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Archive for the ‘Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC)’ Category

October’s Impact Challenge: “My Great Story”

Posted in Disabilities, Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), tagged , , on October 14, 2010 |


In the continuing spirit of this month’s Impact Challenge to “Smile and Engage” and to honor National Down Syndrome Awareness month in the U.S., we invite you to visit “My Great Story,” a unique public awareness campaign by the National Down Syndrome Society, honoring and celebrating the achievements, dreams and aspirations of those with Down Syndrome. The video on Sara Wolff, The Speaker is a favorite.

As we go along in our day-to-day lives, let’s not forget to “Smile and Engage” — or we might miss out on something beautiful.

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October’s Impact Challenge: “We’re More Alike Than Different”

Posted in Disabilities, Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), tagged , , , on October 6, 2010 | 1 Comment »


“We’re More Alike Than Different” is a short video by the National Down Syndrome Congress in the United States.

In the spirit of this month’s Impact Challenge to “Smile and Engage” and to honor National Down Syndrome Awareness month in the U.S., we post a link and invite you to watch. It’s a pretty fabulous video that opened our hearts, minds, and eyes just a little bit more — maybe yours too. The title says it all.

… and in these times of our having witnessed the heartbreaking impact of intolerance toward others who are different, let’s just say this message brings on extra importance.
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October’s Impact Challenge: Smile and Engage

Posted in Disabilities, Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), tagged , on October 1, 2010 | 7 Comments »


We’re delighted to present a guest posting by friend and follower, Sylvia van Bruggen. She shares a bit about her pride and joy and the Impact he has on her life and those around him.

Sylvia and Tijs offer up October’s Impact Challenge. Let’s rise to it!

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This is my nephew Tijs. He is 3 years old and he acts exactly like any other boy of his age. His eyes (and sometimes his acts) are full of mischief, he loves to play, he loves animals, drawing and puzzles.

And he loves to read. When we were away in a weekend home with my side of the family, I was up early, and sat on the floor with him. We read a book about animals. He pointed out each animal, and then smiled when I said its name together with him. It was truly precious to see how many he knew, and how he giggled when I said the wrong name.

He is such a joy to be around. His spirit is such that he manages to make everyone around him smile. (Unless he is mad, which he also can do really well :) ).

It’s mesmerizing to see my father (who has Alzheimers) and him communicate in a way that involves anything but words.

But, when others see Tijs, they don’t see that amazing boy he is, they just see what he has: Down Syndrome. I have seen people just stare, turn their heads, look with contempt…

Behavior like this is fueled by fear. It is natural for human beings to fear what they don’t know and often lack of understanding fuels that even more.

And when you look at people with disabilities through those eyes, you miss making a connection to someone who has the ability to make you look at life in a different way.

I challenge you to make an impact, by not averting your eyes next time you encounter someone with a disability. I challenge you to smile and engage in contact with them. Who knows, it may enrich your life in a way like my nephew has enriched mine, as he does for all of us fortunate enough to know him.

He’s the kind of boy who does that, just because of who he is. And that’s a blessing anyone should have.

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REMINDER: Don’t forget to submit your Slacktivist Impact Effort! Submissions can be made until midnight EST, Tuesday, October 5th, 2010.

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Future Monthly Impact Challenges

Posted in Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), tagged , , on August 1, 2010 |


July’s Monthly Impact Challenge was a blast! So many friends and followers posted submitted and, rightly, boasted their personal Impact efforts through the month. As a result, we’ve decided to change the Monthly Impact Challenge concept. We hope that once a month we can feature what one of our friends or followers is doing to make an Impact.

What can this mean for you?

If you submitted an Impact activity last month (or didn’t have time to submit yours), consider sharing it as a blog posting and challenge others to participate. If you don’t fancy yourself a writer/blogger, but have a cause that you’d like to promote, we can talk about my doing a short write up on 52 Weeks about your effort. If we find there’s a “fit”, I’ll help make your cause into a Challenge in an upcoming month. Please send us a note on our Contact Us page — make sure to include your email address.

