Julie Gumm - Author

Videos that inspire tears

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I’ve been seeing the link to this video making the rounds on Facebook but hadn’t watched it til the other day.

Grab Kleenex first and make sure you won’t embarrass yourself when you cry.

This is the power of a forever family – no matter your age.

I need 2 friends. But 20 would be nice.

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Today is the 2 year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake.

It’s 2 years later and on the one hand it seems like NOTHING has changed. There are still millions living in tent cities. The cleanup continues. Rebuilding seems slow. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the hugeness of the situation and become discouraged.

But there are incredible things happening there. Stories of organizations making a difference in small but exciting ways.

You’ve heard me talk about the Stoves for Haiti campaign from The Adventure Project (TAP). I love it because it’s such a seemingly small thing. A $20 investment that helps make a charcoal-efficient stove affordable for a family in Haiti. The stoves are healthier (no toxic open-fire fumes), take 50% less charcoal (more $$ for other things, and cook faster (more time for mom to spend w/ her family).

Five women in Haiti have the job of selling the stoves to families (at a price made affordable because of YOUR sponsorship). TAP had hoped they’d sell 2 stoves per day.

They’re selling 20!! With waiting lists.

So today TAP is asking its group of supporters to find 2 friends that will sponsor a stove (just $20) and they in turn will find 2 friends to sponsor a stove, etc.

But 2 friends? Well that seems easy.

And you know me, I like a challenge.

So I’m hoping to find 20 friends who will sponsor a stove for $20…then each of them will find 2 friends, etc.

Are you in?

SPONSOR A STOVE

 

The PERFECT Christmas gift for only $20 – REALLY!

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If you could get a $20 Christmas gift that would….

…….save a child’s life

…….give a mom extra time in her day

……give a family extra money to buy more nutritious food, shoes or school fees

would you do it?

Kind of a no-brainer huh?!

With $20 you can buy a charcoal-efficient stove for one of hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti who are still living in tents. These stoves use 1/2 the charcoal that a normal outdoor fire does. This reduces the toxins their kids are breathing in, and frees up money for other things.

The stoves are MADE in Port-au-Prince (creating jobs) and sold by local women (more jobs). What’s really cool is that this year they’re adding a unique serial number to each stove and they’ll tell you when it’s built and where it went. It’s another great project from The Adventure Project.

I’m buying one in honor of my Grandpa Jim. Because Christmas and coal always make me think of him. One year my mom made him this GIANT stocking (like seriously 2′ tall) and all us kids would put stuff in the stocking. I’m not sure who brought the lump of coal into the equation to begin with, but it made its appearance and each year it would go back and forth between Grandpa and one of us grandkids. Of course we never knew which kid was going to get it. We made a big show of being relieved it wasn’t us, but secretly we all loved the tradition no matter what.

So start your own fun holiday coal tradition and buy a stove this year.