Charitable Thoughts
Even with my hectic life & schedule (which is about to get worse with the boys' swimming classes & Demetri's skating classes starting AND back to work on Monday after two glorious & refreshing weeks off), I think about doing more for charity than I already do. Through my crochet work, I already support Warming Families, Heartmade Blessings & Angels For Hope, PLUS I constantly declutter & purge & donate what I can out of my home, and support charities such as the United Way, the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and The Robert & Maggie Bras and Family New Drug Development Program. However, I still feel the need to do more especially after the events of the past couple of weeks. I guess it's human nature to feel the need to do more when disaster strikes, even so far away as in the Gulf Coast states of the U.S. Hurricane Katrina really did a number out there.
A couple of days after Katrina's landfall, I thought about the Greek Orthodox population in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina and how they, the churches and the parishes were faring. (I'm of Greek heritage, first generation born here in Canada, and an Eastern Orthodox Christian.) So, I surfed to the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and soon found myself in the message forums reading about the hurricane news & relief efforts. I then got directed to the site of the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and found myself reading about assembling Health kits, making donations & other relief efforts. I was then excited to find out that Shopper's Drug Mart had tubes of toothpaste on sale for 58 cents each. I knew I could buy 6-packs of toothbrushes & nail clippers at Home Hardware for next to nothing. So after I picked up Demetri from his first day at school, we went to the mall and I spent less than $10 on the beginnings of 6 new health kits. I had lots of extra glycerin soaps at home that I was saving for the guest washroom (and were being used oh-so-slowly). I also had tons of large zipper closure bags. My mind started to race. Plans were being formed to visit the nearest dollar store & purchase the rest of the items. I posted to the forum asking how to send directly to parishes affected and in need. (The response was to send to the Church World Service / IOCC and they will distribute...click here for the post -- near the bottom of the page -- however please see Presbytera Brenda's reply on the next page as well.) So, I continued to make plans. I was going to contact friends and have a health kit assembling party of sorts. I was getting excited. I was on a roll. I felt I was fulfulling my philanthropic, Christian and brotherly/sisterly duty.....
And then some personal financial woes hit. I forgot about my ambitions for a couple of days. Then I saw the bag with all the health kit stuff in it. I thought I could still go ahead with my plans, but then I realized that it now made no sense to spend so much money on what would become atrocious shipping costs from here to the U.S. I felt so saddened by this reality check, however, my mind started to work again and I thought about trying to find something more local. I checked the website of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (Canada) and to my surprise I didn't come across anything regarding relief donations for Katrina victims. So, I will now check with my parish priest and see if our church has organized anything (I haven't been to church in a while, shame on me). If not, then I'll send a monetary donation to an organization I deem appropriate when that time comes. I now find this whole thing a bit frustrating, but I guess if I had kept my ambitions a little more low-key to start with, I wouldn't have encountered these little stumbling blocks which have been somewhat educational as well.
A couple of days after Katrina's landfall, I thought about the Greek Orthodox population in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina and how they, the churches and the parishes were faring. (I'm of Greek heritage, first generation born here in Canada, and an Eastern Orthodox Christian.) So, I surfed to the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and soon found myself in the message forums reading about the hurricane news & relief efforts. I then got directed to the site of the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) and found myself reading about assembling Health kits, making donations & other relief efforts. I was then excited to find out that Shopper's Drug Mart had tubes of toothpaste on sale for 58 cents each. I knew I could buy 6-packs of toothbrushes & nail clippers at Home Hardware for next to nothing. So after I picked up Demetri from his first day at school, we went to the mall and I spent less than $10 on the beginnings of 6 new health kits. I had lots of extra glycerin soaps at home that I was saving for the guest washroom (and were being used oh-so-slowly). I also had tons of large zipper closure bags. My mind started to race. Plans were being formed to visit the nearest dollar store & purchase the rest of the items. I posted to the forum asking how to send directly to parishes affected and in need. (The response was to send to the Church World Service / IOCC and they will distribute...click here for the post -- near the bottom of the page -- however please see Presbytera Brenda's reply on the next page as well.) So, I continued to make plans. I was going to contact friends and have a health kit assembling party of sorts. I was getting excited. I was on a roll. I felt I was fulfulling my philanthropic, Christian and brotherly/sisterly duty.....
And then some personal financial woes hit. I forgot about my ambitions for a couple of days. Then I saw the bag with all the health kit stuff in it. I thought I could still go ahead with my plans, but then I realized that it now made no sense to spend so much money on what would become atrocious shipping costs from here to the U.S. I felt so saddened by this reality check, however, my mind started to work again and I thought about trying to find something more local. I checked the website of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (Canada) and to my surprise I didn't come across anything regarding relief donations for Katrina victims. So, I will now check with my parish priest and see if our church has organized anything (I haven't been to church in a while, shame on me). If not, then I'll send a monetary donation to an organization I deem appropriate when that time comes. I now find this whole thing a bit frustrating, but I guess if I had kept my ambitions a little more low-key to start with, I wouldn't have encountered these little stumbling blocks which have been somewhat educational as well.
posted by Maggie @ 12:32 a.m.
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