This cool group in Texas have given away more than $140,000 in recent years to local charities.

High school and college students of the Permian Basin have been given a first hand education about giving and philanthropy for several years now thanks to the Abell-Hanger Foundation (assets in 2003 reported to be over $145,000,000).

From the Midland College website:

“The Students In Philanthropy Club is an in-depth leadership training program which provides student members the opportunity to improve the quality of life in their communities. Students will learn about the importance of philanthropy and the role of nonprofit organizations in the community. Through the fund development and grant-making process, students not only make needed contributions to nonprofit organizations, but also gain leadership and stewardship training through a structured program designed to educate, support and promote philanthropic leadership in the community. Students in the club participate in the program activities for a full academic year and attend weekly meetings designed to enhance their knowledge of the nonprofit and philanthropic communities.”

Read the article in MyWestTexas.com.

From its website:

” The mission of the Children’s Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. (click the title above for the full skinny)

From its website:

“No one knows how many millions of children there are in the world suffering from clefts.

No one knows how many lives will never be lived. How many children will never eat or speak properly, never go to school or hold a job. How many boys and girls will go through their entire life without ever being able to smile.

The greatest tragedy is that all of these children are suffering not because they were born with a cleft, but because they were born poor. Too poor to pay for a simple cure that has been around for decades. (click the title above to get the full skinny)

From its website:

“Since 1947, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF has supported the work of the United Nations Children’s Fund by raising support for its programs and increasing public awareness of the challenges facing the world’s children. As the oldest of 37 national committees for UNICEF worldwide, the U.S. Fund is part of a global effort to advance humanity with health, education, equality and protection for every child. (click the title above for the full skinny)

Clothes Off Our Back, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded by actors Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm In The Middle”) and Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing”), auctions celebrity clothing and grants the proceeds to various children charities.

In 2004, Clothes made $293,000. It donated $100,000 to U.S. Fund for UNICEF, $50,000 to Children’s Defense Fund and $30,000 to Smile Train, amongst others.

Bradley Whitford made our pages on March 21, 2005 for matching a gift made to his high school in Wisconsin by long-time custodian, Jim Ely.

A little bit of paying it forward in Pittsburgh. Read this thank you and follow-up welcome found in the past couple of weeks in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Josephine Celender was doing some Christmas shopping at a local mall with her young son and daughter. In a crowded store, her son suddenly went into an unexpected seizure. His condition was until that point not diagnosed, so you can imagine Celender’s horror not knowing what was happening to her son.

In her January 10 thank you printed in the Post Gazette, Celender tells how two unknown women came to her during her son’s seizure. They took care of her daughter, who herself was shocked and terrified with all the commotion. The women stayed with Celender and talked her through the ordeal. They even bought her daughter a stuffed bear to help ease the trauma.

Then, in a January 27 follow-up, one of the two women who helped Celender that day wrote in to thank her for thanking them. In her note, she tells how a similar incident had happened to her years back with her two kids. Strangers came to her aid to help her and her son while she tended to her injured daughter. Looks like she did a little bit of paying it forward in helping Celender out last month.

January 10 Thank You (scroll all the way the bottom)
January 27 Welcome

Read columnist Jack White’s outpouring of thanks in the Winston-Salem Jounrnal. White, a lifelong educator and locally involved citizen, took his moment on the columns of the Journal to just say thank you for several nice things in the recent past.

He thanked the daughter of a longtime listener to his radio Sunday school class (he did this for over 27 years) who had thanked him for the tremendous influence that his show was on her mother.

He also thanked the service staff at both his pharmacy and hearing aid center. As we have watched service quality decline at big department stores, ever conglomerating banks and the increasingly faceless / nameless nature of our medical industry, I think White was caught off guard by the exceptional service he received recently at these two places. Sounds like the nice staff went above and beyond to help he and his wife with their medical needs. The moral of the story: It’s good to be nice and it’s good to say thanks.

Read this article in the Rockford Register Star about the Random Acts of Kindness Club of Machesney Park Elementary School. Since 2001, fourth through sixth graders have been meeting as a club to decide on and execute acts of kindness. Starting off with 10 eager members, the club is now 40 strong.

Past projects have included planting a garden on school grounds to making Thanksgiving baskets for the homeless. My favorite is their decision to make gifts for the school’s support staff for Christmas. Teachers often receive gifts from their students, but the administrative, facility and kitchen staff rarely benefit from this Christmas cheer. I thought it was smart for the club to honor this group.

So nice are these kids, their state representative decided to pay the club’s way to the Capitol (in Springfield, Il) and visit the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Pretty cool trip for a bunch of little northern Illinoisans just trying to make our world a better place.

The nursing department of Alfred State College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, initiated a Pay It Forward scholarship, making its first award last fall. The program was inspired (of course) by the namesake book and movie that came out in 2000. A winning proposal is chosen for best demonstrating the spirit of the Pay It Forward concept, which asks people not to pay back favors or good deeds, but to then pass on the good will to three other people.

The winner of the first ever Pay It Forward scholarship was senior nursing student, Stacey Belanger. She proposed to connect terminally ill patients with her pet dogs. Not the most creative idea ever, but kudos to Alfred State and Belanger for even going there with this program.

Walking to the subway yesterday I noticed a woman in a wheelchair sort of lingering outside of a dentist office, looking a bit confused. Holding her daughter, my guess is that she had an appointment, only the office was locked up with no sign of life inside. She was therefore left with no clue as to what was going on with her appointment.

I then noticed a guy strolling along, the kind of guy that you would think was too cool for school and wouldn’t necessarily stop to check-up on others in need.

Of course, my perception was wrong. From a far, I watched as this dude stopped, asked the woman if she needed help, then busted out his cellphone to call the number on the door of the dentist office for her. I was rushing along to get to the subway, so I never saw the resolution to the situation. In either case, I thought it was a nice everyday, pedestrian variety of kindness on 110th Street yesterday. I hope that woman got to her appointment okay.