Tag / Thanksgiving

by Frank Maduri

Giving Tuesday: Being Charitable To Those In Need

The Tuesday following Thanksgiving is known as Giving Tuesday. It was a movement started about six years ago by a New York City YMCA on 92nd Street in concert with a component within the United Nations.

The movement has gained international following and is a time when people are called upon to be charitable to those in need. The worthy causes out there can be overwhelming, so it is important to think about what resonates the most with you.

This is particularly important when you have a budget with which to give, which is the case with most people. The causes that are the “closest to your heart” will become the priority. In the event that you are new to donating, then check out Charity Navigator or Guide Star, two websites that inspect and rank charities based on their financial responsibility, transparency, and the amount of funds that go to the cause versus administrative/fundraising costs.

The past holiday weekend featured news and promotions for stores and for online shopping deals. The weekend is an ideal time to get gifts for your loved ones for Christmas. The point of today, Giving Tuesday, is to give back to those who are less fortunate, to help advance research of various diseases, and to pool our resources to help solve the problems in our society.

The act of charity is seen by some as not a popular thing in what many people portray Americans as consumed by materialism or their own self-gain. I disagree with the portrayal and know that many Americans are very generous, and although we are the wealthiest nation, we are also the most generous nation on Earth.
The platform of social media will be used to raise awareness and funds on Giving Tuesday as Facebook, Twitter, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will all be doing matching of some kind based on the gifts given today by generous Americans.

This is a good time to take a personal inventory of all that you have in your life that you are grateful for, and to think about how you could give of your excess resources to help those causes or people that really need assistance. Your generosity will help many worthy organizations to provide services and programs to people who are struggling and suffering.

Here are some worthy causes and four star rated charities that could be a potential partner for your donation activity today:
Salvation Army: www.salvationarmyus.org
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America: www.alzfdn.org 866-232-8484
Catholic Charities 800-919-9338
Food For The Poor: www.foodforthe poor.org 800-427-9104
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-8255
Samaritan’s Purse: www.samaritanspurse.org
Zero- The End of Prostate Cancer: zerocancer.org 888-245-9455
MAP International : www.map.org 800-225-8550

Thank you for your support of Giving Tuesday and for giving to “the least of these”. God bless you.

by Frank Maduri

Happy Thanksgiving

In preparation to celebrate a truly American holiday, Thanksgiving, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support over the past several months.

 

This blog, Frank’s Forum, would not be the vibrant place for the exchange of ideas that it is without you, my readers. I appreciate your time in visiting my website and my blog here on Word Press, as well as your time in writing comments on the articles posted here.

 

Furthermore, I appreciate greatly all of your support of the articles I have written for other websites and news organizations. I know many of you have gone out of your way to locate those articles and to provide me with encouraging complements as well as ideas for potential news stories.

 

I have been touched by the responses that all of you have provided to me regarding my work, including my creative work and the guides for new and young writers. My poetry and creative work are very special to me, and your overwhelmingly positive responses to that work is very gratifying to me.

 

It has been a difficult year for so many people, as I have covered in some of my news stories about Hurricane Sandy and most recently with the typhoon in the Philippines as well as the tornadoes in the Midwestern United States. I give thanks for the generosity of the human spirit in the aftermath of each one of those tragic events. The capacity of people to help others in need is heartwarming in a world that seems otherwise to be filled with negativity at many points.

 

The relief efforts will take a long time, but they will be successful not only in the Philippines, but close to home here in the U.S., areas that were effected by Hurricane Sandy and the recent tornadoes. All of these areas will eventually recover because that is an integral part of the human spirit, the resiliency to carry on, to move forward.

 

The Pilgrims had that same resilient spirit when they forged the unknown dangers of the high seas and risked their lives to move to an uninhabited far away land. When they arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts they had no idea what to expect, but they knew they wanted to move forward to a new place to have a better life.

 

So, as we recall the Thanksgiving dinner that the Pilgrims shared in peace with their new Native American neighbors, we recall the sacrifices made for the ideals of America. We give thanks for a place where we can live in peace and freedom without fear of persecution for what we believe.

 

Each one of us is grateful and thankful for different things and it could be something very simple like a dinner with family or friends. It could be something more complex such as a family member being restored to health after a long illness. It could be a loved one with health problems, in that case give thanks for the time you can share. Whatever it may be, take the time on this holiday to give thanks for it.

 

In my case, I am thankful for the love of family and friends, a roof over my head, and the opportunity to impact people each day through what I write. I am thankful to all my family, friends, supporters, and readers for making my dream a reality. I look forward to the stories we have yet to share together. So, from my family to yours, best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!