Elena Desserich was diagnosed with brain cancer at the tender age of five years old. Given at most 135 days to live, Elena fought through her illness for 255 days before passing away in 2007. Despite having her life drastically cut short, Elena is still finding a way to share her love for her parents, sister, dog and other family members, through hidden love notes she secretly placed around their home.
Elena, who used art as an outlet during her treatment, began writing and hiding the notes shortly after her diagnosis. Many months after her death, her parents Brooke and Keith began finding the love notes, hidden in between CD cases, in dresser drawers and inside backpacks.
"It just felt like a little hug from her, like she was telling us she was looking over us"
Here are a few of her youthful drawings and heartfelt letters:
Elena's parents were so touched they decided to share them with the world by publishing the book Notes Left Behind, which will fund pediatric brain cancer research through the non-profit organization The Cure Starts Now. See more of Elena’s notes here.
Stand Up To Cancer is using the World Series as an opportunity to highlight their amazing campaign to progress cancer research. Just over a year after they raised over $100 million through their televised event, the non-profit filmed this adorable World Series-themed PSA to encourage people to keep standing up in the fight against cancer.
What kind of a handbag are you carrying? Do you know who made it? How about where it was made, or under what conditions? Invisible Children launched a new program today called MEND and we are kind of in love with it.
MEND isn't just a place where you can buy unique and handcrafted handbags, but where you can also watch videos of and read stories about the person who made that very bag. Take for example, this video about Monica, who loves to dance, has a talent for making people laugh, and oh yeah, is a former child soldier.
Monica is just one of many of the creative handbag makers that you can learn about through MEND. All of the handbag makers are are former child soldiers, victims and survivors of the 20 year war in Uganda.
Each of us secretly wonders what we'd look like with a mohawk. Especially on those bad hair days where the only option seems to be shaving the sides and gelling the rest into a giant spike. How high could we go? Would we dye it neon green? Could we pull it off without looking completely ridiculous? This month, you've got a viable reason to do just that.
Hawks for Homeless is a LA-based charity campaign to raise awareness for homelessness by rawking an awesome 'do and simultaneously fundraising for homeless service providers.
Considering November is National Youth Homeless Awareness Month, and right in the middle of family holiday portrait season, the timing on this is actually pretty perfect.
Here's a video of the very first Hawk for the Homeless:
Even if you don't live in LA, you can still help out by wearing a mohawk (or a fauxhawk, if you aren't as daring) and bringing the campaign to your own town. If you want to help the cause but aren't willing to make any drastic changes to your hair, you can always donate online. Learn more: hawksforhomeless.org
Providing food aid to Iraqi refugees in Syria is about to get a little bit easier, and a little bit more technologically advanced. The UN World Food Programme announced today that they are launching a new initiative that will deliver food vouchers to all 130,000 refugees via text.
The vouchers can be exchanged for food products such as rice, wheat flour, lentils, chickpeas, oil, canned fish, cheese, and eggs at certain stores. The 4-month long test project would provide 1,000 refugee families with $22 (15 euro) vouchers every two months via SMS through a special SIM card.
WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella told reporters that all food aid recipients in the region already have mobile phones: “We’re currently providing news about distributions on mobile phone messages to the 130,000 caseload right now.”
If the mobile distribution of food aid is successful, the organization will consider extending the program into other regions. Casella also pointed out the socio-economic benefits to allowing the refugees to buy food locally as they need it, as opposed to visiting distribution centers or having it delivered.
"It also is better for the economies of the communities in which we're able to use food vouchers because in essence we're not giving food away but we're actually providing an additional market to the local shopkeepers," she said.
We hope the program is successful and that it serves as an effective means to distributing food relief to those in need.
It's that time of year again! All year long, we tell you stories of celebrities who go above and beyond to support their causes by donating time and of course, money. Who are the most generous of these stars? The Giving Back 30 by The Giving Back Fund spells it out for us, listing the top thirty most generous celebrities of 2008.
The number one spot was claimed by the great Paul Newman, who passed away in September of 2008. The late actor donated over $20 million last year to various organizations benefiting the environment, education, health, human services and more. The humanitarian power duo Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt came in a close second with over $13.5 million in donations, followed by Mel Gibson who gave $6 million to various organizations and churches.
Other top contenders were Richard Childress ($5 million), Oscar de la Hoya ($9.5 million) and Oprah Winfrey ($2.4 million).
What's up, Oprah? The media mogul topped last year's list with a heavy $52 million given to charitable organizations in 2007. Maybe she gave all her money away! Unlikely.
Regardless, each celebrity named is worthy of praise for their extreme generosity and kindness towards those in need.
Need some inspiration to keep you motivated in spreading the word and supporting your cause on SocialVibe? How about these photos we just received of a freshwater well the charity: water supporters helped build?
Each well will provide an entire village with clean, safe water for 20 years and costs between $4k and $20k. SocialVibe members have raised over $56,000 so far. How many wells is that? You do the math. 100% of our donations go towards building wells that bring clean, fresh water to those in need.
As the letter below states, these wells take between 12 and 18 months to plan and build, so there are many more of these to come!
Thanks to all of you who are sharing your support for charity: water on your social networks, helping us raise money and bring this simple luxury to thousands of people in need.
Are you wearing your mustache-growing pants? You'd better be, because it is officially Movember! That wonderful time of year where men (and women) grow out their 'staches in honor of raising money for prostate cancer research.
What started as a joke between a few men in Australia over beers six years ago has grown into an international campaign funding prostate cancer research in US, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada, Spain and Ireland. To date, Movember has raised over $47 million USD, making it the world's largest charity event for men.
