Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

help one now

How you can help others by selling your stuff

Garage sale season is gearing up. And if your neighborhoods are like the ones where I live, then it’s only a matter of weeks before garage sale season reaches its peak. Once school is out, it seems everybody and their neighbor takes the opportunity to declutter and make a little cash.

If you’re considering having a garage sale this year, let me offer you an opportunity through Help One Now to declutter AND help fund projects in Haiti and Uganda.

The details and resources are here, and you can read stories of how other people have hosted their sales.

Like this 7-year-old boy who wanted orphans in Haiti to have Christmas. So his family helped him organize a sale in November that raises $1,400.

Or this woman who decided she might not be able to do much but compared to what she was doing, she could do a whole lot more.


Here’s what’s true: We, Americans, have way too much stuff.

Just look at these statistics from the Self-Storage Association:

  • There are now approximately 49,940 “primary” self storage facilities in the United States as of year end 2011.
  • One in 10 US households (HH), or 10% (10.8 million of the 113.3 million US HH in 2011) currently rent a self storage unit; that has increased from 1 in 17 US HHs (6%) in 1995 – or an increase of approximately 65 percent in the last 15 years.
  • There is 7.3 sq.ft. of self storage space for every man, woman and child in the nation; thus, it is physically possible that every American could stand – all at the same time – under the total canopy of self storage roofing.
  • The self storage industry has been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the United States commercial real estate industry over the period of the last 35 years.

We have “houses” for our stuff, and worldwide, there are people who don’t have houses for themselves.

We can do better, can’t we?

So, if you’re planning a garage sale this summer, make it a win-win for you and global poverty by donating your garage sale earnings to one of Help One Now’s projects.

This site makes it easy to plan. So, grab some stuff, grab some friends and make a difference!

 

The power of one

“I’m only one person. What can I do?”

I’ve said this. I’ve thought it. I’ve let it lull me into inaction.

I feel like I need an army to make a difference in the world. Or a platform. Or a gajillion followers on Twitter or Facebook.

Maybe you’ve felt this way too.

If so, hear me now:

WHAT. A. LIE.

The truth is, there is power in one.

One person with a passion.

One person with a dream.

One person with a mission.

One person doing good.

And that’s what an organization called Help One Now is all about.

Help One Now is committed to helping one child by partnering with one leader. This is how we will break the cycle of extreme poverty: one community at a time, one leader at a time, one child at a time.

Here’s one of their stories:

Ten-year-old Naiderson is like many Haitian boys: he loves soccer, and because  his parents weren’t able to care for him, he was abandoned at an orphanage. He was one of 16 children brought to an orphanage after the earthquake. This orphanage, run by Pastor Gaetan and his wife, already had 14 children.

Help One Now began working with Pastor Gaetan, staring a sponsorship program to provide food for the children. They provided shelter and dug a well so the kids would have pure water. And they set up a tent school for the neighborhood kids to fill a void the earthquake left when it destroyed the neighborhood school.

Recently, Help One Now and its team of bloggers raised $150,000 for a new school building, which is now under construction and will open in the fall.

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In this country, we value education. It is no different for those living in poverty. Education will change Naiderson’s life and open up possibilities for him. Children are the future here and there. Investing in his life will reap countless future rewards for his community and his country.

Help One Now is “a simple tribe composed of people who collectively work together to do good in the world.” A collection of “ones,” if you will.

If you’ve ever wanted to make a different but thought you were “just one person,” I’d encourage you to partner with Help One Now.

In the coming weeks, you’ll be hearing more about Help One Now on this blog and about their Garage Sales For Orphans campaign, which last year raised more than $150,000.

I’ve heard people say “To the world you may be just one person but to one person you just might be the world.” You don’t have to have a big footprint to leave a mark on the world. And if enough individuals work together, we can leave behind lasting change, change that makes a difference for one person or more than one person.

There’s strength in numbers. And one is a powerful number.

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