Our area United Way campaign is starting again, with a Cincinnati area goal of $63 million. We know times are tight, and "free money" is a diminishing resource for many! However, there are many that have it worse than you and me.
Our pastor put up a slide yesterday:
If you have running water, clothes to wear, a roof over your head, and food to eat every day.... You're in the top 15% of wealth in the world!
As Americans, we're so used to having so much, we often forget how little some have. Big screen TVs, $5 cups of coffee and SUVs are nice, but life would go on without them.
If you can help someone, whether via United Way, your church, your favorite charity, animal shelter, a blood donation, or just impromptu as Tish Lloyd recently wrote about, please do!
It WILL make you feel good, and will make someone else feel good too!
Take care,
Liz and Bill
The Liz Spear Team
Elizabeth & William Spear
RE/MAX Elite: Ask for us by name if you visit the office!
Two locations: Lebanon & Mason, OH
Office direct: 513-248-3660 Liz direct: 513-265-3004
Bill direct: 513-520-5305 Fax: 866-302-8418 
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With school just a few days away and children being "required" to have a published list of items, the need for clothes, shoes, lunches, haircuts seems to get swept under the carpet. Your message is very timely and important!!! Let's "suggest" this to all of our peers! The more people we can get involved in this movement, the better.
Tish, That's definitely another great opportunity! School is about to fire up again here too.
Hello Liz and Bill. God bless you (and HE will) for caring enough to promote these good works. Good luck!
One of the good things about economic hard times is that people do seem to try harder to dig a little deeper.
Marian, He already does, every day! It's just one of the little things we can try to do!
It's one of the things I like about the Johnson & Johnson company I work for. Our company has taken some knocks in the press recently, some of it deserved, but the bottom line is it's a heavily community involved company. My individual company is consistently top 5 in Cincinnati for overall giving, they match our Worldvision and other charity contributions 2 for 1, so we try to take advantage of the corporate generousity to the maximum allowed!
Awesome suggestions! The last project that I helped with was 240 quilts for Shriner's Children's Hospital in St Louis MO. Their old ones were falling to rags and there were not funds for new ones. It took almost exactly a year, but we got it done! ;) You can check it out here. (just scroll down a wee tad) I love being able to give back and help others! It's such an amazing feeling to know that you can make a difference! BTW the founder of Relief Share is my mom. ;)
The only one I won't do is giving blood. Even though I have a rare blood type, it's not worth being sick for a week and passing out six times on the way back to the car! I think I can better serve in other capacities that incur less fainting. ;)
Bill & Liz - So many of us our extremely fortunate and we need to remember that. My husband and I try leading by example to show our children how to give back. Donating equipment to our local soccer organization, donating blood and hair, donating our time coaching travel soccer, helping our community build a new playground.
Phly, Sounds like an excellent project and anything that benefits kids has a thumbs up from me! As a heavy Diet Mountain Dew imbiber, I lassoed many of my company cohorts into collecting bottle caps for a Pepsi promotion about a year ago that allowed you to redeem caps for NFL logo ball caps. Dumpster diving (okay, just the recycling bins at work), along with friends and coworkers collecting for me, enabled us to get about 175 NFL hats and take to the local Cincinnati Children's Home. A wee bit of coordination since the limit was max 5 per address, so quite a few volunteers to get mail, then bring them in!
And not everyone is cut out to give blood! I've been doing it since high school senior year, so even though I'm not fan of needles (yeah, a Navy vet can admit that), it's something I do as often as eligible. Each contributes in their own way!
Michelle, We're truly blessed and have no doubt God takes great care of us. As a listing sells, another one or two comes our way. We'll never be truly worthy of all that comes our way, but we do our best to give back through a number of different avenues. Raising your kids to do the same is one of the best gifts you can give them!
Bill -- I keep trying to just catch up to you and you keep leaving me in the dust! Just saw the lovely shout out on Phly post. You are a kind and generous person, and I thank you! But I'm still going to try and out shout out you!
Tish, Your post about your daughter was fantastic! The least we can do is pay it forward a bit and get it some more press! A lot of people can learn by following your daughter's example!