The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
Elie Wiesel


Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. ~Robert F. Kennedy


We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
Marian Wright Edelman

03 September 2011

First Day...First Book



"We have a little girl in our program, a pre-school child. She liked her book so much, she slept with it every night under her pillow. She wouldn't part with it for anything!"

What's your favorite book? Do you remember the very first book that was your own, that maybe set you on the path to a lifetime of reading?
Though lots of kids have been Back to School already,  the day after Labor Day really feels like the first day of school as we turn the page into September and start thinking about putting the flip flops away.
"A teacher told us that when she asked her class to bring in a book from home, three of the students brought in the phone book because that was the only book they had" Kyle Zimmer, First Book

Many of us have warm fuzzy memories of our first day at school. For me I still love a new box of crayons and keep one on my desk, you never know when coloring will come in handy! The best part of any Back to School day for me though were the new books! I still have so many of the books from my early reading years and I credit them for starting my life long love of reading and collecting books.

There are so many kids,however, that don't have the joy of owning their very own books, a joy that goes such a long way toward creating a Reader.

That is where First Book comes in....First Book's commitment is to ensure that all kids have that special connection with books by giving children from low income families their First Book! Through community based mentoring and family literacy programs First Book has distributed over 85 million books and educational materials and resources to school and groups throughout the U.S. and Canada  since the program began in 1992.

With donations from Book sellers and publishers and corporate partnerships , First Book and its National Book Bank reaches children all across the country. In addition the First Book Marketplace sells books and educational materials at great discounts to organizations working with low income children and families.


In an independent Harris poll the results of First Book's model are impressive. The poll surveyed over 2,000 First Book participants and determined that " More than half of the children — 55% — reported having an increased interest in reading. Additionally, the number of young people demonstrating a "high interest in reading" nearly tripled (increasing from 23% to 61%) after receiving books from First Book."
Books are a treasure in my life and I cannot imagine my world without them. In celebration of Back to School Visit First Book   and help so many children get the gift that opens worlds.


"A young boy and I taught his mother how to read and we all cried for joy together. It couldn't have happened without First Book."   
Conquille Indian Tribe:

26 August 2011

One for Shoe, and One For Shoe-TOMS Gives Back "One for One"


"What if I started a shoe company and every time I sold a pair of shoes I gave a pair away and that way as long as I  continue to keep selling  shoes these kids would have shoes for the rest of their life"


In 2006,  Blake Mycoskie was traveling in  Argentina and found that so many children there had no shoes to protect their feet. Deciding that he wanted to help, Mycoskie created TOMS, a classic comfy and cool shoe company with an important mission-TOMS matches every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. "One for One". Partnering with humanitarian and health organizations TOMS and Mycoskie return year after year to provide shoes to the same kids as they grow.  So many children across the globe grow up without the most basic of needs,including shoes, putting them at risk of not only cuts and sores but also disease.  Wearing shoes also opens the doors to education for so many children as schools will not allow children to attend barefoot.


As of Sept 2010 1 million pairs of TOMS have been donated to children in need in 20 countries around the globe.


TOMS sells comfy eco-friendly and responsible footwear with a stylish twist. The best known TOMS are a slip-on espadrille style



The Artist Styles are among my favorites and  I love artist Mary Gregory's hand painted TOMS




TOMS are a great canvas to express a point of view-none more important than Blake Mycoskie's. Blake has published a new book about TOMS and his own mission to build a business that makes a difference-Start Something that Matters is sold on TOMS along with a Limited Edition pair of Carpe Diem TOMS



Also this fall TOMS is featuring Limited Edition cashmere TOMs-The Row-so now buy cashmere and do good too!


For more information on TOMS styles and the great campaign to help kids around the globe and how you can help--including One Day Without Shoes Awareness campaigns Visit TOMS. and ...



