Posted in Children, Education, Literacy, volunteering, tagged Donors Choose, helping teachers, learning disabilities, predictable books on March 31, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Our 2010 Classroom
Last year, during Week 17 Impact Kids, through Donors Choose, we donated toward the purchase of books for a school in South Carolina. Recently, as a follow up to our support, we were asked to participate in a brief survey. In return, we received five free! $25 coupons to be used toward any project on their website.
Posted in carbon footprint, Earth Hour, Eco-Friendly, Energy-Efficiency, Environment, tagged climate change, Earth Hour, Earth Hours, energy conservation, standby power, vampire power on March 30, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Baaa .... Baaaad
Well, we indeed made it through our 12 “Earth HourS” this past Saturday. It was an interesting experiment, some things to be proud of, but we’re also both feeling a bit sheepish.
We chose 6:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 26th, 2011 as our Earth HourS — when we would do our best to be conscious and try not to consume energy. We chose this day and these hours because we knew it would be a “normal day” of tasks focused at home. A day of hiking in the country would show us nothing about our normal home consumption. (more…)
Posted in carbon footprint, Earth Hour, Energy-Efficiency, Environment, tagged Earth Hour, earth hour 2011. earth hour 2010 on March 25, 2011 |
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 26th, 2011, at 8:30 p.m. local time, people all around the world will be participating in Earth Hour. Nils and I won’t be able to join in, so we’re going to try something else — a little experiment.
We’re going to do Earth HourS! Starting from the time we normally wake up (around 6:30 a.m.) through until 6:30 pm when we leave to go to friends’ for dinner (hence the non-participation on our part), we’re going to do our best to reduce our energy consumption to its absolute minimum. We’ll see how conscious we can be — and we’ll take note of our “indulgences”, if any. (more…)
Posted in Disaster Relief, volunteering, tagged Ärzte Ohne Grenzen, disaster relief, doctors without borders, earthquake, earthquake relief, earthquake relief fund, Japan, Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, tsunami on March 20, 2011 | 7 Comments »
When we left you last Sunday with the posting on “Helping Japan’s Earthquake and Tsunami Victims“, I was still contemplating how to use my/our personal talents to help raise money for the cause. As I’ve mentioned in earlier postings, I’m not so clever in arts and crafts. So, finding talents I could use to raise money was no simple effort, and frankly, frustrating. This particular disaster hits a personal chord. Though a second-generation born American, I hold a soft spot in my heart for the country of my ancestors. I want to do something extra special to help and support.
After not a small amount of digging about — through my brain and bookcases — I decided on two things that I do well, enjoy doing, and that maybe we could somehow make “monetizable.” Meanwhile, Nils was prepared to look into providing the venue and “market” (his workplace and colleagues at Ernst & Young Austria). (more…)
Posted in Disaster Relief, tagged disaster relief, doctors without borders, earthquake, earthquake relief, earthquake relief fund, Japan, prayforjapan, Salvation Army, save the children, the Red Cross, tsunami on March 13, 2011 |
Please check in periodically: We’ll be doing our best to add ideas as they come in/we discover them.
In December of last year, ABC News in the U.S. reported that 2010 was “the deadliest year (by natural disasters) in more than a generation.” We watched tragedy after catastrophe as Mother Earth wielded her ax and reminded us of her power. We, and many friends and followers, did what we could to support relief efforts.
Unfortunately, 2011 is not off to a great start with the New Zealand earthquake last month, followed by Friday’s earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear plant explosion in Japan. Each time, I tell myself I must be getting immune to seeing the suffering and devastation. But, each time I feel my heart break again. One cannot help but be shocked and moved by the images of this most recent catastrophe. One cannot help but want to do something. (more…)
Posted in What is 52 Weeks on March 9, 2011 |
52WeeksofImpact.org has been suffering growing pains since it celebrated its first birthday in January. “Who are we?” “What do we want to be?” “We’ve already been there, done that.” “What’s next?” I’m finding it’s not unlike going through a growth spurt, puberty or a mid-life crisis.
As mentioned before, the initial 52 weeks (during 2010) served as a catalyst toward Nils and my building a larger, sustainable project that we hope to launch in early 2012. With all we need to do to make that happen, we decided to become more providers of information for our blog followers and less active participants in weekly Impact Efforts.
We, however, quickly realized that Impact Efforts had become an integral part of our lives. We couldn’t “give them up.” (more…)
Posted in Random Acts of Kindness, volunteering, tagged AWA Vienna, impact on March 4, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Corinne presents "Impact Your Life"
This week’s Impact Effort was about inspiring others to action; I had two opportunities to present motivational speeches.
For the first one, I had been invited to speak to an organization for which I have great respect, the American Women’s Association, on a subject that sits close to my heart … you guessed it, 52 Weeks of Impact.
My main theme was clear. I wanted to show that 52 Weeks of Impact has had an enormous Impact back on us. But, my challenge was that this project has impacted us in so many ways, and I had only about one hour. How could I best use the time to inspire and ignite desire to make a positive Impact?
In the end, I focused on some of the lessons learned.
The most important fact to remember is that throughout 2010, Nils and I lived with two key questions constantly in the back of our minds, “What Impact can we have this week?” and “What Impact will this have?”
What we discovered is (more…)
