It's Giving Tuesday!

It seems like every day from Thanksgiving until New Year's is a day for something.  There's Black Friday, which apparently starts at 5pm on Thanksgiving day.  Then there's Small Business Saturday, Skip Church Sunday, Cyber Monday, Throwback Thursday, Flashback Friday, Wake Up Late Wednesday, "Oh-God, Martin O'Malley is still Governor Monday, etc.. 

Today is Giving Tuesday.

Since my daughter was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago, I have been a lot more generous, in spite of the medical bills.  This year alone I have donated nearly $400 to charities such as the ones I mention, and to others where my friends are soliciting donations for their causes. 

Here are a few of my favorite charities and I hope you will consider making a donation to one of them this year.  Remember, you'll be helping a family in need AND you get a tax right-off.  That's money that Martin O'Malley won't get.


Casey Cares - provides family opportunities to families with critically ill children.  These include going to Orioles and Ravens' games, the circus, Disney on Ice, birthday bashes, and Kami's Jammies, to name a few. 

Make A Donation to Casey Cares

Believe in Tomorrow - provides respite and hospital housing to families with critically ill children.  They have several places at the beach with amenities to support children with special needs, such as wheel chairs, in addition to housing close to the hospital so that parents can be closer to their children when they must be in the hospital for an extended stay.

Make a Donation to Believe in Tomorrow

Tanner's Touch - raises money for pediatric cancer research and to finacially assist families who have children fighting cancer.

Make a Donation to Tanner's Touch

I have met the founders of all of these organizations and they are wonderful, dedicated, caring, and compassionate people who have done amazing work helping people right here in our community.  Donating to the large non-profit organizations is always a good thing to do, but donating to these organizations will help people directly right here in Maryland.

Hog Donation to Believe In Tomorrow Foundation

My dad made a wonderful donation to the Believe in Tomorrow Foundation recently. For the past 10 years or so, his 1986 Harley Davidson Heritage Softtail has been sitting in their garage collecting dust. When I was in high school, my bedroom was next to the garage and the turning of the motor in the morning was my alarm clock.

After a while my dad stopped riding. Not sure why. He finally decided he was going to donate his motorcycle. He asked me if Believe in Tomorrow accepted vehicle donations, which they do through an intermediary organization.

The organization that coordinates the retrieval and selling of the vehicle came and loaded the bike onto a rollback truck. After that, the bike was gone. The only thing left were memories.

That is until a month or so later my dad gets a letter in the mail from a guy in Poland letting him know that he bought the bike. The letter was in broken English, but the guy is totally stoked. He got my dad's address from the registration. The seat got torn in transit and one of the police lights in the front was broken. My dad and Lech Walesa then started started trading emails. Lech said that he and his wife will make happy on the bike. I love broken English!!!

Anyway, here's a video that Lech posted on Youtube of the bike. It's pretty cool. They're speaking in Polish (I would assume). Note the truck that it's on - typical Eastern European truck.

No Red Cross in Baltimore

I donated blood today for the Red Cross. My employer allows them to come once a quarter to each of our sites and recruit as many donors as possible. Usually they get between 30 and 50 donors. They best part of the whole deal is getting out of work for an hour and a half. And if you're really smart, you'll milk it and pretend that your light headed and need to rest for a while.

Donating blood doesn't take that long. I don't think it's ever taken me more than 15 minutes. Usually it's closer to 10 minutes. One time I tried to see how fast I could fill the bag, but the next day I was greeted with a huge bruise that ran the length of my arm.

So why does it take 15 minutes to donate the blood, but an hour and a half for the whole process? It's all about the screening process. The Red Cross wants to know all about your sexual escapades. Have you ever been to Cameroon? Have you ever shared needles with a prostitute? Have you ever had sex with a man since 1977 (thank goodness the cutoff was 1977!!!)? Have you ever had oral sex with a monkey. And the list goes on and on.

The question that got me to thinking, however, is 'have you ever been to prison, even once?'. By my calculations, that would eliminate 95% of the population of Baltimore City from being eligible blood donors. However, would this include the 35,000 arrests that did not result in convictions? Would you be ineligible to donate blood if you're from Baltimore City and you've been arrested for a nuisance crime - spitting, jaywalking, talking too loud, voting Republican? I would almost think that this would not be fair. What do you think?