While roaming the blogosphere I stumbled on a blog that just blew me away with it’s message and a challenge – so much so that I am not only participating in the challenge, but am hoping that you will take part in the challenge as well. Of course, in typical ARW style I can’t just do the challenge how the original blogger meant for it to go – I have to add my own ARW touch to it. First I will give you the low-down on the 30-day Giving Challenge and what all it entails, and then I will explain how I plan to approach this challenge.
Alyssa, the blogger from Keeping the Kingdom First, has challenged her readers and other bloggers to a 30-day Giving Challenge. The idea came to her one Sunday in church while listening to her pastor conclude a series on generosity. From there the wheels started turning in her head and the challenge was born. Alyssa is challenging her readers and other bloggers to the following: “grab a journal next month and GIVE in some fashion every day in November. This could be large or small, simple or extravagant.”
By participating in the 30-day challenge – you are basically saying that you will find some way during the 30-day period to “give” each day. It doesn’t have to be money or have to be something huge – it can be something intangible, like your time, talents, or prayers. You also have to document what you do throughout the 30-days. Think of it like keeping a diet journal – by writing down what you’re doing and your thoughts – you are holding yourself accountable to yourself. This will also help improve the likelihood of participating in the full 30-days.
Okay, now it’s time for my take…so, President Obama has declared November as Military Family Month. November is also home to Veteran’s Day. In the spirit of Veteran’s Day and Military Family Month – my 30-day challenge will be focused on the military community. I’m not saying my entire 30-days of giving will be only to military families and servicemembers – but a large portion of it will be. There are so many things, big, medium, and small, that one can do to help out in the military community. There are also tons of organizations that will gladly help you help out the military community.
I am going to commit myself to this 30-day Giving Challenge. My focus will be “giving” to the military community. I am going to create a special page here on my blog just for this challenge and it will remain up and *hopefully* active through the holidays. I challenge you, my readers, to take part in this challenge, and post not only on my site, but on www.kingdomfirstmom.com as well, documenting your 30-days. You can leave comments or e-mail me. I’d love to hear how your 30-days are going.
Side note: If you are an organization that serves military families, soldiers, veterans, and would like to be featured on my blog, please e-mail me so I can put your information out there so people who want to volunteer/give/donate – can. I will also have this as a segment on my podcast this month and would love to have guests and/or callers.
E-mail address: thearmyrecruiterswife@hotmail.com
Filed under: FRG, Info for Spouses, Podcast, Recruiting Duty, Stuff | Tagged: 30-day Giving Challenge, army, army family, army family; everyday, army recruiter, army recruiter blog, army recruiter wife, army recruiter wifes, army recruiter wives, army recruiter's wife, army recruiter's wives, army wife, army wives, DA selected recruiter, everday, everyday, everyday life, family, Family Readiness Group, FRG, military, military child care, military family, Military Stuff, recruiter, recruiter wife, Recruiting Duty
THANK YOU for including Operation Gratitude in your 30-Day Giving Challenge list of military support groups! We would love for folks to write personal letters of appreciation to deployed service members and send them to us — we will ship the letters and cards in our 60,000 individually-addressed holiday care packages going out now through December 19! (Troops love to get drawings and notes from children, too!)
You’re welcome! I am in the process of organizing a Christmas card/letter writing drive for our next FRG meeting and at our Company Christmas party! This is one of my ways to “give” back during this 30-day challenge. I hope more people will read about this and help your organization out. I would love to have you come to our Christmas party and talk about your organization and we can present all of our cards and letters to you then – btw – we’re in L.A. – so we’re pretty close by.
That would be GREAT! Thanks so much! Best way to arrange all that is to send info — time and details — requesting a speaker to OpGratVolunteer@yahoo.com