Win and Give with Betty Crocker

If you have read my blog long enough you know how much I love to give to others. Benevolence is in my core and I enjoy giving to others not only because of karma but I enjoy seeing people's faces when they receive a gift of kindness. Even better is seeing the face of a child when they receive a wonderfully kind gift.

My son is brutally competitive and loves to win but he is so beautifully kind and enjoys giving to others, especially when they are deserving and they are other children. When I received the email about how My Blog Spark was helping to promote the program with Betty Crocker snacks, on specially marked boxes of Fruit Roll-Ups, Gushers, Fruit by the Foot, and Stickerz & Shapes, to donate a laptop to one African child for every laptop won by a U.S. child I knew this as a more than noble post to promote. Grant was so excited when we received the prize pack not only because we received Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit by the Foot but also the opportunity to win a laptop in our home and that we had a donation made on our behalf to One Laptop per Child.

Grant was ever so sweet because he told me when we went over the Win One Give One program he told me, "Mama, if we win a laptop can we give it to some kids who don't have one. I already have a computer...Dad has three of them in his office so he has one to spare for me." I just about fell over laughing and I was so happy to hear that my son was willing to give to others so selflessly. He also saw that kids should have computers in their lives.

Not only do you support children in need but the products are also Box Tops participants. So everyone wins with these Betty Crocker snacks, and hey, they are pretty tasty. But here is some really powerful footage about the One Laptop per Child program.

Now you can get involved without making any purchase AND you can enter to win a Betty Crocker snacks prize pack and have $25 donated on your behalf to One Laptop per Child. To enter, tell me what you do to promote benevolence with your child? How are you teaching them to help others?

Extra Entries:

• Follow my blog 
• Follow me on Twitter
• Tweet this giveaway with unlimited tweets, no double comment tweet entries: Win and Give a laptop to a child in need with @BettyCrocker snacks and @KariewithaK http://goo.gl/l5PK
• Subscribe to my feed
• Blog this giveaway (Worth 5 entries)
• Grab my button
• Fan The Fish
• Add my blog to your text blog roll (Worth 2 entries)

CONTEST ENDS MARCH 4TH @ 11:59PM

Best of luck!

*The Five Fish received a prize pack of Betty Crocker fruit snacks from Betty Crocker on behalf of My Blog Spark and a donation of $25 was made on our behalf to One Laptop per Child. In no way did the product influence this post, this post is to promote a wonderful cause for children around the world.

If You are Gonna Give

Give big. I am a true philanthropist. While I think people can be real fuckheads pains in the neck, at the root of all I believe a good portion of people are good and true as part of their nature. So my love of humankind is probably part of my cat nature as a Leo. I have every intention of making the world a better place one person and soul at a time, albeit I will probably die a failure, but I WILL do what I can in this life. I would hate for karma to come back and be a bit too pissed off and reincarnate me as a roll of toilet paper to wipe up other assholes shit.

Onto my story. I recently saw a posting on my twin mom club board that a mom in northern Arizona is in need. She has twins, not a part of any club or ours, and she is in need of formula because WIC only covers so much and the rest she has to attempt to purchase on her own. Now if you a mother who formula fed, you know pretty darn well how EXPENSIVE formula is for one baby....tack on an extra mouth. I tandem breastfed the twins for 10 glorious months before I thought I would lose my mind by never seeing the light of day and I made the decision to slowly wean them to formula for the last month and half before their one year birthday. During that time can I tell you how much formula I went through?

Every 3 days we opened a new Costco size can of Enfamil. COSTCO size folks. Biggie size. Super Size! And if I recall the price was close to $40 a can. One can, every three days times $40. Can you say I need a loan to feed those kids?

Now I can totally empathize with this mother, I feel for her. The sad thing, there are no programs other than ours right now that I have been able to find that can help her. As I said, she is on WIC. But WIC is only designed for one newborn, not TWO! So I am coming to you all. For help. Do you know of any other programs, opportunities, freebies, support to help a mother? I know she is not alone, we have received several requests and as my duty and position within in the club as donations coordinator I am gathering donations for these mothers as a "Milk Closet" per se that will include the expensive necessities to care for two infants. If you know of any programs, companies, opportunities to help these women in our communities who struggle to care and feed their children please let me know or hey if you want to make a donation let me know that too and I will provide you with our IRS and Federal 501(c)(3) non profit tax ID information

Raising Funds for Make A Wish Foundation

I had to share this wonderful press release about pediped® shoes and the Make a Wish Foundation. The Make a Wish Foundation is very near and dear to my heart and my family as I had two cousins that were diagnosed with a terrible degenerative disease (Batten's Disease) that there is no cure. Neither of the girls lived past their early teens. Make a Wish Foundation played a VERY BIG part in their lives and that of my aunt and uncle.

