9/12: Carded

Hi Pals:

I hope you had a restful weekend. Two things:

1. Tomorrow is Zumba in the Nuuanu Elementary School cafeteria. Be there!

2. I have a bunch of gift cards that have, like, $2.53 or $.87 (there's no cents sign on the modern keyboard!) left one them. Not that useful, right. But then I read a story about these people who were at a dinner party and decided to see how much money everyone had leftover on various giftcards, and the total added up to over $50. They decided to start a non-profit to collect these residual balance cards and use them to help projects, people, and organizations. Check them out: http://www.giftcardgiver.com/

For the month of October (my Zumba in Nuuanu anniversary month), I will be collecting giftcards with balances of any amount, and at the end of the month our Zumba group can send it in. I'm trying to see if we can work with Gift Card Giver to keep these donations in Hawaii--with the Lokahi Giving Tree or Hawaii Food Bank--to hopefully make someone's, or some family's holiday season just a little better. I'll let you know what I find out. You can start donating whenever, but the main push I'm doing is for October.

If you want to participate, just go through your wallets and purses, take out the unused or residual balance cards, write down on one side in Sharpie the balance (there is usually a website or number on the card you can use to find out the balance), and bring it to me. I'll collect them, sort them, and at the end of the month I'll send them off. I am not going to keep anything--even if it's from a store I really like. : )

There are almost 100 people on this email list. If each of us donated $1, that's almost $100 to help someone--and that's a simple, perfect example of how powerful we are as a community.

Have a great week, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

-Meredith