charity - Dad of Divas

Help Fight Hunger With Cheerios #GOODGOESROUND

July 27, 2017 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

You may have seen the cute Cheerios Good Goes Round videos and ads, if not, check it out below. As a part of that effort, Cheerios is launching a social campaign to help fight hunger called #GOODGOESROUND.

From July 31 to August 14, take a picture of you and your family/friends making a circle. Share it on social media using #GOODGOESROUND. For every share, we’ll secure 10 meals for Feeding America. We’ve already secured 1 million meals, and our goal is to hit 2 million meals with your help.

Click here for a video of people making circles, ready to kick this off on July 31^st.

Carter’s Supports the Pajama Program and Helps Needy Children

November 20, 2016 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Carter’s will be donating one pair of pajamas for every pair purchased at any Carter’s retail or Carters.com on November 29th, up to 100,000 pairs of pajamas to the Pajama Program who will distribute them to needy children nationwide. Here’s a link http://www.pajamaprogram.org/. Carter’s donation will surpass $2 million this year alone.

Rockport Shoes Supports Dress For Success and Women Everywhere – Ends – 10/22/15!

October 22, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Join @Rockportshoes and me in supporting @DressforSuccess, an important organization that empowers women to achieve safer and better futures?. Just post a photo of your daily adventure using #MyDailyAdventure and @DressforSuccess between now and 10/22. For each photo posted on Instagram between now and October 22, @RockportShoes will donate $5 to Dress for Success.

Support the Crayon Collection Today!

August 14, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Penguin Young Readers is proud to announce a partnership with the Crayon Collection, the international charity initiative dedicated to repurposing millions of crayons per year for children in need, as part of the national campaign for THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers (on sale August 18, 2015). With marketing materials being distributed to over 500 stores, Penguin will include instructions for starting a community crayon collection initiative and how to donate gently-used crayons to Title 1 schools in the United States.

“Daywalt and Jeffers have created a world where crayons encourage creativity and cherish a good home. These are two important themes that the Crayon Collection embraces as well,” said Jed Bennett, Penguin’s Director of Marketing, Pre-school and Young Readers. “This partnership will help color the world brighter and help children nationwide share in the fun that crayons (both real and imagined) can provide.”

Twenty-two billion crayons are thrown away each year in the United States. The Crayon Collection uses the process of repurposing gently used crayons as a tool for teaching young children the benefits of recycling, reusing and reducing waste, and sharing with others less fortunate. The charity’s efforts also help to cut down on the $750 per year of personal income the average teacher spends outfitting his or her own underfunded classroom.

“It is a dream come true for the Crayon Collection to partner with Penguin for the release of THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME in an effort to raise awareness for our cause,” said Sheila Michail Morovati, Founder of the Crayon Collection. “This heartwarming story truly captures the core of our mission: repurposing the crayons that many of us take for granted for the benefit of vulnerable children, while simultaneously instilling an eco-conscious mindset for the environment.”

The LA-based Crayon Collection has partnered with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to bring Drew Daywalt to the museum’s annual Family Day programming on August 23, where he’ll read and sign THE DAY THE CRAYONS CAME HOME, as well as its bestselling predecessor, The Day the Crayons Quit (2013).

With more than 1.8 million copies in print, The Day the Crayons Quit has been hailed by Barnes & Noble as their top-selling picture book since its publication in 2013 and named a Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2013; Amazon’s Best Picture Book of the Year (2013); and Goodreads’ Picture Book of the Year (2013). The book has spent over two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Universal Pictures recently announced its preemptive acquisition of the film rights, with Madhouse Entertainment to produce and Matt Lopez set to script.

Crayon Collection is an international non-profit organization and a proud partner of the NHSA. Crayon Collection’s mission is to bridge a gap between plenitude and scarcity in America, and beyond, by way of collecting and redistributing millions of crayons via different channels. The crayons are not altered in any way. The charity was founded by Sheila Michail Morovati, and has successfully been collecting crayons from restaurant chains nationwide and donating them to Title I impoverished schools or Head Start Preschools that cannot afford their own. Crayon Collection has implemented an extremely sustainable system whereby schools and restaurants are paired up locally so that millions of crayons are prevented from being discarded. Crayon Collection relies on volunteers around the globe, and uses this process of repurposing gently used crayons as a relatable tool for teaching young children the benefits of recycling, reusing and reducing waste as well as having a philanthropic experience

Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.

