run, when I went home with more gifts than I gave out in prizes.

    Your neighbor is the perfect example of true giving. And I once gave three goats via Heifer International in honor of a friend who seemed to have everything. She loved it!

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  3. Yay, llamas! Also goats. :) I'm Susan Kaye Quinn from Palatine, Illinois and my wish is to reach my goal of giving away llamas this year! If you get a chance, please stop by! :)

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  4. Howdy! I'm Robyn from outside Boston. Ending world hunger would be an awesome thing for 2011. Cheers!

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  5. Great Post! So here's the question(s)...would you prefer to donate a couple goats or a cow? Which one would be more beneficial?

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  6. oh....and my corner of the planets is located about 30 minutes outside of Toronto.

    My goal for 2011? A faster marathon time and some effective cross-training.

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  7. Kovas, from Downers Grove, IL -- my goal is to complete my first ultra this spring and continue inspiring my kids to run trails.

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  8. Awesome!

    I'm Ami & I reside in the Southwest corner of Michigan.
    Wishing that more people would do what you & Nathan Bransford are.

    I'm doing the Heifer Challenge this year again, too, donating $1 for all new blog followers OR comments till Christmas Eve: http://museinks.blogspot.com/2010/12/4-free-ways-to-be-christmas-angel.html

    Onward & upward!

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  9. Jenn Hubbard
    Philadelphia
    Goal: To carve out more free time. (That's my goal for the 3rd year running!) ;-)

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  10. Funderson from Crested Butte and I wish you a Merry Christmas! Thanks for this..very cool

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  11. Steve from the Twin Cities in Mnnesota (but you knew that!) My running goal for 2011 is to get healthy enough to finish the Superior Sawtooth 100 (finishing would just be icing on the cake). My other goal would be to get triathletes to stop hating me.

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  12. My name is Frazer, I am from Memphis and my goals for 2011 are the Big Sur Marathon on May 1 and to complete an Olympic distance triathlon (I have never even done a triathlon!)

    I am going to look into this giving Llama thing, it sounds like a great program. Have you heard of the programs where you can donate to a group that installs wells so people have fresh water? I can get info on it you want, but it sounds pretty similar.

    Loved the plow story, bourban is a great way to say "Thank you."

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  13. Thanks so much for the comments, everyone! You guys are awesome. And special thanks for those who came over via Nathan's link, and those who are also participating in his fundraiser (Robyn, Susan, Amy and Jennifer).

    @51feetunder - Good question. I suppose it would depend on the person's situation, but look how happy that woman looks with that goat in her arms? I'd have to say Goat.

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  14. Name: Steph
    Where I reside: Northern California
    Wish for 2011: Joy, happiness and light all around :)

    Thanks for participating, and DFTBA, as John and Hank would say :)

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  15. Steph - Oh, "DFTBA" definitely warrants a response comment from me. Back atchya, and thanks for stopping by!

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  16. Great post - thanks so much for doing this! Heifer is a wonderful organization. :)

    I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

    And I'm Mira from the San Francisco Bay Area. My wish for 2011 is peace and prosperity for all!

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  17. Super awesome, Gretchen!

    I reside within the cleavage of the United States, aka the Midwest :)

    My goal is to laugh along with myself even more, and to help a few others learn to do the same thing. We all need to remember life isn't all that serious; it's actually pretty darn funny!

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  18. Most excellent tale, as usual, Gretchen.

    And hi, my name is Russ, and I live in Portland, Oregon. My goals for 2011 are all over the damned place, but to boil 'em down: Continue to grow as a human being.

    Y'know. Nothin' big.

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  19. Hi Gretchen! First of all, the librarian in me thanks the teacher in you for such wonderful siting of all your sources. :) Second, my new year's wish? Just recently I decided that I would like to maintain. This past year has been almost overwhelming that I can't imagine packing in anything extra. I could always ask for more miles in my runs, but I might need God to chip in a couple extra hours a day for that one... ;) Oh, and Reno is my favorite place to reside.

