December 1, 2020
#GivingTuesday is on one hand an organization in its infancy and at the same time it has in only seven short years catapulted into a worldwide movement in which hundreds of millions of people simply “do good”.
In 2012, The United Nations Foundation partnered with New York City’s 92nd Street YMCA to found GivingTuesday, today its own phenomenon of an organization. The initial vision wasn’t only about inspiring people to give money. It was the concept that if we give a smile to someone who could really use it, give our time and energy to someone we care about, share something of what we have with those who have so much less, we will communally—and quite literally—create a world where people become civil servants, where people care and act in a way that improves the behaviors of their society at large.
GivingTuesday has quickly earned its place as the world’s largest giving movement. Their conviction is that the power of generosity “unlocks dignity, opportunity and equity around the globe”.
Public high schools have reported for many decades that the students who volunteer for social programs, such as the Hospital Candy-Striper Program or Special Olympics, do far better academically. Their spirit of giving evidently lifts them and inspires them to perform better at their own individual goals.
It is also documented that volunteers for city programs, such as helping the homeless, often come from the ranks of people already under their own financial duress, perhaps working more than one job, raising children as a single parent. These big-hearted people report that it helps them in their own lives to give to those less fortunate. And they give cash, when they have little to give, as well as their time.
It’s not easy to ask people for money contributions. Especially over the past nine months of our Covid sacrifices, when so many have been forced to cut back expenses, so many have faced lack of income flow, we simply must be sensitive to other people’s stresses.
But, just as we ourselves need to be prudent but we decide to dig down for some aid to the meaningful work of one or two organizations, we turn to you on this GivingTuesday.
We here at EverWalk Central live and breathe our uplifting mantras every day of the year. We believe deep in our core that walking makes for a happy, healthy, inspired society. Walking connects us. Walking leads us down roads of empowerment and discovery.
We may be a very small non-profit, with only three staff members, but our dreams are EPIC here at EverWalk. Today we have announced our September 2021 event (Sept 19-25), The Ocean Walk, offering many daily walking distances and even a mile swim, from Newport, RI, to Boston.
The logistics are mammoth and, as those of you who have participated in our previous EPIC events know, we bust our butts to make sure each and every walker has the experience of a lifetime.
For The Ocean Walk 2021 we add an extra layer of motivation. This Walk (and we will do many of these, along various ocean shores) has as its express purpose the collection of a long list of signatures, each individual committing to the reduction of single-use plastic.
Again, we are thoughtful that you out there are finding your way through trying situations these days. But we are going to follow the uplifting tenets of the founders of GivingTuesday and ask you to consider our noble causes of both creating a nation of walkers and helping to restore the health of our oceans.
We are believers. Please come toward us and be part of what we are building. No contribution is too small. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Diana and Bonnie