Special Offer for You, a Student and the Food Bank

Earlier this year, I wrote about a special rejuvenation retreat that would transport you both in body – all the way to Vietnam – and mind. Not only did it promise to pump you up in all the ways that count, but part of the fees paid by each participant would also send a child to school for a year.

If you missed that event, maybe you’re still hankering for an experience that will bring you into caves, up mountains, and across breathtaking bays, all the while getting your yoga on. (Apparently you can also look forward to some pretty mouthwatering cellophane noodles.) Lucky for you, you can get in on the next Adventure Yoga Retreat, scheduled for December 22, 2013, to January 4, 2014.

And it gets even better: Loyal readers, if you use the promotion code 50GOODDEEDS when you book your spot, our hosts at the World Karma Project will knock $800 off the retreat price. Plus our good friends will donate another $100 to charity. I’ve chosen Food Banks Canada, because even hungry folks here at home deserve cellophane noodles (or soup and peanut butter).

Bottom line: You get your dream trip, a Vietnamese kid gets educated, and some Canadian children get fed. Who was it who said you can’t always get what you want?

Small Act, Big Tears

If you happen to live in or near Toronto, don’t miss your chance to see a powerful film – for free. Chris Mburu was a bright but poor boy in Kenya who couldn’t afford to pay for an education. Hilde Back, living in Sweden, was a Holocaust survivor who thought she ought to address some of the need in the world. It “felt natural,” she said, to donate money to a child – in this case, $15 per school term through a Kenyan aid organization – but she wondered what became of the boy she sponsored. Had her help made any difference? And then some. Chris, a Harvard Law School graduate, works today as a human rights lawyer for the United Nations, advocating for a better life for people around the world. As a tribute to Hilde, Chris founded his own scholarship fund in his Kenyan village, now educating a cascade of new kids.

“You cannot change the entire world,” Chris says in A Small Act, the documentary that traces the giant, global impact of Hilde’s single act of kindness. “So, sometimes it’s just as good to help one child.”

Any film whose trailer makes you choke up is worth checking out, don’t you think? A Small Act is showing at 6:30 next Wednesday, September 19, at the Isabel Bader Theatre. And did I mention admission is free?

Happy Blogday

Know what’s special about today’s message? Hint: It involves cake… at least it will if you send me some. Welcome to the 200th post of the 50 Good Deeds blog! It’s hard to believe, but this blog has been alive for just about two years.

As my celebratory gift to you, I’ve got security camera footage and photographs that will make you smile, and remind you that we’re all driven to do good. Enjoy the links, and don’t believe the critics. We are an unselfish species. Our survival depends on it.

Even if we don’t have cake, there’s no shortage of good wishes from me to all of you. Thank you for your visits, your comments (both online and off), your warm reception! I couldn’t have made it to 200 posts without knowing you were along for the ride.

If you don’t have access to a kitchen, I’ll accept flowers too…

What a Way to Pad Your Résumé

You know what day it is today, don’t you? It’s Tampon Tuesday – or “Maxi Mardi,” If you happen to live in Montreal. No, it’s not a day dedicated to feminine hygiene. (We kind of hope you take care of that pretty much every day on your own.) Rather, one Tuesday a month, Jack Astor’s Bar & Grill restaurants in three Canadian cities collect donations of tampons and pads for the food bank, in exchange for an evening of free food and business networking.

See, when you’re living close to the poverty line, it gets mighty expensive to host your Aunt Flo for five to seven days. With Tampon Tuesday, this monthly event makes it easier to, well, cope with your monthlies.

The first Tampon Tuesday was launched two years ago in London, Ontario. According to organizers, over 4,000 boxes of feminine hygiene products have been collected thus far. And now the initiative has expanded to restaurants in Toronto and Montreal. So if you live in one of these cities and don’t have plans for later, why not put on a suit, buy a pack of Kotex, and come make connections?

It’s a worthy cause. And giving is good. Period.

Have a Heart. Then Give It Away.

