A Southern Fairytale

I know that every Monday we do Mouthwatering Mondays and I share a recipe with y’all and y’all in turn, share your recipes with me and each other.

However, this week’s recipe is a recipe of a different kind.  Something special that is near and dear to my heart.  So, Mouthwatering Monday is on pause until next week and after you read this post I hope that you’ll understand why and that you’ll be inspired to create a ‘recipe’ of your own and share it with others.

Cancer.

It’s an ugly, scary word.  It’s even uglier and scarier when it’s combined with the words kids, pediatric, children…

I’ve always known that kids get cancer, I see the commercials and the donation jars at the local Dairy Queen.  However, it wasn’t until stumbling across Hope4Peyton and reading about Peyton and Anissa and Peter and Rachael and Nathaniel that it started to really touch me.  Then, I met Anissa and became friends with her.  It was then, listening to my friend’s fears and triumphs that Childhood Cancer became real for me.  It had a name.  A face.  A person.  It was real.

So, when I was contacted about working with Glad to get the word out about their partnership with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, I couldn’t say Yes fast enough.  The campaign, called Glad to Give, is committed to raising money to support pediatric cancer research through bake sales.

Glad is spreading information about Childhood Cancer, sharing knowledge and opening eyes:

For example, did you know:

• Pediatric Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among children in the U.S.
• Every day, 36 children are diagnosed with Cancer
• 3 in 5 kids suffer long-term effects from Cancer treatments
• 1 in 5 children diagnosed with Cancer dies

Those are painful for me to write and even more painful to read when you realize those facts are about children.

So, today as part of my partnership with Glad to Give Campaign (yes, this is a sponsored post.  But, the passion, the emotion, the feeling, the sentiment, the heart, the opinions.. those are 100% mine.  Y’all know me.  You know this)   I am sharing my family’s recipe for caring, sharing and donating; not just money, but time.

There is nothing more valuable than your time.

In college, my sorority’s philanthropy was the Ronald McDonald House and I remember visiting there to put in our *hours* and being moved to my very core.  I was a teenager and I remember walking in the house and being shocked.  I’d expected a place full of sadness and despair and instead, I walked into a house full of hope and laughter and love.  Strength the likes of which I had never even imagined, smiles where I couldn’t have believed smiles possible.

My children are still small, young and while our volunteering with them hasn’t gone as far as I envision it going, we’ve done/we do small things.  Last year Princess went with my family to serve Thanksgiving to the homeless at the local shelter (Monkey and I stayed back because he was too young to take).  There was a passion in their eyes when they returned along with a humility that we could all benefit from experiencing.

My children earn money for small tasks, they divide it into spend, save and donate.  They get to choose where their money is donated.  Every few months we go through their clothes (holy cow do these kids grow like weeds!), their toys, shoes etc…  and they choose things to donate; they then decide where those items go.. the children’s shelter, Goodwill, Salvation Army etc…

I want my children to grow up caring, seeing beyond themselves and realizing that what may seem a small gesture to them, is actually the recipe to changing the world.

For more ideas on how to get involved like how to host your own bake sale, donate to the cause, or to enter your family’s recipe for volunteering, visit Glad To Give

In fact, if you visit and tell how your family gives back, you’ll be entered to win $1000; which you can keep, or donate to a good cause, like Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.

I’d love for you to share with me how y’all give back and how you teach (or plan to teach) your kids about giving and sharing and caring.