Twenty Five Day to Make a Difference

As a blogger, I've spent almost two years now working to support local and international causes. In December of 2007, I devoted each day of the month to doing good deeds in memory of my grandfather, who died unexpectedly. Helping others helped me feel better. I challenged those who read my blog to do the same. On Christmas night, I pledged to give away my allowance to the person who did the most. Thanks to the unexpected generosity of some readers, I was able to donate $800 instead of the mere $25 I intended to. I also kept blogging, because I knew that I had readers. Throughout 2008, I devoted one month of service and fundraising to each of the following charities/causes: Ski4E Compass House Roswell Park The Pajama Program Cheerful Givers Suneel's Light The SPCA I spent an entire year working closely with these organizations to try to figure out where I could make the most difference as a kid. In the end, I realized that Compass House was the best local organization for me to support long-term. I continue to do a lot of service work for them. However, I also continue to help other organizations as well, including the Special Olympics, the Buffalo Greyhound Adoption group, and even my local library. Because of my blogging efforts, many other children and adults have begun doing similar work. I've also been able to connect with other kids who are interested in making a difference and sharing what they do online using social networking tools like I do. A few months ago, I worked with my mom and Jenny Luca, a teacher from Australia who I met because of my blog, to launch a ning called Working Together to Make a Difference. This is a place where MANY people can come together to serve others, share what they are doing, and support each other. It's awesome! It's really cool to see some kids and teachers joining that community. I would like to see even more! I love doing service work, blogging about it, and inspiring others. I think one of the biggest problems out there is that kids don't think they can make a difference, so they don't try. My blog project seems to inspire kids to make an effort. I also try to share ideas for how they can do this. More kids should be able to do the sort of things that I do, and they should also be able to blog about it. They don't because they don't know how and they don't have the resources to do it. I would like to solve that problem. I would like to inspire even more kids to make a difference and share what they do online, because it inspires others to do the same. I'd especially like to do this for kids who are grieving in some way, like I was. My project helped me deal with the loss of my grandpa, and it also inspired others to make a difference. I'd like to show other kids how they could do the same.