Sunday, September 04, 2005

On a more serious note...

There are a good many places that need our donations. Of course, you should go with one that fits your philosophy and hopefully becomes the one place you concentrate your efforts, rather than a dollar here and a dollar there. Geoffrey and I have decided to send our donation for the Katrina disaster efforts to America's Second Harvest.

We are making a second donation to Unicef, to help with the Tsunami efforts.

The biggest challenge in response to a natural disaster like Katrina or the 2004 Tsunami is not just to respond as generously and as quickly as possible, but to also realize that these efforts are ongoing. They don't end once the donation is sent and the fickle news coverage moves on to other things (note I did not say bigger and better). Even if it means parcelling out the donation and sending only half each time - it's the constant flow of funds over time to the groups that need it that helps.

I am not saying that you should or should not make a donation, or even that you should or should not care. I'm not patting myself on the back and saying, "yay me" for making these donations because I know I could be doing even more. It's just that Geoff and I are often asked for advice and I thought this would be a good time to use that clout. Geoff actually gets all of the credit because he's the one who looked at the different organizations out there and determined that these were two that really seemed committed to getting the job done.

Be safe and be well, people.

L.

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