Tuesday, December 16, 2008

A Time for Giving


Still coughing my head off at night, although I feel OK during the daylight hours. However, the dreaded drainage of the sinus cavity continues at night, and sleeping on the recliner downstairs is a drag.

I head north to Antwerp for a double header Jr High basketball get together tonight....in the meantime we have a "Winter Weather Advisory" in effect....snow, sleet, ice, are all a possibility, most may go south, which is fine with me.

I'm not a big "rah-rah" kind of guy when it comes to giving to charitable organizations. But my wife and I do give...Patricia especially. She sponsors a child in AIDS ravaged Africa through the Compassion International Organization:

http://www.compassion.com/

She also give her 10% or more to the Church she attends, and always is looking to share as much as possible with legit Christian causes.

For years, when I was still employed, I sponsored a young man from Thailand through Christian Children's Fund:

www.christianchildrensfund.org/

I supported him for a number of years until I retired from the Van Wert Health Department. When that ended I began to give my yearly support to the Salvation Army:

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/

Yes these are all quality Christian groups, and they all give somewhere around 85% of their donations to the directions that we request....the other 15-18% go to payroll and advertisement....they, all 3, are among the best with taking care of your money(don't we wish the stinking government was doing the right thing with over 80% of our money?).

If you plan on giving your hard earned money to a charity...make sure you check out their "internal" expenses....I won't bad mouth those I think bad on this blog....but you can be sure, some of the biggest "out there" funding/charity groups are the worst when it comes to protecting your donations.

For a complete rundown of charity groups, you can check out their records at this site:

http://www.give.org/index.asp

So there it is, my pimping for legit charities this Christmas Season. One more reason I will be giving even more to the Salvation Army this year. Radical homosexual groups are telling their supporters NOT to give money to the SA...give a note instead protesting the Army's Anti Gay policies. This of course complete bullshit...just because you're a Christian group, doesn't mean you are anti anything...but if the shoe fits, I'll wear it, if the radical leftists are against the Salvation Army....all the more reason for me to give them more money.

It's that time of the year, I know the economy is on the downturn, but there are many good charities out there that need and deserve your support....I only suggest, give if you can, and choose your charity with care.

Off to get a haircut.....

back later>>>>>>>>>

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photos-A Salvation Army Bell Ringer/One of the African children up for "adoption" from Compassion Internation

8 comments:

Buck said...

One of the VERY best things about America is our open hearts and wallets/purses. We... Americans... give more to charity on a per capita basis than any other country in the world. (Yeah, the link is somewhat old, but it's a quickie Google search)

Good On Ya, Pat. I hope your weather stays manageable, too. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I wonder where they get the guys who stand in front of Walmart and ring the little bell for Salvation Army. The one's in our town are very strange.

PRH said...

Thanks for the link Buck....Hermit, I think most are unpaid volunteers...however they do have paid folks listed, maybe working for a meal.

Grandpa-Old Soldier said...

I don't mind giving to the Salvation Army or The Red Cross. I have seen first had the outstanding work those folks do. Know about sinus drainage,, I have had it for about two weeks.

BRUNO said...

I always found it hard to support ANY "charity", who pays their organizers close to an eighth-million annually, to "organize" unpaid volunteers, who generally for the most part are just doing it for credit towards their "public-sevice-sentence/punishment"---or at least they are in this area?

The Red Cross has redeemed themselves quite a bit as of lately, I guess the donations were startin' to thin-out?

But the United Way has a LONG-G-G "way" to go, before they---or the programs they support---will see any "gifts" from me again.

See? Told ya' you wouldn't like me as a friend...! LOL!

PRH said...

Bruno....would never give a dime to today's United Way, Red Cross(although I do donate blood) or the UN Children's Fund...they are all corrupt.

Ron Simpson said...

Last week, I took my youngest son to the doc for strep throat. he was miserable and crying in pain. After the appointment, we went to Walgreens to get his medicine. There was a Salvation Army bell ringer outside and Jack asked me for a dollar. I gave him one and he went and put it into the pot. I leaned down and asked him why we give money and he said, through his tears of pain, "To help people, like when they have fires..."
Man, I got a good kid.

FHB said...

Sorry about your cousin. And I love that shot of the kid in the can of empties. Hilarious.

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