It’s Time To #DoTheDadDance !

August 7, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

#DoTheDadDance

Dad dancing is one of the world’s unexplainable, natural phenomenon’s. Before becoming dads, all men have the ability to shake their groove thing and then the second that little bundle of joy arrives, dad grows 2 left feet and develops an awkward shuffle.

Ok, ok. That isn’t exactly fact, but there is a definite trend in the way many dads dance.

Dads are important and have been overlooked for many years when it comes to parenting. But in today’s world, we’re witnessing a cultural shift where dads are becoming more and more involved in the lives of their children. And it’s a fantastic shift to be a part of.

To continue to raise the profile of dads all around the world, The Dad Network is tapping in to dad’s secret dance weapon and launching #DoTheDadDance charity campaign in aid of UNICEF. The world’s first online dance off!

Not only are UNICEF a fabulous charity, who help millions of children every year, but also it’s wonderful to see dads uniting together to stand up and be counted.

The campaign is simple:

Dance with or without the children.
Film yourself
Upload it to social media using the hashtag #dothedaddance
Nominate 2 or 3 of your dad friends to do the same
Donate £2 to UNICEF using the unique text code or by visiting: www.justgiving.com/dothedaddance

We need as many dads as possible to take part and join in. We need as many dads as possible to shout out loud about how important dads are in the lives of their children and we need as many dads as possible to help raise money for a valuable cause.

For more information, visit: www.thedadnetwork.co.uk/dothedaddance

Office Depot Foundation National Backpack Program Celebrates 15th Year

August 3, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

For the past 15 years, the Office Depot Foundation has been giving children important tools they need to succeed in school – and in life – at the beginning of the new school year.

This year is no exception. In 2015, the Foundation – the independent charitable giving arm of Office Depot ^®– is celebrating the 15^th year of its award-winning National Backpack Program by donating 200,000 colorful new sackpacks to nonprofit organizations, schools and agencies across the United States and internationally.

By the end of 2015, Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation will have given away more than 3.7 million backpacks and sackpacks since the National Backpack Program began in 2001.

“For most children, the first day of school is an exciting time complete with new clothes and back-to-school gear,” says Office Depot Foundation President Mary Wong. “But for kids in families where money is tight, the experience can be just the opposite. We believe that every child should have the opportunity to go to school with dignity and hope. The sackpacks and school supplies we donate help to level the playing field and give these wonderful children a reason to stand just a little bit taller.”

To distribute sackpacks directly to children, the Foundation is hosting Back-to-School Celebrations in some 20 cities across the U.S. in July and August. This week, 18,000+ new sackpacks are being donated through events in Atlanta, San Francisco, New Orleans and Indianapolis. In New Orleans alone, the Office Depot Foundation has donated more than 50,000 backpacks and sackpacks to children in the decade since Hurricane Katrina.

Thousands more sackpacks are being given to kids through the Office Depot Foundation’s continuing partnerships with nine nonprofit organizations serving children nationally and globally. The Foundation is collaborating with the AARP Experience Corps, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association, Feed the Children, Food For The Poor, the Kids In Need Foundation, the National Foundation for Women Legislators, Operation Homefront and Samaritan’s Feet International. For the seventh consecutive year, children of the Navajo Nation in Arizona will receive sackpacks.

The specially designed, drawstring-style sackpacks come in seven bright and colorful designs that are new for 2015. Each one includes a zippered pouchcontaining a pen, pencil, pencil sharpener, eraser, six-inch ruler and four crayons. The sackpacks do not have any Office Depot Foundation or Office Depot logos or markings.

More information about the National Backpack Program can be found on the Foundation’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/officedepotfoundation. To learn more about the Office Depot Foundation and its initiatives, go to www.officedepotfoundation.org/. You can follow the Foundation on Twitter @OfficeDepotFndn; the National Backpack Program’s hashtag is #ODFcares. The Foundation is also on Instagram: @officedepotfoundation.