25 June 2011

A Good Cover-Out of Print, T Shirts with a Mission

Out of Print

Books are the treasured
wealth of the world
and the fit inheritance
of generations and nations.
-Henry David Thoreau

As long as I can remember I have loved old book shops.  They are few and far between in this country now, even in an old city like Boston. As we go digital and Kindle out our libraries, the feel of the page and the weight of the book in our hand connecting us to the words we read is getting lost, as is the experience of flipping through a dusty book that has been lovingly read by who knows how many adoring readers. Old books shops and independent bookstores are treasures, you never know what you will find and often you can  uncover some out of print covers.

When you roam the shelves of your favorite book shop searching for something new to read it is the cover that draws you in first-that cover must tell a story long before you turn the first page.  Book jacket art very often sells you the book, books with stories that you may hold dear and return to again and again.  A wonderful site, Out of Print ,celebrates classic and iconic book cover art, often from out of print editions of famous titles, and prints them on Ts that are  "...treated to feel soft and worn like a well-read book."  


 
T shirts are not only fun fashion,but also a way to make a statement. The Ts from Out of Print  not only  cheer great literary art and our love for all things with pages, but with every T sold  Out of Print  will donate a book to a community in need through Books for Africa, an organization dedicated to "ending the book famine in Africa" by collecting and distributing books to children in Africa and spreading the joy of books and reading. In October of last year after only 10 months Out of Print sent over 20,000 books to Africa.  
Out of Print also sells iPhone and e-reader covers with their cover art. Be sure to visit their blog with posts all about wonderful independent new and used bookshops and great literary finds.

12 March 2011

There but for the Grace-Horror in Japan

 In an age of high tech connectivity in which we are unceasingly bombarded with images and information I often wonder whether we can still be brought up short, shocked, stopped in our daily track.  The horror and unimaginable devastation the people of Japan are facing in the aftermath of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in the north coast of Japan,the largest earthquake in Japan's, history, followed by a ferocious tsunami- have done just that...
 It will be a very long time before the "numbers" tell the story-the extraordinary loss of infrastructure, homes, buildings and frighteningly loss of life is still unknown. For now we have the images that tell the world the story of people.
 We are all left paralyzed with disbelief  and feeling overwhelmingly helpless ...Yet act we must in any small way we can, if only to remind us that we are all connected, we are all residents of this planet and there but for the grace...Please Visit Network for Good for donation options including Doctors without Borders and Global Giving which has set up a Text Donation line-text JAPAN to 50555 to give $10

19 January 2011

A Servant of Peace-In Rememberance Sargent Shriver


"Be servants of peace. Weep with those who are sorrowful, rejoice with those who are joyful,teach those who are ignorant. Care for those who are sick. Serve your families. Serve your neighbors. Serve your cities. Serve the poor. Join others who serve. Serve,Serve, Serve! That's the challenge. For in the end it will be the servants who save us all."
1986,25th Anniversary of The Peace Corps

Fifty years ago John F. Kennedy took the oath of office and on that day he spoke of a new generation, of change, of a country that would and could reshape itself and the world ..."the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.… Now the trumpet summons us again.… I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it." The new President ended his remarks with a challenge to every citizen -"Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

Robert Sargent Shriver would become the face and the embodiment of that request..the personification of a call to a generation through his life work.  Perhaps best known as the founding director of the Peace Corps in Shriver's guiding hand The Peace Corps would help to fulfill the challenge that President Kennedy set in his inaugural speech on that cold blustery January day 50years ago.

“Working with the Peace Corps should not be like working with another government agency. We have a special mission which can only be accomplished if everyone believes in it and works for it in a manner consistent with the ideals of service and volunteerism.”...“The Peace Corps represents some, if not all, of the best virtues in this society. It stands for everything that America has ever stood for. It stands for everything we believe in and hope to achieve in the world.”

