I wanted to share an idea for charitable giving I have done for a few years now, both at Christmas and at the end of the school year, for classroom teachers, Sunday school teachers, piano teachers--the list can go on and on. I have made a donation in the teacher's name to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide. When you make a donation, you actually specify what it is you are donating. My all-time favorite is to donate $15 for "a share of an alpaca" to a Peruvian or Ecuadorian family. An alpaca provides that family with income for up to 25 yrs from the highly prized wool, while at the same time protecting the local environment from erosion and deforestation by its gentle grazing habits. I guess this appeals to my animal-lover side as well as to my environmentally-friendly side!
There are literally more than 100 different charitable gifts as cool as an alpaca that can change the lives of the poor in other countries as well as here in the US. Another favorite of mine for my sons' piano teacher was to donate $20 for musical instruments for a child's classroom in Mozambique. I've also donated similar amounts for a supply of fast-growing hybrid seeds for a family in Thailand.
The list goes on... immunizing children for $41, preventing malaria by providing bed nets for 1 family for $20, providing safety for a formerly sexually exploited girl in Cambodia for $100...all the way up to digging a well in Malawi for $5390 ( and even some greater donations than that.) They also have projects for the underprivileged families right here in the US.
I've given this as a sole gift (how many knick-knacks can a piano teacher get in her lifetime?). In cases where the parents in a classroom have taken up a collection to buy a larger collective gift for the teacher rather than 20 small gifts, I've also bought one large personal gift for the teacher (say, a piece of personalized jewelry), and then donated the remaining money to a cause she would appreciate. World Vision gives you a nice card detailing what the specific donation is, and how it will help the person, family, or community to which it was donated--so that your gift recipient will know about the donation made in their honor.
Anyway, in these economic times, I wanted to make others aware of this worthwhile opportunity to make your dollars go far (in all senses of the word.) The website is www.worldvisiongifts.org, click on gift catalog.