More than 50 well-known entertainers and athletes will participate in Stars for a Wish, an online auction of autographed pediped® baby shoes to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The auction will run Oct. 25-Nov. 5th (NEW EXTENDED DATE) on Charity Buzz.  Celebrities who signed pediped® baby shoes for the auction include:

MOVIES               

Jessica Alba, Halle Berry, Pierce Brosnan, Andy Garcia, Molly Ringwald, Rachel Weisz

TELEVISION

Tim Allen, Courtney Cox Arquette, Marcia Cross, Jennie Garth, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Heidi Klum, Charlie Sheen, Jon Stewart, Allison Sweeney

 MUSIC                  

 Clay Aiken, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Ed Roland

SPORTS

Jerome Bettis, Anna Kournikova, Shaquille O’Neal, Mark Teixeira, J.D. Drew, David Ortiz, Adam LaRoche

Recipients will receive the shoes attractively displayed in a cherry-finished shadow box or clear acrylic box complete with an engraved plaque. 

The Stars for a Wish fundraiser has a minimum goal of $25,000, which will help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. One-hundred percent of the funds raised through the auction will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“We were overwhelmed by the willingness of so many celebrities, many of them already familiar with our brand, to generously help us support this cause,” said Angela Edgeworth, President and Co-Founder of pediped® footwear. “Now it’s all up to the public to bid high for these shoes so they not only receive a beautifully presented keepsake from their favorite celebrity, but more importantly, so they will be helping children facing life-threatening medical conditions.”

To learn more about the Stars for a Wish fundraiser and to view a complete list of participating celebrities, visit www.pediped.com/stars.

About pediped®

Pediped® footwear was launched in 2004 by Angela and Brian Edgeworth in their quest for the perfect soft-soled shoe for their first daughter. Exceptional quality, unsurpassed comfort and distinctive styling have made the award winning company one of the fastest-growing children's footwear brands in the United States.  Pediped® footwear is sold in over 2500 stores in the United States and 40 countries worldwide with an offering of more than 120 designs for boys and girls between their two lines, Originals and Flex. Originals (soft-soled shoes for newborns to age 2+) and Flex (rubber-soled shoes for children 1-6 years) are available in EU sizes from 20 to 29. For more information, visit www.pediped.com or call 1-702-567-0311.

About the Make-A-Wish Foundation

The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Founded in 1980 when a group of caring volunteers helped a young boy fulfill his dream of becoming a police officer, the Foundation is now the largest wish-granting charity in the world, with 65 chapters in the United States and its territories. With the help of generous donors and nearly 25,000 volunteers, the Make-A-Wish Foundation grants a wish every 40 minutes and has granted more than 180,000 wishes in the United States since its inception. For more information about the Make-A-Wish Foundation, visit wish.org and discover how you can share the power of a wish^®.
[Source: Hilary Abbott Communications, Inc., 2009]

(Kenny Chesney)

(Courtney Cox)

(Heidi Klum)

*Five Fish always blog ethically and with transparency. Click HERE!

NECCO SweetHearts: Red, White, and YOU!

In honor of the Fourth of July and the American and Foreign Military Troops serving abroad, NECCO, New England Confectionery Company, parent company of our favorite Sweethearts candy (normally seen at Valentine's) has created a new line to celebrate our wonderful country and the military men and women who serve to protect our country!

For the first time in 140 years NECCO expanded the traditional Valentine candy line and Valentine sentiments to include patriotic sentiments in honor of our troops and military families for their service. These sentiments have great lines like "Proud of U", "Home Safe", "Miss You." Sweethearts, is also sending these great candies in packages for our troops which is in partnership with the United Service Organizations (USO).