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  20. Hooray!

    Nathan Bransford
    San Francsico, CA
    More happiness for everyone in 2011

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  21. Nathan!! Thanks for visiting my blog. And of course, for starting all this awesomeness. Hooray! :)


    Amber - Links are great fun, as well as good citations. As a teacher, I know it is always important to have the librarian on my side.


    Russ - Awesome goal. Me too.

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  22. Hi, I'm Kathy, a lurker from Truckee. I liked the idea of heifer international so much, I'm actually commenting on a blog. Never done that before!

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  23. This is completely cool. We've actually given money to HI before; our kids' kindergarten class took up a collection and bought a goat one year. What a great organization - and a great idea by Nathan and you.

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  24. Kathy - Sweet - a local and first time commenter! Thanks for coming out to say hello!

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  25. Teresa from Neenach CA...you know me! Great connection with HI. A friend in HI (Hawaii) introduced me to this group some time ago, and I found them pretty impressive. I've forwarded your blog to her and hopefully this chain will continue grow. Good luck in this most giving adventure! BTW, goats are much more hardy than cows, eat waaaay less, need less water and still produce plenty of milk and edible meat. I vote for goats. Don't know about the llamas. Merry Christmas to all, and to all Wonderful 2011!!
    My question: When do we in SoCal get to see you again...Yosemite???

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  26. Christina Brugman, Kirkland WA

    I've given to Heiffer for years. They also provide bees and trees and animals that provide wool or hair for knitting.

    This year I want to live healthy.

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  27. Oh man! Now I'm so desperate to say something interesting that I'm collapsing in panic. I'm Louise Curtis from Australia, also pledging to Heifer via twittertales.wordpress.com (it's not linking to blog comments this week), and I want to have one of my YA adventure fantasy books accepted by a reputable publisher in 2011.

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  28. Erica from Wisconsin.

    Lots of dreams.

    Thanks for the donation. You rock.
    erica

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  29. Andi from North Carolina here. My wish for 2011 is that everyone would have the food, shelter, and medical care they need.

    And thank you for doing this for Heifer International and all the people they help!

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  30. Great Post Gretchen. Yes, powder skiing is wonderful cross-training!

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  31. Theresa - Yosemite for sure! I'll most likely be skipping the Leona Divide race this year, as I have a 100K the following week.

    Christina - It's nice to know you, and so many others, have had experience with Heifer. Thanks for commenting!

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  32. Louise - Thanks for commenting from Australia, and for participating with your own fundraiser!

    Erica and Andi - Thanks for commenting and happy 2011!

    Jamie - I think I know what your Christmas wish was, and you already got it! ;)Hooray! I've been doing way more cross-training than running this week, but I guess I have to do it while I can.

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  33. Can't argue with llamas. Not even worth trying.

    Great cause.

    Turi
    Reno, NV
    Just wanting to stay healthy and training in 2011.

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  34. This is a wonderful idea!

    Stacy
    St George, UT

    2011???

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  35. Yay! What a great idea, Gretchen.

    Rae, Santa Ana, Ca.

    World peace, but not like that old X-Files episode when Mulder wished for world peace and he ended up being the only person eft on earth. Remember that one?

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  36. IS

    Name: Claire
    Corner of the planet: San Francisco
    Goal for 2011: Get my ass trounced in person by Gretchen somewhere in CA.

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  37. IT

    Name: Claire
    Corner of the planet: San Francisco
    Goal for 2011: Get my ass trounced in person by Gretchen somewhere in CA.

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  38. TOO

    Name: Claire
    Corner of the planet: San Francisco
    Goal for 2011: Get my ass trounced in person by Gretchen somewhere in CA.

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  39. LATE????

    Name: Claire
    Corner of the planet: San Francisco
    Goal for 2011: Get my ass trounced in person by Gretchen somewhere in CA.

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  40. Also, I'm soooooooooo glad I don't have to deal with snow anymore!

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