Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

I am ecstatic. My husband who has been in Kuwait for a year and in Birmingham the year before is BACK!   He’s been home for a little over a week. We went on a nearby base a couple of days ago and I stopped and got Slim Jims for the guys at the gate.   It’s something I started doing back during Random Acts of Kindness week in February. I bring them snacks since they’re on their feet outside for hours at a time.   He asked me why I did it and I said because I like to. Another great kindness event is coming up next Saturday, the Great Kindness Challenge .   It’s an event aimed at getting children involved in helping others, but it’s also a great day for everyone to do as many kind deeds as they can. If you’re having trouble thinking of some things your kids can do, the Great Kindness Challenge website has a list of 50 suggestions which you can print and check off as you do them.   They include things like leaving a flower on someone’s doorstep, reading a b...

Our son is a boy scout and loves to camp.   I like to think he got his love of the outdoors from us since I love hiking and enjoy camping myself. Before boy scouts, he was in the Adventure Guides program through the YMCA. The leader of the group was wonderful and one of the things he always made the boys do before they set up camp and after we broke it down was to pick up 10 pieces of trash. It’s something I hope my son will always take with him, the idea that taking care of the environment is an important responsibility of stewardship.   If we are to enjoy the great outdoors, we need to take care of them.    This month began the Keep America Beautiful (KAB) Great American Cleanup. It goes from March 1 through May 31 every year and is America’s largest annual community improvement program. Last year 3.8 million volunteers put in 5.2 million hours at 30,629 events around the country and the world. Volunteers also planted 166,000 trees and planted 1.5 mill...