I for one was not a fan of Sweethearts (traditional Valentine) candy because of the flavors, but I can tell you that these new Red, White, and YOU flavors are fantastic and epitomize American summers and stereotypes. I was eating them like they were going out of style. Seriously, and I am not a candy fan. I would eat hard candy like Jolly Ranchers every now and again. The flavors are so yummy! The blue tastes like a rich blueberry pie, the red like a sweet and sticky cherry pie, and I haven't quite nailed the white, but man are they good!

Not only are they tasty little snacks, but they make great craft and recipe ideas. My favorite was the Red, White, and You Flag Cake! So yummy and perfect for the 4th of July BBQ!

Is that cake not scrumptious looking or not!? I would say so! Click on her to get a closer look at the easy peasy directions and make one of your own.

Remember to stay safe this Fourth of July and try to remember the reason why we celebrate this holiday past all the BBQ's, fireworks, and fun. Be sure to thank our troops, veterans, soldiers for their service to protect our freedoms!

Happy Fourth of July!!

S.O.S. - Save Our Skin

Did you know that one MILLION new cases of skin cancer alone will be diagnosed this year? Just skin cancer. Did you know that the odds are 1 in 272? Those are good odds if you consider that some schools have upwards of 500 children in each school or more, so that's at least 2 kids.


The people that are diagnosed are just the people who have regular doctors appointments to have something checked or because they happened to notice a funky mole, maybe a dark spot on their skin that looked funny, or maybe some splotching that seemed out of the ordinary. The rest go completely undiagnosed.


Did you know that the chances of getting skin cancer start from birth? You got it! All the time of being exposed to the sun without protection, exposed to the harmful UV rays sets us up for skin cancer. Granted the sun is an excellent source for vitamins in our body and helps us to metabolize these vitamins and the sun provides us energy from the natural light, but the sun is also very dangerous.

How often do you send your child to school without sunscreen? You are probably laughing and saying "Um, like everyday, who has extra time for sunscreen and they aren't outside that long anyway." Well that is what I said too. Did you know 20 minutes is all it takes a day to be exposed to the harmful UVA/UVB rays that cause burns and can eventually lead to skin cancer later in life? That's right and that is about the time your child spends on the playground and outside in P.E. (Physical Education) class everyday if not longer!

With all of this being said I am the new Treasurer for the Hermosa Vista Elementary School PTO. At our end of the 2009 school year meeting the board was advised by the principal of Hermosa Vista that the P.E. teacher might make a motion to the board about allocating funds for a sun shade for the kids. Why a sun shade? Take a look at this picture below:







Doesn't that picture make you want to play on the playground? In the shade, no hot slides to burn your legs (like we all did as kids), and MOST OF ALL no sunburns!!! The kids are pleasantly shaded from the sun and the harmful UV rays. Wouldn't you want to see those at your kids school, especially in the warmer spring and late summer months? I know I do. Want to know what else I want to see?



I would love to see one of these bad boys put over the outdoor area where the kids play basketball and have P.E. so they aren't exposed to all those nasty UVA/UVB rays, the unrelenting Arizona sun and heat, and caring parents like us aren't worried about gobbing the sunscreen on everyday during the warmer Spring and Summer months. So I am asking you as a Board Member to the Hermosa Vista Elementary PTO to make your donation today, either in funds, goods, and or services for our awesome P.E. teacher Mr. Peace (yup, that's his name...awesome!!) so that he is able to have a safe environment for our children to learn outdoors.


I would also love to see some corporate sponsorship (*hint hint) for community PR, exposure, and education about the benefits and drawbacks of the sun. Plus just a great plug to show how much the big guys love us little guys in the community and so we can show support in return!


Donations can be made by clicking on the little linky on the side of my page, all donations are accepted through PayPal and will be directly paid to Hermosa Vista Elementary School PTO. Thanks again for your support!!

Peace

I have to say that I really have had ZERO motivation to post all the cute, adorable, pant wetting stories about my kids this week. Terrible, I know. So while feeling in the pooper, which I think PMS has a bit to do with this I came across this FANTASTIC site that I wanted to share with all of the bloggy world:

http://www.billionacts.org/

This site brought a huge smile to my face while feeling totally crabby and agitated. Check it out and I hope to read someone else's story that I know on there.