To start us off, later this month, we’ll feature guest blogger, Beth Terry, from Fake Plastic Fish. Get ready, she’ll be posing an interesting challenge for us all.

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July MIC: Share What You’re Doing Challenge

Posted in Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC) on July 9, 2010 | 4 Comments »


This month’s Monthly Impact Challenge is simple:  Share What You’re Doing.

We know many of you have your own projects, causes and concerns where you’re making your own personal Impact. This month, we encourage you to share what you’re doing in your family, neighborhood or the larger global community. We want to know.

Examples

  • Do you donate or buy at charity shops? Which ones?
  • Do you volunteer at your church or at your local hospital? If so, what kind of work do you do?
  • Did you buy an extra sandwich for the homeless man outside the cafe yesterda?
  • Did you participate in a charitable event? A walkathon?
  • Do you share your knowledge some way to help others grow? If so, how?
  • Are you lowering your carbon footprint and trying to eat more healthfully by growing your own produce? Or do try to buy local?
  • Are you an organizer for a women’s group? Do you do advocacy work for an animal welfare organization? Do you plant trees with an environmental concern? Do you serve up dinner at a  local soup kitchen?
  • Have you done some Random Acts of Kindness lately?
  • Do you bicycle, carpool or walk to work? For the sake of the environment and your own health.

So, stop! Here’s your chance to show what YOU’re doing! Please share as often as you like in the comment section.

Note: If you’re working with a specific organization, we encourage you to provide the full name of the organization and a link to their website.

To Enter for the July MIC Prize

To participate in this month’s Challenge, you can submit however you want, whenever you want during the month.  HOWEVER, to enter for the July MIC Prize, please make sure you include:

  • A description of your Impact Effort.
  • If it’s with an organization, please include the organizations’ full name and (if available) website link.
  • If there was a particular reason you decided to make this Effort, please describe.
  • What Impact do you believe you make/made with this Effort?
  • How does/did this Effort Impact you?

We look forward to hearing from you!

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June MIC: The Winners

Posted in Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC) on July 8, 2010 | 3 Comments »


Heck, there was so much darn happiness being spread around during the month of June, everyone should be declared a winner!

But, we can only give prizes to the two top!

So, based on votes that came in between Monday, 5 July @ 7:30 a.m. EST and Thursday, 8 July @ 5:00 p.m. EST, the prize winners of the Happiness Challenge — those who posted the most popular “happy thoughts” — are:

Sylvia, for “Laughter, so much laughter”

and

Dede, for “Being married to a kind, gentle man”

This month’s winners receive one of these funky, colorful Decodelire bags from France. They’re fun, practical and always get comment. These bags are the smaller models that are great for carrying lunch to the office or for toting your sunscreen, iPod and book for the beach.

If you didn’t win, or didn’t have time to participate this month, no worries, you can sign up anytime on Butter Be Happy and be happy! Or just start your own personal “gratitude journal.” You may be surprised what a difference it makes in your daily outlook on life.

Added July 9: I was so excited about the winning postings, I forgot to say thanks to everyone who took the time to vote!  Thanks!

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June MIC: Vote Your Top 3 Faves

Posted in Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), Personal Development, Random Acts of Kindness on July 5, 2010 |


If you heard a dull, hollow “thonking” noise yesterday, I confess that was me. Between the hours of about 2 – 4 p.m., I was whacking my forehead with the the heel of my hand repeatedly and firmly, crying, “stupid, stupid, stupid!” What foolishness made me believe that Nils and could easily sort through friend and follower Happy Thoughts and present a short list for voting? If we had really been “fair”, our short list would number in the hundreds. Each Thought was a gem, ranging from touching to moving, odd to ROFL funny, and many made us pause, think and appreciate.

In the end, we managed to cull to 21 items. I can’t say Nils and I were in total agreement, and we’ve no doubt removed what would have been others’ favorites. But for the sake of our marriage :-) , we present the list below. We love each and every thought!