Sargent Shriver's entire life was about that word Service-to his country and to the world. He redefined how Peace and Justice can in fact be reached through that service, bringing dignity and humanity with every step. The founding Director of the Peace Corps, and architect of President Johnson's  War on Poverty, Shriver demonstrated that the goals of peace and justice are not dreamy idealist notions, but legitimate goals that can be achieved through practical purpose and application.

"If the war on poverty means anything, it is a statement that we must look-not just to the poor-but to the whole cloth too-and even to the loom. The whole fabric of our society must be rewoven-and the patterns we must weave are patterns of justice,opportunity,dignity and mutual respect" 1966

Sargent Shriver believed that indeed the world could change, that people helping people was a mandate for who we are as a society and as human beings.

"Peace will happen not from the absence of war but from the presence of love. The kind of love that will see to it that men have enough food to eat,enough clothes to wear wear, enough houses to live in." Barcelona 1968

Shriver implemented programs and policies built to create lasting change and have a real impact on real lives...programs he described as a "formula for practical idealism" As the Peace Corps approaches its 50th anniversary it has seen over 200,000 corps volunteers do what Shriver envisioned ..Serve!- in over 139 countries.

 
"Break mirrors", Mr. Shriver told graduating students at Yale in 1994. "... Shatter the glass. In our society that is so self-absorbed, begin to look less at yourself and more at each other. Learn more about the face of your neighbor and less about your own.”

For more on the life and work of Sargent Shriver Visit  Sargent Shriver and The Peace Corps

Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver

21 November 2010

Shop Small!!

I have always loved to shop small...local shops with hand selected merchandise and personal attention to detail and service.  I avoid chain stores like the plague---racks after racks of "the same".  Have you ever noticed that you can be dropped into any state and town and go to "The Mall" and they ALL look alike-same shops, same restaurants, same plants, same music...how boring, how impersonal! As consumers we have become numb and almost programmed that when we need to shop we head for a mall...but turn around...go local!

 Growing up I would shop along with my Mom in our town's "Centre". The bakery, the pharmacy, the shoe store, the clothing shops, the grocery store, the fruit store, the deli, the card shop, the beauty shop, the dry cleaner, penny candy at Woolworth's, a slice of pizza and a movie were all located in one square area. The Center was a destination and from one end of the Center to the other you could find whatever you needed. 

In the late 80s and 90s small towns across the country were hit very hard  as stores shuttered their doors and  many Main Street centers became ghost towns with crumbling old buildings and no one stopping as they drove through .  Recent years have seen a wonderful resurgence and revival --restoration of lovely old architecture and spaces filling with wonderful specialty stores, excellent restaurants and service shops.  We are learning to rediscover that Main Street is The street.  I love that I can park once and visit my local bank, dry cleaner, the shoemaker, grab lunch, pick up anything any  house could ever need at the hardware store on the corner, buy a wedding gift, mail a card, pick up a book to read, have my hair cut, get my nails done...
all by business owners who know me and are there to help and keep me coming back.
 As the daughter of a small business owner I grew up in a retail world where customers were familiar faces and families grew up shopping in my Dad's store. I of course am a small business owner so I know the importance of customer loyalty to a small businesses survival. Now more than ever there are so many ways to shop and acquire goods and services...the competition from on line resources is staggering... that is why I love this idea of Small Business Saturday supported by American Express- Saturday November 27, the day after Black Friday is a day to support and applaud the small businesses we love to visit on our Main Street.  RSVP on Facebook and receive a $25 American Express credit for shopping at your favorite small businesses on Small Business Saturday....and if you "like" Small Business Saturday on Facebook American Express will donate $1 to Girls Inc., one of my favorite organizations "Inspiring all Girls to be Strong, Smart, and Bold"  American Express will donate up to 1 million dollars to help encourage a new generation of women entrepreneurs-Go Girls!!  Please click and support  Girls Inc!  ...and remember to Go! into town and Shop Small on Saturday!

16 November 2010

Easy as Pie!



