Feel Good Friday - Operation Christmas Spirit

With Christmas only one week away, today’s Feel Good Friday blog is all about spreading the Christmas spirit with… Operation Christmas Spirit. 

 

It’s starts with Operation Help a Hero, a non-profit dedicated to the well-being and care of American military members and their families. One of their signature programs is Operation Christmas Spirit (OCS).

 

Now in its 17^th year, OCS supports military families with holiday gratitude. This can take many forms including, “family "adoptions," single service member gifts, unit Christmas party support, volunteer opportunities, and toy collections for children of service members.”

 

The most important piece of this program is the family adoptions. In mid-November, families are vetted through unit nominations and/or applications for Christmas assistance. Once approved, they fill out a family wish list which is shared with the donors they are paired with. Gifts can be mailed, or collected at drive through pick up events, created for these socially distant times. 

The focus is on families living in Southern California, the DC Metro Area, North Carolina, San Antonio, Colorado and ​Tampa. A note on the website indicates that as of December 5^th, all the original families for this year have been adopted and the volunteers at OCS are now working their way through the waiting list and requesting online donations and gift cards. 

If you’ve got a soft spot in your heart for all the single service members, who often get called to serve on Christmas so families can be together, you can support them too. OCS delivers surprise gift packages to those on duty on and around Christmas. No wish list to follow, anything you buy will be a surprise and a delight. 

 

Other ways to get involved include hosting a toy drive or gift card collection. While toys are great for the kids, often families prefer gift cards they can use to buy gas, groceries, clothing and household goods. You can also volunteer or make a straight up donation and let the volunteers at OCS do the shopping for you.

 

Help spread the word of the good work being done by the volunteers at Operation Christmas Spirit by following Operation Help a Hero on social media. Like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @OHHVolunteer.

Feel Good Friday - Toys for Tots

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, heads up… it’s in two weeks! That’s why today’s Feel Good Friday organization is Toys for Tots. 

Toys for Tots (TFT) is an organization run by the Marines with the mission to “collect new unwrapped toys and distribute those toys to less fortunate children at Christmas.” You can request a toy at this link.

 

It began in 1947 as the brainchild of Diane Hendricks. When her Marine Corps husband couldn’t find an appropriate charity where he could donate dolls she had made, she told him to start one. That year, Maj Hendricks and the Marines in his reserve unit in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys! The program was so successful, the Marines made it a national community action program in 1948.

 

To handle the growing demand, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation was established in 1991 to help run and support the program. The Foundation raises funds, purchases toys, provides promotional and support materials, manages all funds raised and donated, solicits corporate support, educates the public, and handles day-to-day operations for nearly 800 local TFT Coordinators and a network of 40,000 volunteers. On an annual basis, TFT distributes an average of 18 million toys to 7 million children – 584 million toys to date!

 

Every toy tells a story, from the young men who received toys when they were tots and have now grown up and enlisted in the Marine Corps to the mother whose participation in the program put her on a path that led to a getting a job and buying a house. You can read about their stories and many more here.

 

If you want to help out Toys for Tots, you can get involved with your local campaign, donate cash or use the virtual toybox feature to donate a toy. You can also spread the word on social media by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @ToysForTots_USA

 

Bonus fun fact for reading the entire blog: the miniature three-car train logo was designed in 1947 by Walt Disney!

Feel Good Friday - GoldieBlox

Although Beyoncé and I would like to think girls run the world, it's really not true.

Worldwide women are 50% of the population but only 13% of engineers. So is anyone doing anything about this? Yes! Feel Good Friday would like you to meet Debbie Sterling, engineer and founder of GoldieBlox, "Toys for future innovators."


You may recognize the company's name because of their legal battle over use of a Beastie Boys song in a promotional video. (This Slate article still has the original video if you missed it.)

Putting all the hullabaloo aside, the story of how Debbie created an engineering toy for girls is one of creativity and persistence. You can hear her tell it herself in this Tedx talk.

My summary: she wanted to inspire girls to be the next generation of engineers and realized that combining an engineering toy with a story  they could read was the way to do it. After having her idea rejected by a tech incubator and a toy fair, she turned to Kickstarter in 2012. Over 5,500 people contributed to the project and it received 191% of the requested funding. You go, girl!

In very recent news, GoldieBlox won an online contest sponsored by Intuit and will have a commercial in the Superbowl! Now you've got a reason to watch even though the 49ers aren't in it.

You can read more articles on the GoldieBlox about page, stay current by liking them on Facebook and if you're ready to buy a toy for that 4-9 year old girl in your life, operators are standing by.