This is Make a Difference Week. From now through Sunday, Westporters are asked to volunteer — somewhere, some time, somehow — to (duh) make a difference in their neighborhood, their town, their whatever.
The number of organizations needing help is boundless. If you don’t know where to turn, check out the Make a Difference, Westport website. Two special projects are listed for Saturday (Oct. 23, 9 a.m.-noon at the Senior Center): creating hygiene bags for Norwalk Community Shelter clients, and creating comfort bags for battered and abused women at the Domestic Violence Crisis Center.
Worthy ideas, for sure. But you don’t have to be part of a formal network to make a difference.
Anyone in town can:
- Clean up. The beach, Longshore, Wakeman, downtown — pick your favorite part of Westport, grab some gloves and Hefty bags, and get to work.
- Speak up. Tired of hearing bullying, misogynistic, homophobic or other offensive comments from a co-worker, acquaintance or your kid? Say something!
- Take care of a neighbor. Offer to take an elderly woman shopping. Clean up that brush that the couple next door never got to. Introduce yourself to the family that moved in over the summer.
- Say something nice. Thank a town official for going out of his or her way to solve a problem. Email a teacher who helped you or your kid — yesterday, last week, or a year or 10 ago. Compliment your child or partner for something you never mentioned before.
You don’t have to do everything on this list. You don’t have to do it all at once. You don’t even have to do it this week.
But give it a shot some time. You’ll do much more than make a difference in someone else’s life.
You’ll make a difference in yours, too.
Or help to promote Saferides of Westport.
Let’s make it “Make A Difference Life”. Why stop at a week.
I think that this blog – and all other blogs that allow anonymous postings – makes an enormous difference that is sometimes lost on people because you do it voluntarily; so, is there a way to make an anonymous $-donation to it? (I don’t see you placing ads on it, doing pay-for Daily Candy/NYSocial Diary paid mentions or photos, etc.)
Hah! Funny you should ask. Donations are always welcome — it is a “labor of love,” but definitely time-consuming. Here’s a post I did last spring (on “06880”‘s anniversary) describing the contribution model: http://06880danwoog.com/2010/03/05/06880-is-1/
Anonymous though, huh? Interesting. I don’t know anyone who has ever turned down cash (Dan Woog, 301 Post Road East, Westport, CT 06880.
I’m not sure if PayPal has a way to keep a transaction anonymous.
Perhaps “06880” readers will have as many responses to this question as they do to whether or not bike riders are the most amazing human beings on the planet, or the devil’s spawn.
Is the question whether PayPal has a way to keep a transaction anonymous?
Sorry, just being the devil’s spawn. Well, Professor, welcome to “Make A Difference” Week. I encourage all to “subscribe” to the “06880” blog at $2.74 a day. If Jeffxs keeps coming up with the one liners, as he did to Pauly G this morning, I will recommend doubling that amount!
Argh! My eyes! Am I the only one who find the logo…. umm, “interesting”?
Please enlist a talented designer to a pro bono work on the logo.
Looks like they need to be “making a difference” in their branding. ba-dum ching
no paypal obv. can’t keep transaction anonymous but us postal money order and address above means that i can continue w/the anonymity. and, thanks dan for maintaining & prompting conversations that are actually going on in most small towns around the country while,again, allowing anonymous participation.
anonymous: Nice observation. Many of the commentators feel a necessity to know your name as if you are hiding behind some kind of cloak of evil if you don’t divulge your given sir name. I have my reasons for the call name as I am sure others do as well. Those who do know my identity, including Professor Woog, know that I would say the same to their face. Certainly you can trust Dan with discretion.