Did you see this recent story in the news? It’s amazing! ABC’s Person of the Week

Go look… I’ll wait for you to come back.

Okay, if you go to the Wish Upon a Hero site you can search for wishes that involve sending cards or letters. Grant any wish you want, but be sure to also send some cards and letters while you are there. You’ll make someone’s day!

Tags: cool link, good deeds

This is only marginally about letters. It’s more about good deeds, philanthropy, kindness. The letters come into play because it’s a story from The Depression and people wrote letters back then. This is a story of an anonymous guy doing good things.

When you go read the site, you’ll see a few of the letters he received and there is a picture of some of the letters as well. It’s interesting to look at the handwriting, the rarely-seen scrawl of words across paper. Rarely seen these days, anyway.

It’s a heartwarming story. Go read it. Read it and then ask yourself if there’s anything good you can do for someone today.

Tags: good deeds, great depression, kindness, letters from the past, philanthropy

I dig philanthropy. I often find myself wishing for barrels full of money because it would be so much fun to give it away. There are so many clever ways for people to be philanthropic now and it doesn’t cost a lot of money.

One way you might not think of immediately is the 42-cent donation you can make to those who really need it, like soldiers or people in the nursing home. There are many people who could really use a lift because they are isolated, alone or away from home. I can’t think of a cheaper way to do a good deed!

On the Letter Projects page, if you scroll down you will find several links to places where you can write soldiers. (The Red Cross just finished one and we missed that deadline!)

What will make this challenge more fun (and more philanthropic) is if you will get a friend to join in. Why not do it as an office project or if you’re a social person, make a party of it. Gather a bunch of friends over for dinner, pizza, snacks, whatever, and then sit down at the table and start writing. Even if you set a small goal such as three cards per person — if you invite 10 friends that’s 30 soldiers who get a note of appreciation.

If writing soldiers isn’t your thing, contact a local nursing home, senior day center or Meals on Wheels and ask the administrators if there are people who would appreciate notes.

How about joining a letter writing campaign for a cause? Or start your own campaign. You can find many of those if you just google “letter writing campaign”. That might keep you so busy you miss the last five days of our challenge.

Speaking of which, we’re halfway there… how are you doing?

Tags: challenge, good deeds, letter writing, letters, letters to soldiers, philanthropy