About the Office Depot Foundation

The Office Depot Foundation is an independent foundation ? tax exempt under IRC Sec. 501(c)(3) ? that serves as the independent charitable giving arm of Office Depot, Inc. In keeping with its mission, Listen Learn Care^®, the Foundation supports a variety of programs that give children tools to succeed in school and in life; build the capacity of nonprofit organizations through collaboration and innovation; and help communities prepare for disasters, as well as recovering and rebuilding afterwards. For more information, visit www.officedepotfoundation.org.

DoSomething.org and WWE ® Take On Bullying For Second Straight Year

August 3, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

DoSomething.org, one of the largest global organizations for young people and social change, and global entertainment company WWE and its Be a STAR anti-bullying initiative, are teaming up for The Bully Text: Superstar Edition. The campaign, now in its second year, gets young people to take action around bullying by playing an SMS text message game.

From today until Monday, August 31, young people can virtually work their way through six levels of scenarios with guidance from WWE Superstars and Divas, including Roman Reigns^®, Dean Ambrose^®, Paige^®, Natalya^® and Alicia Fox^®. Then, each player is given options to stand up and speak out against bullying. For example, “You sit behind Roman. Someone in the back of the bus keeps throwing paper airplanes at him. Do you A) Play it cool- it’s not your fight or B) play Superman?” Along the way, players will see how their anti-bullying skills compare to others, and ultimately whether they’ve earned the WWE World Heavyweight Championship title in bullying prevention. Every player will also receive the chance to win a Be a STAR rally at his or her school or community center.

” WWE ‘s massive reach and stellar talent have helped us activate thousands of young people around anti-bullying,” said Naomi Hirabayashi, chief marketing officer at DoSomething.org. “We’re excited to rally WWE fans around this issue for year two to make it bigger and better than ever!”

“We are proud to once again partner with DoSomething.org and provide thousands with resources to help put an end to bullying in their communities,” said Stephanie McMahon, WWE Chief Brand Officer. “Utilizing our global assets and larger than life WWE Superstars and Divas, we are confident that this campaign will help educate young people on the dangers of bullying and encourage them to stand up for themselves and others.”

In 2014, nearly 100,000 young people played the Bully Text game. To play Bully Text this year, text BULLY to 38383 or visit DoSomething.org/bully*.

About DoSomething.org:

DoSomething.org makes the world suck less. One of the largest global orgs for young people and social change, our 4 million members tackle campaigns that impact every cause, from poverty to violence to the environment to literally everything else. Any cause, anytime, anywhere. *mic drop*

About Be a STAR:

Founded by WWE and developed in partnership with The Creative Coalition, the Be a STAR anti-bullying initiative stands for Show Tolerance And Respect and its mission is to ensure a positive and equitable social environment for everyone regardless of age, race, religion or sexual orientation through grassroots efforts beginning with education and awareness. Be a STAR promotes positive methods of social interaction and encourages people to treat others as equals.

Help Me Raise Milk Donations for Feeding America #MilkDrive

June 15, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

I know that my family has more than many and less than some too, but that being said I know that we are fortunate to have what we have. Even in my own community, we have a local food bank that feeds 90 families a month, and we live in a small community. Some of these families do not even have access to things like milk on a daily basis and thus their children do not get the milk to grow up healthy and strong and this is even worse in the summer. Although the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) fund school lunches and breakfasts for food insecure children, these federal programs do not reach children when school is out.

So, this Fathers Day I am teaming up with Life of Dad and Milk Life to promote The Great American Milk Drive which benefits Feeding America. As a matter of disclosure, I am being compensated for this post and will be donating part of that compensation to the campaign.

I grew up on milk, and while I have come and gone in being a milk drinker myself over the years, I still support milk and having this as a part of every child’s diet. I mean, can you imagine that More than 22 million children may miss out on milk’s nutrition in the summer months when schools are closed and they lose access to free or reduced-price milk programs? I cannot believe it is the case, even though the statistics show that it is.

Why is milk so important? Milk is a nutrient powerhouse providing 9 essential nutrients, including 8 grams of high-quality protein in each 8 ounce serving – is one of the most requested items by food bank clients yearound. But it’s especially needed during the summer when kids may be missing out on nutritious meals provided through school breakfast and lunch programs. On average, food banks are only able to provide the equivalent of less than one gallon of milk per person per year. That’s because while Americans are generous with canned and dry goods, many don’t think to donate milk because it’s perishable.

