Bitchin' Charities

So.
Charity.
Something that I've noticed is that people don't really get fired up about charities.  Sure, people think that cancer is bad and cancer research is great, but nobody really gets passionate about it until they or someone in their family needs that money.  Everyone else is surprisingly passive about giving to others.  Not negative or greedy, just not excited about it.

What can we do about this problem?

I have thought long and hard about this and I have come up with a solution.

Find your charity.  Find a charity that is fun and cool and interesting.  Find a charity that gives to a cause that you really care about.  Stick to it.  You don't even have to give money, but spread the word to spread the love, ya know what I'm sayin'?

There are so many awesome charities out there for you to give a damn about.  You can give to something big like Malaria No More, which fights malaria.  Malaria is one of the worst things in the world today.

You can do a video gaming marathon with your friends for Child's Play.  Child's Play not only donates fun games to children in need, but is a great excuse for you to do nothing but play video games for days.  But Mooooooom! It's for charity!
 



You can sponsor an entrepreneur in Africa with Kiva for as little as $25.  You give microloans to people across the globe and work to alleviate poverty, which is pretty awesome, actually.




 You could donate to the hilariously named Gotham City Kitties Inc.  They are a non profit shelter dedicated to the rescue and placement of abandoned and stray cats and kittens.

Gah! Cute!

Each of these is for a great cause.  Plus, most of them are really fun, too.  Choose your crusade.  Bug you friends.
My choice of charity is an organization called the Rapunzel Project.  They are an organizations that promotes a way that cancer patients can keep their hair through chemo.  Cancer patients can buy these "cold caps".  You put them in a medical freezer and freeze them to, like, dry ice temperatures.  They freeze your hair follicles so your hair doesn't soak up the saline from your bloodstream.  It has a 90% success rate! Problem is, the medical freezers run about $2,500 each, so they don't have one in most hospitals.  There is only 1 in Illinois (Skokie) and 3 in Texas.  However, the Rapunzel Project is working to put freezers in as many hospitals as possible.  Cold caps can be a bit pricey, but, typically, insurance covers the cost.
Losing your hair won't kill you, but it is incredibly disheartening.  Being able to keep it is a huge morale booster.  Like I said.  Won't save lives, but that does not mean it won't change them for the better.

www.rapunzelproject.org
www.mariomarathon.com/howto.html‎
www.childsplaycharity.org
www.petfinder.com/shelters/NY337.html
www.kiva.org
www.malarianomore.org