Gifts of experience:

• Tickets to a play, the ballet, a concert, or art show.
• Season sports team tickets.
• A trip to the zoo, beach, art museum, or national park for a child.
• Movie tickets.
• Enrollment in a class – places like Michaels and community colleges offer low-cost art, craft, and computer classes that people may enjoy.
• iTunes gift certificate.
• A gingerbread house making day.

Gifts of necessity:

• Pay someone’s cell phone bill for two months.
• Offer to change someone’s oil, breaks, or other car issue.
• Help someone to winterize their house.
• Give babysitting certificates.
• Organize someone’s garage.

What else can you think of?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Teach a child something or just spend some time: Honestly, I can’t tell you one item my grandma gave me for a holiday. But I think about everything she taught me or did with me all the time. How to sew, cook, play cards, paint, and more. Plus her stories stick with me. These are the things kids remember when they’re older, not that race car from ten birthdays ago.

Go on a family hike: Yup it’s cold, but nature looks different in winter than any other time of the year – get out and see it for yourself. Go at night and see the houses lit up (you’re allowed to cringe at the energy use, but you have to admit, it’s still pretty.)

Perk up an elderly family member’s house: They’ll appreciate it. You can shovel their walk, clean out the basement, or plant some bulbs that will come up in the spring.

Reconnect with someone: Write or call someone that you haven’t spoken to in a good long while. This is always a nice surprise.

Plan a fun day: Gather everyone, friends, family, whoever, at your home and have a great holiday cookie bake-off, a snow fort contest, play board games, or make homemade holiday gifts.

Take ten minutes a day to learn something new for the planet: Sign up for a green newsletter, add green new feeds to your rss, or visit an eco news blog or site a few times a week. Take some time to learn the issues that affect us all year round.

Volunteer anywhere. Find your opportunity.

What else would you suggest? How can you give the gift of time vs. stuff?  

November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…

[images via, stock.xchng & Buy Nothing Day]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Background:

Keep America Beautiful is older than most people think; established in 1953 it’s the largest non-profit volunteer-based community action and education organization in the U.S. Their main goal is to organize and encourage volunteers to improve the communities they live in. GAC is the largest program on their line up of events.

2007 Statistics:

GAC events were highly successful this year. Data was tabulated from over 30,000 local events held in 17,000 communities within all 50 states. 2.8 million volunteers participate this year and over 7.7 million hours were logged as time spent improving communities.

2007 Results:

• 200 million pounds of litter and debris was disposed appropriately.
• 3,500 illegal dump sites and over 10,000 abandoned vehicles were taken care of.
• Over 178,000 miles of roadways, 121,000 acres of parks and public land, 3,900 miles of hiking and nature trails, and 7,000 miles of rivers, lakes and streams were improved.

Volunteers reclaimed an impressive:

• 70.6 million plastic (PET) bottles
• 2.2 million tires
• 22.4 million pounds of aluminum and steel
• 592,000 pounds of wireless phones and related equipment
• 115,000 batteries, 23 million pounds of newsprint
• 4.5 million pounds of clothing
• 5.3 million pounds of electronics waste.

More improvements:

• 2,100 acres of wetlands were cleaned and improved.
• There were 6,500 educational workshops held in regards to community eco-sense and over 458,000 people attended.
• 3,300 playgrounds and community recreation areas were constructed or restored.

GAC also focuses on efforts that help people regain a sense of nature, beauty, and pride in their local communities by plating more than 4.6 million trees, flowers, and bulbs; restoring and painting old buildings, and taking care of over 11,000 graffiti sites.

2007 Sponsors:

GAC can’t happen with out support and many sponsors each year help out. To learn about the companies who contribute visit GAC’s sponsor page.

I think that the results for 2007 were really nice. So much was accomplished and some of these numbers are very impressive. However, there is a population of around 303,335,516 in the U.S. That means that while 2.8 million people participated about 300,000,000 did not. Yes that’s fuzzy math (I rounded down some) but you get the picture — more people could easily be involved.

The positive thing to consider is that there are other organizations the people work with and also some people just like to do their own thing for the planet at home. Every step is good. Still, the more of a concentrated effort we can institute the better. Consider how many places and landscapes are worth conserving. Oceans, deserts, fields, forests; there’s a lot to take care of.

What if everyone got involved with a Keep America Beautiful event? Click here to find volunteer opportunities for your family in your community. Many events are kid and parent friendly so families can spend time together while helping preserve land and resources.

What next:

Some interesting reads from this year include…

• Unusual Items Found during GAC
• 20 Tips for Maintaining Safe, Clean, Healthy Communities

Kids can do their part as well by visiting the kid specific Keep America Beautiful site Clean Sweep USA.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family