If I am crippled tomorrow, it’s because I just spent two hours at La Plaza Cultural, removing a literal ton of Sandy-contaminated sand from this sandbox, wheelbarrowing it around, and replacing it with clean sand that’s safe for children to eat. Enjoy, kiddies!
Hurricane Sandy Donations in DUMBO
If anyone would like to donate to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, Huge (the digital agency where I work) will be collecting donations for victims in our Brooklyn office today (11/5), tomorrow (11/6) and Wednesday (11/7). We’re accepting items at 45 Main Street in DUMBO, in Suite 204 on the second floor.
Some of the items that are really needed include:
- Non-perishable food
- Water (bottles and gallons)
- Baby wipes, formula, diapers
- Cleaning supplies
- Toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, feminine hygiene items, etc.)
- Flashlights and batteries
- Blankets
- Winter outerwear (coats, gloves, hats, scarves)
Huge employees with cars will be delivering the donations to various relief drop-off points around the city, throughout the three days. You can also check out this Google Map I made for additional Sandy volunteer/donation opportunities, mostly in downtown Manhattan.
For those in New York City who are looking to help victims of Hurricane Sandy, I created a Google Map of volunteer and donation opportunities in the city. They’re mostly in the East Village but anyone can add additional opportunities anywhere in or around NYC.
Just dropped off PB & J supplies at the Sixth Street Community Center (6th Street between B and C). It’s like a sandwich factory in there! More local volunteer/donation opportunities here.
charity: water should hire this kid. How can you say no to this little face? He’s already raised more than $1,600!
Two Tough Guys Meet Tough Times, and Each Other
Back in 2008, “Boston” Bill Hansbury was learning to live with a prosthetic after losing his leg to an infection. That’s when he met Jake Bainter, who was about to have his right leg amputated. The two struck up a friendship, despite a wide gap in their ages — Hansbury was 70, and Bainter was 7.
I love this story a lot. I just donated to Boston Bill’s foundation that helps provide prosthetic legs to people who can’t afford them.
Wanna Know Why the Bullied Bus Monitor Is Now $500K Richer? Because It’s Our Fault She Was Bullied
The vacation fund for Karen Klein, the 68-year-old grandmother who was harassed and threatened by boys on the school bus she was monitoring has just hit half a million dollars. It’s great that kind souls, feeling like they want to do something, have stepped up and made financial donations. But let’s get real: We’re to blame. We’re the reason she was taunted and teased. We created this environment….
That’s terrible, people said. But only because the kids were saying it to Klein’s face.
The truth is, Americans love to mock people. Especially women. Especially overweight women.
I don’t really agree that people donated out of guilt, I think the reason is because everyone could relate to Karen. I was surprised at the strong, visceral reaction I had to this story when I first heard it. I started crying at my desk at work and felt sick to my stomach. It was probably for a number of reasons.
One, it was a flashback to when I was bullied on the bus myself, in elementary and middle school. Nobody ever said anything as cruel to me as they did to Karen, but bullies love to mess with the cripplingly shy kid who’s afraid to talk, so I definitely received my share of bus-ride taunts. I’m sure many of the other people who donated had this experience, as well.
I also saw my own mother and grandmother in Karen. My mom even works at my old middle school. If any of the students she works with ever treated her like that, it would break my heart and I would personally hunt each of them down and exact some sort of revenge. Nobody wants to think about the woman who raised them being disrespected like this.
Lastly, this woman has had such a tough life already and it’s just cowardly and reprehensible to pick on someone so defenseless, who has experienced so much misfortune. Her husband died. Her son committed suicide. She’s 68 years old and she still has to work, yet she only makes about $15,000 a year. I hope the money that was raised allows her to retire with dignity. It would be nice if she put some of it toward a non-profit that helps victims of bullying, but that’s her choice.
One of the things I’m extremely passionate about is animals (duh), and it breaks my heart that there are so many wonderful ones in shelters who need homes, while people continue to support puppy mills and breeders by purchasing pets from pet stores. There are so many misconceptions about strays, like they have more health problems than purebreds (actually, mixed-breeds are often healthier, because they’re not as inbred) or that they’re all mutts and you won’t be able to get the specific breed you want (not true, there are many purebreds in shelters whose owners were no longer able to care for them, for whatever reason).
And yes, shelters often have more stringent adoption requirements, such as a home visit, but that’s because they want to make sure people don’t adopt animals and then return them, especially since many people buy pets from pet stores (that perform no such safeguards) and then bring them to those very shelters. I’m hoping to adopt a pup as soon as I get a pet-friendly apartment (hopefully, in the next year), but until then, I’m going to post some photos of adorable, adoptable stray animals, for those of you who can find some room in your homes and hearts for an incredible animal that deserves a better life.
So! Here is your first Adoptable Dog of the Day: Owen. He’s a 4-year-old Italian greyhound who is clearly cute as all heck and has awesome taste in sweaters. For information about how to meet and possibly adopt Owen, visit his Petfinder page.
The 83-Year-Old Money Tree
Aside from being a nurse on the island for the past 53 years, the 5-foot-2 mother of seven is the sole administrator of the Mary D. Fund, a charity meant to help the 1,000 or so residents who call Block Island their year-round home.
Donnelly has only two stipulations: One, that applicants be year-round residents, and, two, that they let her pay the bills herself so that they don’t take the money and blow it all at the Poor People’s Pub (until recently the Albion), a local dive bar.
“I always just say, ‘I am only able to pay this much this month and, p.s., I think you need a class in money management,” she said. “People write me back and say that I’m the rudest person they’ve ever met, but I have to say it.”
I loved this article in the New York Times Magazine about a woman on Block Island who helps her neighbors pay their bills. I wonder if I ever ran into her — I grew up going there every summer and went to the tiny Medical Center quite a few times with my accident-prone brother.
This Summer, the Guilt Is Gratis
Do you have a minute for gay rights? How about Planned Parenthood? The A.S.P.C.A.? Greenpeace? Save the clock tower?
It’s that season again. Of the many telltale hallmarks of summer in New York City perhaps the most unsung are the sidewalk volunteers. See them stationed there in their matching neon T-shirts, facing each other at either end of the block, requesting your personal information and your money. The world is their foosball table, and you are their teeny-tiny ball.
Sidewalk charity hustlers give me way more anxiety than they should. I know they have very difficult jobs but they stress me out. When I first moved to the city, I unwittingly fell into their trap and stopped a couple times to listen to their spiels. But now I avoid eye contact with them and hustle right past with a meek smile and maybe a “sorry.”
Last weekend, I was sitting in the park reading when one actually sat down next to me, so I couldn’t even escape. I told him I didn’t have enough money to sponsor a child and he asked, “Oh, are you unemployed?” I saw my chance to make him go away and mumbled, “Sort of…” through gritted teeth (that is a complete lie — I am very much employed). Then I went shopping at Urban Outfitters and felt really guilty. But I volunteer! I donate to charity! Stop judging me, charity hustlers.
