Two Good Deeds for You, One for Me

Well, after my breakdown a couple of months ago when I was afraid the kids would never care about anyone but themselves, they did some pretty cool things. For starters, after I told them that many children in Haiti can't go to school, and that it only costs $60 to send a child to school in Haiti (http://www.yele.org/projects/primary-school-scholarships.html), they decided to act. We spent the month of August not eating out, which I figured counts for about $40 each time we go out as a family, and we maybe go out once/week. This meant that we could send two kids to school. AND, they held me to it if I even suggested we go grab a bite out for dinner. Pretty cool.

Then, they made, and continue to make necklaces that they are selling to raise money for Clean Water for Haiti (http://www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org/). They were pretty incredulous at the idea of kids not having access to clean water, so their necklaces each have a teardrop shape in the center to represent the water. The neighbor kids have also gotten involved and helped out too. They are selling them for $3 each and the first day they did it (they hook people in via a lemonade stand and then show off their necklaces), they raised $42, enough to buy a filter + installation that can serve a village for 20 years! So cool! They were motivated and made more necklaces (let me know if you're interested in one - they'll be proud to have you on board!). Their goal is to have enough to donate 3 of them ($120).

I think it's awesome, but they are still kids after all, and today they demonstrated that with this suggestion. "Maybe after we get enough to buy 3 of the filters, maybe our next sale would be to raise money for a treehouse?" OK, I have to give them a break. At least they're getting it!