This summer, America’s dairy farmers and milk companies are on a mission to bring more fresh, nutritious milk to children in need. You can help power the play of these children all summer long with a small donation at milklife.com/giveDadsNorth. For as little as $5, you can deliver a gallon of milk to a family in need in your community through the Feeding America network of food banks.

This infographic below is SO powerful!

So I am putting my money where my mouth is this fathers day and am hoping that all dads will join me to help change this dilemma and create a world where kids and families will have Milk available to them! I’m donating 20 Gallons to The Great American Milk Drive. How many will you donate? If you do donate please use this link milklife.com/giveDadsNorth because if you use that link then my team, the Dads of the North will get that much closer to generating the most donations to the Milk Drive.

Life of Dad will donate an additional $500 to the cause on behalf of the team that is in the lead as of 12PM ET on Monday, June 22nd. We want to win!! My teammates are:

Creed Anthony – @acjlist of Indianapolis
Victor Aragon – @fandads of Chicago
Drew Bennett – @benspark of Boston
Adam Gertsacov – @kafclown of Chicago

If you were thinking about getting me something for Father’s Day consider a $5 donation through the Dads of the North link of http://milklife.com/giveDadsNorth.

If you want to make the biggest impact with your giving, besides using the Dads of the North Link (http://milklife.com/giveDadsNorth) then consider this:

On June 16, The Great American Milk Drive is challenging America to donate gallons of milk for kids in need in their communities with a major, one-day social media milk drive. America’s milk companies and dairy farmers will make gallons multiply across the country by matching up to $10,000 in donations. You can follow this social media-driven milk drive on Facebook and Twitter with #MilkDrive.

This also is the same day as the Life of Dad #MilkDrive Twitter Party: Tuesday, June 16th at 8PM ET just go to twitter and follow the hashtag of#MilkDrive

Millions of Kids Give Back during Club Penguin ’s Annual Holiday Drive #DadChat

January 12, 2015 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Disney Club Penguin players made real world change this holiday season by donating their virtual coins to the annual Coins for Change drive. During the month of December, kids were encouraged to donate the coins that they earned playing games in Club Penguin to ‘unlock’ the funding of real-world projects that will share a $1M USD contribution from Disney and Club Penguin.

Thanks to the generous virtual coin donations from millions of players, Club Penguin will be providing funds to build schools, playgrounds and libraries, and to protect endangered animals and their habitats. Players from 193 countries participated in Coins for Change this year, donating more than 21 billion coins to fund the following projects:

Schools (Ethiopia, Nicaragua, China): Through partnerships with organizations such as Free The Children and imagine1day , Club Penguin funds the construction of schools and classrooms, helping children get an education.

Libraries and Reading Spaces (Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India): Club Penguin works with Free The Children and Partners in the Horn of Africa to provide books, training and information. These libraries supplement the basic education program by encouraging kids to read and learn on their own.

Playgrounds (U.S., UK, Haiti, Afghanistan, Argentina) With KaBOOM!, Club Penguin is building playgrounds and supplying Imagination playgrounds around the world. With Playground Builders, Club Penguin constructs playgrounds for children affected by war. These efforts provide jobs and bring money into local economies.

Animal Homes for more than ten different species (Argentina, India, Nepal, Russia, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe): With organizations such as theGlobal Penguin Society, Wildlife Conservation Network and Rare, Club Penguin directly supports the protection and conservation of over ten animal species. Our partners use science management, field research and community education to help promote and protect endangered animals.

Through programs like Coins for Change, Club Penguin has contributed more than $12 million USD since 2007 to projects around the world, further raising social consciousness, inspiring and activating the 200 million players who take part in the online community.

Join Me on #WORLDSIGHTDAY To Combat Avoidable Blindness #ISEE

October 9, 2014 by dadofdivas Leave a Comment

Today, October 9, is World Sight Day ~ Did you know that approximately 285 million people are living with low vision or blindness worldwide? 90% live in developing countries. Yet, did you also know that 80% of visual impairment can be avoided or cured?

I am asking all of you, in support of World Sight Day and its 2014 theme “No More Avoidable Blindness” to turn the camera on themselves and share a photo, one hand over eye, and explain why vision is important to you. Here is an link to the website: http://www.orbis.org/news/entry/isee