I know this blog usually spreads good news. And I apologize in advance if that’s what you’re counting on. I don’t mean to bum you out on Valentine’s Day, of all days, when every moment should be filled with candy and sticky kisses and almost unbearable sweetness.

But today’s story is bad news. Specifically, it’s a new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) about organ donation – or, rather, organ non-donation. CIHI says that the number of organs donated over the past five years has not gone up, while the need for the organs has been rising. End result? A wider gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Organ donation is a supreme act of generosity. It can happen if you’re living or dead – depending on the organ, of course. There are some you really can’t manage without. Others, you won’t really miss.

Organ donation saves buckets of money in health care, and makes life a heck of a lot more pleasant for the person who gets the new kidney or liver lobe. Yet thousands of Canadians are waiting every year, and some don’t survive.

What can you do? Sign your organ donor card, or, depending where you live, join an online registry. Have a body parts pow-wow: Tell your next of kin what you want done with your vitals after you no longer need them. Spread the word.

Then kiss a loved one. Because it is, after all, still Valentine’s Day.

Dozens of Canadians are waiting for a heart transplant they may never get. Won’t you be their valentine?

Ha Long Bay, Hello!

This isn’t something my own personal post-holiday bank balance will permit me to indulge in, but it could be a dream trip for someone who has the cash ($4,300 plus tax) and the time (March 3 to 17). It’s called the Adventure Yoga Retreat and it’s a way of doing a good deed for yourself and for others at the same time.

The “yoga” part is probably self-explanatory. The “adventure” part refers to the fact that you’ll be doing your sun salutations and downward dogs on beautiful Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, home of hundreds of breathtaking limestone islets and caves. Organizer Adam Quang, a yoga, tai chi and meditation instructor in Toronto, chose this location because of the epiphany he himself felt while kayaking at sunset here. In his words, “Suddenly, I feel so alive – as if every sense of my being is expanding… I feel connected to all beings… In this moment I think, ‘This is what I want people to experience!’”

Adam connected with me recently through a mutual friend. He thought his work might be right up my alley – he was right. Adam has founded an initiative called the World Karma Project to encourage acts of kindness, which he believes can prevent wars and eradicate hate. According to his math (I haven’t verified this because big numbers intimidate me), if one person performed one good deed per month, and each of those twelve recipients performed good deeds for twelve more people, then by the time this karmic pandemic has spread eight times, over 5 billion people will have been touched by kindness.

Now because Adam is all about building up your own karma bank, part of the money you pay to go on his Ha Long Bay retreat will send a Vietnamese child to school for a year. Another portion will be donated to a trust fund for the family of a Toronto woman who was killed in a cycling accident. It’s the first time Adam has put together a retreat like this, so if you want to get in on the Ashtanga action, click here to learn more.

Namaste!

That’s the Ticket

Wouldn’t you rather pay for your parking tickets with karma instead of cash? Yesterday a B.C.-based parking management company was offering a special deal to drivers with past parking violations: Bring your unpaid tickets to one of four Salvation Army locations, donate a new toy for a needy child for the holiday season, and wipe your record crystal-clean. A spokesperson for the Imperial Parking Canada Corporation (Impark) claimed there’d be no limit imposed. Got 10, 11, 12 tickets? Give a dozen Let’s Rock Elmos or Nerf Vortex Nitron Blasters, and all fines would be forgiven.

It’s dubbed Toys for Tickets. “It’s a spectacular event. It usually draws a huge crowd,” Senior VP Julian Jones told a reporter in the week leading up to the event. “We raise just a huge number of toys and it’s a great amount of goodwill.”

All in all, thousands of unpaid parking tickets – along with even more toys – were turned in yesterday to four B.C. locations. “The people were very generous with the toys that they donated. It was beyond successful,” an obviously elated Sally-Ann spokesperson told the media.

If you live elsewhere in Canada and have a big heart (not to mention a sordid history of parking violations), take note. Toys for Tickets events are planned for other communities in the upcoming weeks, like Red Deer and St. Albert in Alberta, and Niagara Falls and Oshawa in Ontario.

