Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

I write about a lot of volunteering days and another one is coming up December 5—International Volunteer Day.   This one has been sponsored by the United Nations since 1985 and 2011 is the ten year anniversary of the year of the volunteer in 2001.   The UN General Assembly will be discussing volunteerism between now and December 5 and you can listen to and chime in on their discussions here .   There’s also a photo contest to show how volunteering can help countries meet peace and development goals. November 19 was also National Family Volunteering Day. But none of these volunteering days means a thing if they are not celebrated in the spirit of volunteerism, by doing something to help others. So, on the Wednesday before National Family Volunteering Day, my son and I went shopping.   We bought sunscreen, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, razors, dental floss, candy canes, summer sausage logs and crackers for a group of 800 Army soldiers in Afghanistan. The unit ...

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming up quickly, I thought I’d provide a few shopping resources for the conscientious charitable shopper. Here is a list of places you can buy gifts that give in more than one way.   These gifts make the receiver smile, help someone in need and give you a good feeling inside.   Gifts That Give to Charities A number of companies now give a set amount or percentage of the sale to a charity when you purchase goods from them.   It’s an easy way to get a product that you would normally buy while also giving to a good cause. Gifts.com – has put together a list of gifts which give a portion of the proceeds to different charities including products from Ralph Lauren, LaCoste and Clarins Gifts that Give – designer products you can buy where 20 percent of proceeds go to charity Gifts That Give More from the Hunger Site – buy a wide variety of items from around the world and food goes to the hungry Shop For Good – items from well kno...

This month is a phenomenon in men’s health known as Movember . It’s all about sporting a Mo (mustache) and growing it to great lengths while you shun shaving for the month. At the end of the month, you can show your Mo at a Mo Party. In the meantime, you can share why you are growing your facial hair and why else? To support men’s health.   The Movember site has tons of information about men’s health, prostate cancer and testicular cancer as well as health resources for men. While growing your Mo, you can also raise money to support research on cancers that affect men such as prostate cancer.   The funds go to programs run by Movember and its partners, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVE STRONG , the Lance Armstrong Foundation. You can create an online page to which people can contribute for your Mo growth. Movember offers prizes for the teams with the best Mo page, the team and individual that raises the most money and also has random prizes for those that rais...

As my first blog for my own website, I felt I should explain a little bit about how I got to this point. Since August of 2010, I have been blogging about volunteering and charity work for Working Mother Magazine’s website. I call it the Heart to Heart blog because I believe that helping others is a heart matter. When we help others, we connect hearts. We may never see the fruit of our heart work, but it is there in the heart of the recipient.   That is why I chose to call this blog Helping Hearts. We are hearts that help other hearts when we reach out to others through volunteer or charity work. I am a writer who has written for newspapers, websites and magazines since 2002, but I found that there was a particular type of article I was writing that I felt was more important than the others, that had more meaning.   I was writing features about teachers, volunteers and other inspiring people who gave of themselves without expecting a payback. They reminded me of how I wan...