It seems like Halloween was just here...the days are zipping by and the pumpkins and witches are still on the front walk...not to mention the candy wrappers on the lawn! With the bags of Halloween candy gone that can only mean it is time to talk Turkey-actually if you have visited a mall lately Santa is about to appear at any moment!

It is true that from the kitchen perspective Thanksgiving is all about THE Bird...but let's be honest THE Bird is just the exit ramp to PIE!..Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Potato Pie, Pecan Pie, Apple Pie..somehow, some way, Yes, there is always room for pie. But did you know that "Pie Heals"??!!

Once again this year Community Servings, an organization that delivers free meals to critically ill patients, is holding their Very Special annual event Pie in the Sky .- A Grand Bake Sale featuring pies baked from some of the city's best known kitchens, with the proceeds from each pie benefiting a Community Servings client...and today is Pie Day in Boston-Visit the Pru for a slice of pie, learn more about Pie in the Sky and participate in the "Spot the Pie Slice" contest.







Since 1993, each November over 150 of the Boston area's best bakers from restaurants, bakeries, caterers and hotels-including Au Soleil Bakery, The Catered Affair, Les Zygomates and The Beacon Hill Hotel and Bistro-donate thousands of pies that volunteers sell and deliver-this is truly the "World's Greatest Bake Sale" resulting in over 15% of Community Servings fundraising.

Community Servings was founded by members of the Boston restaurant community as a way to provide nutrition to AIDS patients. The organization now serves all critically ill patients with the goal being "to maintain their health and dignity, to preserve the integrity of their families, to provide nutritionally and culturally appropriate meals, and to send the message that someone cares" In this economic climate the need is greater than ever.



Each pie is $25 which is the cost of a week's worth of free healthy meals delivered to Community Serving's clients. Last year Pie in the Sky helped raise funds to deliver meals to 725 critically ill, homebound, patients and their families throughout Greater Boston.
Thanksgiving is not about Turkey, and it is not even about pie!..it is about Giving Thanks, Being Grateful for Blessings and Serving Grace. Please Visit Pie in the Sky and purchase Apple, Sugar-Free Apple, Pecan, Pumpkin, or Sweet Potato pies to help Community Servings provide their critically ill clients with hearty, healthy home-delivered meals... or donate a pie to a family without this season. Order by November 20th. Pie-It's a good thing!

21 August 2010

Old Time, Best Time-The Old Time Babseball Game


These images may conjure up the "ideal" of Old Time Baseball, via Hollywood of course, but for those of us who were not around to watch the game played in flannel there is an annual event that brings back those days.  Each summer  on a Cambridge Massachusetts neighborhood field  The Old Time Baseball Game  is played to celebrate the game we love and its traditions "...offering a glimpse of what it was like in the old days, when hundreds of fans would turn out to root for their “town” team in various local semipro leagues."


What could be better than an August evening sitting watching baseball played for the "love of the game"...without the high tech flash, bazillion dollar contracts, whining superstars, huge ticket prices or lengthy television breaks  of today's pro game...baseball  where the game is the star.


Now in its 17th year, The Old Time Baseball Game is a terrific event which gives a loving  bow to baseball's past and a  look forward as young prospects, college players and even some retired pros take the field in original baseball uniforms in a small town game atmosphere at St. Peter's Field in Cambridge.


The original uniforms and the history take the spotlight but it is really the charity support that wins this game each year. A tip of the cap to Old Time Baseball founder and organizer Boston Herald columnist, sports commentator and baseball historian, Steve Buckley, author of Wicked Good Year for his all his work to make this annual fundraiser a special night for baseball lovers .
 This year's game will be played Wednesday August 25th at 7pm at St. Peter's Field on Sherman Street in Cambridge. For more information Visit  Old Time Baseball Game
Donations can be made to this year's recipient:
The Mary Jaye Cherella Memorial Fund for SIDS Research
c/o The Old Time Baseball Game

PO Box 727
North Andover, MA 01845
obgcambridge@gmail.com