Years of Service

Table of Contents

26th Year of Service
The idea: years of service
How did this happen?

26th Year of Service

1. Fundraise $3,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and complete the Nation’s Triathlon
2. Give a compliment to every “service worker” I come across (servers, front desk personnel, cashiers, etc.)
3. ~~Foster at least one child over the year~~ Provided respite.
4. Donate 5% of every paycheck to the charity of my choice beginning after ~~March 15, 2010~~.
5. Donate an hour a month to the local history center beginning in ~~April 2010~~.
6. Donate items to Toys for Tots.
7. Pick four cards off the tree at the local grocery store and provide gifts for the people on those cards.
8. Compliment at least one co-worker per week.
9. Go up to a perfect stranger and tell them that they look nice today.
10. Shovel someone else’s sidewalk or rake someone else’s leaves.
11. Adopt an animal from a shelter.
12. Read a book about giving and then give it away.
13. Send a care package overseas.
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26.

The idea: years of service

Every year, I will take the number of years I’ve been alive and equate that to a number of service projects. In 2010, I turned 26 years old. Therefore, I must do 26 service projects in the year 2010. These projects can be small (giving someone $10 or buying them lunch) or big (raising $3,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). They can be repeats from years before, but they must be started and finished in the year 2010. I can have help from other people, as long as I am a large part of the service project.

Once I finish the service project, I must blog about it and detail if I liked the service project or what I could do better next time.

Have a suggestion on a service project I should do? Please leave a comment!

How did this happen?

On March 5, 2010, I wrote something on Twitter that I had no idea was going to spark an idea. I wrote, “Is there anything better than the feeling I get from helping someone else and making their day a good day? I don’t really think so.” I meant what I wrote wholeheartedly – the number one thing that will make me positive and joyful is helping someone else and making their day a good day. Coffee ranks up there somewhere, too, don’t get me wrong… But number one is helping someone else and being positive.

The next day, March 6, 2010, I read a blog that helped the wheels keep turning. Meryl, from My Bit of Earth, wrote about a discovery she’d made on another blog: My Happy Little Life. Kelly (from My Happy Little Life) made a decision on her 31st birthday:

last year on my birthday i decided to celebrate with a service project- it was so fun + successful, and i received so much help and support from all of you- i decided to make it a yearly tradition.

for each year i rack up in age, i want to organize a drive to help impoverished mothers-to-be with their “birth-days”. this year i turned 32, and so i’d like to put together 32 newborn kits to distribute to mothers and newborns in need.

I thought about Kelly’s project and realized that I wanted to do something similar, but with a twist.