Happy International Women's Day

3 Ways to Celebrate International Women's Day

Poor people lead incredibly complicated financial lives. They have to make ends meet on an average income of $2 a day, which barely covers their basic needs. To manage their unpredictable situations, they need access to funds and financial tools that traditional banks aren’t willing to provide.

Poor women in particular, are often denied bank loans and deemed unbankable. Fortunately, through microfinance projects, entrepreneurial women can connect into a huge pool of untapped investment funds that such projects strive to make available to the working poor. 

1 One such micro-lender, MicroPlace enables you to make investments in the fight against worldwide poverty -- a $300 billion problem. While daunting, raising and effectively distributing that kind of capital to the people who need it is indeed possible.

2 Join the FITE against poverty and oppression. Financial Independence Through Entreprenuership, believes that when a woman develops her own sustainable business, not only does she improve her own situation – but her entire community benefits through a multiplier effect of change.

3 KIVA, in turn, represents a source of funding for variety of microfinance projects, housing loans, agricultural loans, and manufacturing loans, enabling women to invest in their growth. 

It might be hard to imagine how so little can do so much good in the world, but it can. Sometimes, it only takes a few hundred dollars from several investors to help a borrower purchase supplies at a better wholesale price, resulting in higher profits. Or better yet, a new piece of equipment, such as a sewing machine, to double her output. 

Literally, the cost of a cup of coffee per day could change a woman's life from starving to thriving. That's how we can help our sisters.

March Calendar of Special Days

March Calendar now every day is a reason to celebrate

(click link and bookmark for future use)
Highlights this month:
First Day of Spring
St. Patrick's Day
Daylight Saving Time
Everything You Do is Right Day
National Goof Off Day

Happy Mardi Gras

Live the Fantasy!

February Calendar of Special Days

** February Calender **

(bookmark this page for future reference)

Highlights this month:

Super Bowl

St. Valentine's Day

Mardi Gras

A party at the beginning, middle, and end of the month!
Don't stop till you get enough!

January Calendar of Special Days

** JANUARY CALENDAR **
(click link and bookmark it for future use!)

highlights this month:

Peculiar people Day
National Kazoo Day

Carnival Season begins!

Upcoming:
SUPER BOWL February 5th, 2012
get all your supplies + free ship

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Time is running out!

Only a few days left to order your Official Letter From The North Pole

Don't let one more day lapse without making sure your little one gets a letter from Santa! Make sure its Official.

Look for the

Official North Pole Mail Stamp

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Grandma and Santa

 

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid.

I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus?" she norted...."Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your coat, and let's go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world-famous cinnamon bun. "Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything.

As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me $10.00. That was a bundle in those days. "Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping.

For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough; he didn't have a good coat.

I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!

I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.

"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes, ma'am," I replied shyly. "It's for Bobby."

The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in in Christmas paper and ribbons. While we were folding the coat a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible. When we were done wrapping, Grandma wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on Bobby's present.

Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma.

Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were -- ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

May you always have LOVE to share,
HEALTH to spare and FRIENDS that care...
And may you always believe in the magic of Santa Claus!

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