As stated previously in a post now lost in the ether, I am participating in the annual Race for Life. This is a 5k race run (or walked, in my instance!) by women, to raise money for Cancer Research UK. I have been wanting to do this for years and decided to go for it this year. So on Sunday, 14 June, I shall be racing for life in Basildon, Essex.
I foolishly thought this will spur me to get off my arse and train properly. Unfortunately, despite the best wills in the world, it didn’t quite turn out that way! No excuses. My race partner and I have decided we are just going to wing it. (May be we’ll glug Red Bull prior to the start!) As I walk that distance (it is 1.5 miles to P’s school) everyday, I am not worried but my only desire was to jog it. Oh well.
So far, the Spouse has put up half of my pledged amount of £50. Can I entreat you, my loving reader, to shell out a £1 for this cause? Needless to say, it is for a good cause.
What do you do when you are bored and are randomly surfing the net? Search for your favourite TV shows, play some games, Stumble upon something? Well, why don't you log on to Free Rice, exercise your brain and donate some desperately needed Third World rice in the bargain?
All you need to do is test your vocabulary skills. Simple! For every question you get right, the organisation behind this effort donates 20 grains of rice. It used to be 10 but just a few days back, the count was doubled to 20 grains per correct answer. As you answer the questions correctly, the level becomes tougher. Every time you chose a wrong answer, you go down a level and get a question in that level. You can play as long as you want. But a piece of warning: it's addictive!
This site was begun on October 7, 2007 with 830 grains won on the first day. Yesterday a whopping 235,092,740 grains were won, bringing the total upto a mind boggling 5,541,225,910 – and counting!
So how does this work?
The grains you win are donated to the United Nations World Food Programme, the world's largest food aid agency, who work with thousands of organisations to reach this staple to the starving masses. You could also take it a step further and donate desperately needed cash. other vital items. Won't these make a better Christmas gift that a party gag?
While on the subject of alternate, humanitarian Christmas gifts, visit the Good Gifts site to learn how you can donate a cycle to poor children in India, donate books and things to open a library in Africa, modernize a hut in Rwanda – or you could even give someone the incomparable gift of sight. Other organisations like Oxfam have a special section named Oxfam Unwrapped, that gives one suggestions like building a bog, donating tools for farming, condoms and even the ultimate Christmas 'takeaway' – school dinners for 100 children at a paltry sum of just 6 pounds.
How cool is that? To be able to make a difference in someone's life at the touch of a button. There's no bigger high than knowing you have just made some nameless, faceless stranger happy by feeding them; knowing that one hundred poor children will have a full tummy this Christmas because you spared some change. My little boy just gave me the 6 quid from his money box. If he can, you sure can.
