10 Ways to Give This Holiday Season

Most of the year we are concerned with acquiring--acquiring stuff for the stockpile, stuff to make our homes safer, cool stuff like firearms and drones--but at this time of year it's good to give back to those in need.  Here's how:

1. Give blood--it's lifesaving and always needed.
2. Give to a community-sponsored toy drive like Toys for Tots or other community giving event.
3. Give to a local food bank which usually start to run low on food at this time of year.
4. Give your time and volunteer at a food bank, church event, community event, etc.
5. Give to those in need who you know--babysit for parents who need time to Christmas shop, drop off gifts to families you know that could use them, bring food to ill or elderly friends or relatives, etc.
6. Drop off food and treats to those who don't get the holiday off like police/fire/hospital staff.
7. Help strangers--pay off school lunch debt, pay off a stranger's layaway, etc.
8. Visit a nursing home, VA hospital, or senior center and help out/hang out/entertain those who may not even have visitors during the holiday.
9. Do a work project during the holidays--help out with a Habitat to Humanity home, shovel snow for the neighbors, help out with a community emergency response (there are lots of big storms in the forecast, help may be needed near your community), etc.
10. Donate to the homeless (bags with socks, gift cards, easy to eat food, etc are always appreciated).  Note that it is usually a good idea to give these donations through a community homeless shelter/organization; approaching random homeless people on the street can be dangerous.

10 Places to Give This Holiday Season

The poor East Coast is being hammered once again and the just plain poor people of the country are still continuing to struggle no matter what the powers that be say about the improving economy.  This holiday season, do your fellow man a favor and give if you can.  Here's where:

1. The Red Cross.  This organization always comes through in a disaster; the more donations they get, the more they can give to those in need.
2. Donate blood.  Blood and plasma is always needed, especially in times of disaster or when people are otherwise occupied (due to the holidays, the East Coast storm, etc) and donations drop.
3. Donate to your local food bank.  Food banks have been helping more and more people as the economy has tanked.  During the holidays, the need for food is even greater so find your local food bank  and make a donation to help out your neighbors.
4. Goodwill.  Besides being a fan of shopping at the Goodwill, I also like to donate to the Goodwill and St Vincent de Paul, another thrift store in my city.  These organizations take your donations and turn them into job training and other services to help those in need.
5. Salvation Army.  The Salvation Army is yet another organization that helps those in need.  In my city this organization provides free meals as well as a number of services for the homeless and those in need (they also provide enough bell ringers with donation pots to rattle your teeth about this time of year but like I said, they do good works).
6. Church.  In addition to tithing every month, I also make it a point to help out churches in my community.  Many churches are busy with food drives, coat drives, blanket drives for the homeless, and other good works to help people in the community, especially at this time of year.
7. Schools.  (Way) back in the day when I was a youngin' all I needed to take to school with me was a pencil and a pee chee.  I was fairly surprised when one of the grandkids showed me the list of school supplies they needed at the beginning of the school year--it was longer than the list of stuff I keep in my BOB!  Many schools these days are in need and many students are as well.  By donating school supplies and other needed items to your local school you can help kids have a better educational experience.
8. Random acts of kindness.  Simply by being kind to people you can make your community a better place to live.  I make it a habit to carry bottled water in my car to give to those begging on the corner for money when I pass them.  The spouse and I have also kind of adopted a homeless man who lives by the side of a road that we pass often.  We will drop off a meal, a blanket, a case of water, whatever we happen to have, when we pass by.  You can't help everyone but helping even one person can make a difference.
9. Give your time.  Many community organizations desperately need volunteers to continue to provide the services that help those in need.  By volunteering you can help others in your community with everything from search and rescue to teaching English or being a Big Brother/Big Sister.
10. Give to your favorite organization.  The need is great for every non-profit organization these days.  There are so many people in need but there are also so many previous donors who are now in need themselves so many once thriving organizations are now struggling just to stay viable due to a decline in donations and grants that previously kept then well funded.  Some of my favorites: Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps, and CMRT. 

10 Ways You Can Help Others Survive All Kinds of Situations

Tis the season to think about others. What with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the generally jovial atmosphere of giving these last couple months of the year, here are a number of ways you can help others survive all kinds of situations:

1. Give something that literally saves a life: blood, plasma, bone marrow, a kidney, and any other vital organs that you don't need (ie: become an organ and tissue donor).
2. Give your time to those who most need it. Investing your time and effort to help others, whether you are helping someone learn to read or watching a passel of kids for a single mother while she looks for a job, often provides the payback of creating a better community. Having a better community to live in is a good thing--it makes for better survival rates for all.
3. Teach others. I am fairly certain that I wouldn't be the person I am today without all of the things I learned from important people in my life (ie: how to survive in the wilderness, how to use logic to solve problems, how to speak a handful of languages, etc). It's a good bet that if you teach someone something, that knowledge will go on to help them later in life.
4. Give good gifts. To me, "good" gifts are practical gifts. A sweater is nice, a box of ammo is nicer. I also like to give car emergency kits, sporting goods that get kids outside and active, experiences that help people improve their skills (everything from an auto repair class for the daughters to cooking class for the sons). Maybe that is why I am not often in charge of gift giving....
5. Pay attention to what is going on with others and help if/when needed. While I am busy enough with my own life and disdain drama of all kinds, if I know someone is going through a difficult situation and I can help by providing something concrete such as a job lead, a referral to services, a positive word, etc, I will do it without hesitation.
6. Invite others to learn from/with you. I am a fan of Dave Ramsey because his basic program is to get a group of people to go through a class (FPU) together which allows them to support each other while they all aim for the same goal of getting out of debt. And it works. Mastermind groups are similar as are study groups at college and sports teams. Basically everyone is working towards the same goal, supporting each other, and teaching each other as they go.
7. Lobby for training opportunities in your community. The more people who have access to CPR, HAM radio, CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), weather watcher, firearms safety, and other disaster prep training opportunities, the better.
8. Prepare leaders. Whether within your family or your office, leadership training is important. You may be the head honcho on a normal day, but when TSHTF, and if, by some chance, you become incapacitated, you will need a leader other than yourself to take over. Who might that be? How might you help others prepare to take on leadership roles if necessary? Everyone needs training, everyone needs to know the chain of command, and everyone needs to know what to do in a disaster in case they are the last one standing and need to take control of a situation.
9. Volunteer. There are plenty of people out there who wouldn't be alive today without the efforts of volunteer EMTs at rural ambulance agencies. Volunteers at the food bank help people survive during hard times, volunteer search and rescue personnel pull people off mountains with surprising regularity, and volunteer coaches help develop skills that will prove useful for immediate needs and vital for the future development of the coach-ees.
10. Practice. You never know when you will get to save a life. Be sure you have training, and have on-going practice, in a wide range of skills including CPR, first aid, lifeguard swimming, shooting. foraging, fire building, sea survival, mountain survival, etc.