Now if only someone would launch a Toys for Utility Bills…

DON’T Curb Your Enthusiasm

Dear readers, happy International Enthusiasm Week! According to the cloud, September 1 to 7 is dedicated to demonstrating enthusiasm for every person, project and possibility you happen to meet. So if total strangers beam at you, babble happily to your adorable (but of course he is) baby, or gush over your midcentury-chic skirt, they’re probably just getting into the spirit of the season.

Of course, it could be that they’re in a good mood because today also happens to be a birthday shared by a trio of Hollywood hunks, namely Keanu Reeves, Mark Harmon and Tuc Watkins. (I don’t want to play favourites, but let’s just say that Keanu is the only one whose name appears on my freebie list.) And there’s lots of other celebrations going on right now, too: September is Biscuit Month, Chicken Month, Yoga Month and Head Lice Prevention Month. So very many reasons to smile.

Seriously, though, I don’t think we need to confine our enthusiasm for others to a single week of the year, do we? Just as it’s not a good idea to save nit inspections for only September. But if establishing an International Enthusiasm Week gets more people practising positive vibes in their daily lives, then why not? Right now I’m feeling very enthusiastic about a strong cup of coffee. Does that count?

What, or who, are you enthusiastic about this week?

How soon do we start?

The Party’s Just Beginning

What do you call a blog that’s 100 posts old? If it was human, it would be a centenarian. So what… a centebloggian? Doesn’t that sound like some kind of hybrid alien with horse legs and a penchant for archery? Be that as it may, as of today, 50 Good Deeds is officially a centebloggian. Thanks to all of you for visiting, reading and commenting along the way to 100 posts.

While we’re on the topic of vocabulary, to celebrate this blog’s milestone I thought it would be fun to share a good-deeds glossary of sorts. (I hope you like it, too. As a wordie, I tend to overestimate the degree of entertainment in this kind of activity.)

Here are a few of the captivating words and phrases I’ve come across in my explorations about niceness.

Helpers’ high: Better than recreational drugs, that feeling of euphoria and well-being after doing something for another person.

Oxytocin: Better than prescription drugs, a hormone triggered by acts of compassion towards others. Oxytocin, also known as the bonding hormone, makes us feel loved and connected.

Elevation: The emotional lift you get from observing a good deed in action. Warning: Elevation has been known to raise your risk of performing additional kindnesses.

Karma dollar: That lost looney you randomly find on the sidewalk. To complete the cycle of karma, it should be given away charitably. Urban myth states that you will be rewarded later with extra-good luck.

Kargasm: The explosively fabulous feeling that results from the above-mentioned act of feeding your own karma with kind behaviours.

Soul cash: The result of taking good deeds straight to the bank for a deposit… into your inner character.

Compassion-altruism axis: The term coined for the regions of the brain that are activated when we feel empathy and compassion.

Thanks again for being part of my first 100 posts! Enjoy the celebration! I’d have brought cake, but I know it’ll go straight to my axis.

Running in Undies

Kudos to thousands of students across the continent who are streaking around campus this month in their underwear. The Undie Run is an annual awareness event to raise funds and clothing donations for people in need. It seems its three founders have hit on a winning combination, as they express on their website a collective fondness for charity, college and running around in nothing but skivvies.

One post-secondary institution that participated this year for the first time was the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The school managed to corral a couple of hundred of its students into stripping down for a good cause, and collected 440 pounds of donated clothing in the process. What was one student’s motivation? As he told his local paper, “How often can you run around campus in your underwear without being considered a total weirdo?” Apparently that works for a lot of people.

But being the fickle month of May, it turned out to be rather chilly and drizzly the day of the event. Co-founder Kyle Kuhlmann says they’re thinking about switching the annual skinfest to a warmer time of year, since it might possibly attract more participants. (Ya think?)

In the meantime, pants off – I mean, hats off to all of them for coming up with a fun way to support an important cause. Smells like teen spirit for sure.