Please help us decide the top Happy Thoughts winners and VOTE for your top three (3) favorites (give the corresponding letter/number combination). Deadline for voting is: Thursday, 8 July 2010 5:00 PM EST. Submit your favorites as a comment below. And, please enjoy reading!

1a Fresh ginger sizzling in a wok. 1b Laughter, so much laughter. 1c Not hearing vuvuzela’s!
2a The shredder! Loves to eat old to do lists, feels so satisfying!! 2b The unexpected scent of honeysuckle in the air. 2c Looking for exquisite new stationery to write letters. Inspirational.
3a My parents’ anniversary, 62 years and still doing the tango. This thought is worth all 5 of today’s happy slots. 3b I am truly grateful that I can really talk to my hubby about anything. He is really my best friend. Ever. 3c The amazing outpouring of help, hope, love, links and all good things from my online friends, and their friends, and even total strangers …”
4a I’ve documented 150 happy thoughts this month (and had many more) 4b Glad I don’t live in a time when I have to dress for dinner. 4c Shared hilarious politically incorrect moment with daughter (oh, oops).
5a The most perfect dawn: unencumbered clear skies. 5b The sound of ginger ale being poured over ice on a hot day. 5c Standing on the beach with my feet sinking into the sand.
6a I am so grateful and happy it rained – after we got home. 6b Had a long cuddle with my kitty because she was in the mood. 6c A walk along deserted beach with dogs and husband.
7a Chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. 7b Being married to a kind, gentle man. 7c Sunbeams on a plain white wall.

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June MIC: Happiness Challenge Follow-up and Vid

Posted in Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), Personal Development, Random Acts of Kindness, tagged , , on July 3, 2010 |


The entire month of June was marked by serendipity. Opportunities to connect with friends, family and strangers just seemed to fall into our laps. While sadly, not all needs for connection were happy ones, the combined efforts made for a most fulfilling month.

June’s Monthly Impact Challenge was a Happiness Challenge and all about appreciating and acknowledging the “little things in life” and the big and little people who can make such a difference.

Nils and I are in the process of culling through all the Happiness Challenge submissions and will post our short-list of favorites for voting. We hope to have the list up some time next week.

In the meantime, we’d like to share a lovely little video that illustrates what an incredible impact we can have on those around us. I read somewhere that researchers have found that emotions of anger, fear, anxiety, happiness and depression can spread like viruses and can influence at “three degrees of influence”.* In other words, my mood can influence not only my friend, but my friend’s friend. If I’m going to have that much Impact, I’d prefer I spread around joy!

* Note: haven’t yet been able to find corroboration on this, but it’s a nice concept.

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Happiness Challenge – Halfway Mark Update

Posted in Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), Personal Development, Random Acts of Kindness, tagged , on June 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »


Our Monthly Impact “Happiness Challenge” is chugging along nicely. As always, we wish there were more people participating, but we send our thanks to all who are getting involved.

We thought we’d share a few tidbits and samples of what some friends and followers have posted, sent to us, added to their Butter Be Happy account, or posted on their own blogs. They certainly put me in a good mood to read. (more…)

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May MIC: RAoK Wins All ‘Round

Posted in Monthly Impact Challenges (MIC), Personal Development, Random Acts of Kindness, tagged , on June 7, 2010 |


If Impact were judged by variety and creativity, May’s Monthly Impact Challenge of Random Acts of Kindness would certainly get two thumbs up. But, we mostly judge Impact by impact. Based on that criterion, May’s RAoK month was a winner by miles!

Thanks go to everyone who played along with us and submitted RAoK and RAoK ideas. We hope to continue in this spirit beyond the month of May. If you need ideas, please go to our our RAoK blog posting and comments and to our More Ideas Page where you’ll find a colorful array of submissions by friends and followers.

Let’s keep Random Acts of Kindness alive, 12 months a year, 52 weeks a year.

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