Do not confuse the title as I have when telling people about this adventure. It’s not trash for teachers or teaching trash or trashy teachers. I’m pretty sure that last one is a movie of sorts. No. Trash for Teaching or T4T is a non-profit, which collects clean and safe cast off materials from the manufacturing process and then repurposes them as art supplies and teaching tools. As their slogan says, “Minimizing Waste. Maximizing education.” I thought the idea of using unwanted manufacturing... [Read more]

This Earth Day I thought I would give you something to do so you can avoid watching another tree planting ceremony (it’s just as painful live as on TV – don’t kid yourself). Get out and actually make a difference instead of watching other people do it. 1) Computer Recycling  – Help bridge the digital divide by donating your computer to a reuse group like: Computer Recycling Center  or Per Scholas  . They will restore the machine and then give it to a non-profit, group or individual... [Read more]

Doubting Toms – I have proven you wrong yet again! KIVA.org – Volunteer Journal #38 for those of you who need to read up – worked. Totally worked and was easy. I kid you not. Nothing to be scared of dear ones. No, I’m not on their payroll. Thing is… you should always give credit where credit is due and this organization is genius so they are going to get some mad props from me right now… KIVA.org combines microfinance with the internet to enable people to lend small amounts (or... [Read more]

“He’s going to kill himself and I’m going to be held responsible.” That was my thought at least a dozen times while volunteering for Burton’s CHILL program at Mountain High Ski Resort. The CHILL program takes underprivileged teens to local mountains for snowboarding lessons one day a week for six weeks. Equipment and lift tickets come care of Burton. Some of the kids have never seen the mountains before, though many live within an hour drive of a range. Because my life had been a rollercoaster... [Read more]

One of the most head slapping-ly logical groups I helped last year was Food Forward. Their brilliant concept boils down to – You have fruit trees in your yard that need picking. We have hungry people in LA. We will come pick your tree for free, give you tax credit, and give the fruit to the hungry. Problems solved. I picked oranges with them in July and ever since then I have been halfway obsessed with unpicked fruit trees of any kind. I walk around my neighborhood in a twist over orange and... [Read more]

I’m sorry. Not just for the title of this project which was…mmm…lacking… but because it’s taken me so long to summarize my volunteering experience. I kind of got back handed by life about a week after I cut my hair and I’m still trying to stand up. The good news is I have almost found my footing and expect to be my old snarky self shortly. At this point I should say something profound about the 50 volunteer projects and how they changed my life. Of course they did – anything... [Read more]

I think this volunteer episode is better told with bad photography (see below). Disjointed thoughts on my final volunteer mission: It’s fortunate that I was doing this haircut for charity and for this blog or, honestly, it would not have happened. The morning of the scheduled chop I was face down in bed with my hands stretched beside me like a drowned Ophelia mumbling, “It’s for the children. I’m going to look like Peter Pan on Broadway. It’s for the children.” Days earlier I had... [Read more]