Calendar Drive!

CALENDAR DRIVE

Participating in a supply drive of some kind is a way you can do good works with a pretty small time investment.  This might be really simple: obtain some extra non-perishable food and bring it to your church's food pantry; save pop tops for the Ronald McDonald House collection box at work, drop off your old eyeglasses at the optometrist.
You could be a little more ambitious and organize a supply drive.

I was already in touch with an organization that regularly needs donations of clothing, household goods, food, toiletries, furniture... all sorts of daily living items: Refugee Services of Texas.  Refugee Services of Texas is a non-profit organization that helps families settle into a new life in the United States.  Refugees are people who have left their home countries because of persecution; they often arrive in the US with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
I had literature from RST about the kinds of items they nearly always need (from rice to school uniforms), and for some reason wall calendars jumped out.

Yes, CALENDARS.

Calendars are especially useful tools for newly arrived families learning all about the culture and schedules of the United States and their employers.

Many of us receive calendars at this time of year that we neither need, want, nor use.  My family usually gets around 3 (free!) and at least 2 of them just go directly to the recycling bin.  I thought to myself: I'm going to mail those extra calendars to RST this year.  Warm fuzzy feeling!
Then I thought: how many of the people I know get calendars they aren't going to use?  Probably at least a few.  Maybe I can send RST several calendars.

I got in touch with one of the volunteer coordinators to see if they need calendars.  In addition to the many families RST is already coaching, they are expecting 300 new families in DFW in 2013.  So, yes.  They could use some calendars.

I made a little flyer, and I've been talking to people at work, at my dance studio, at choir rehearsal: let me have your unwanted 2013 wall calendars.

I don't think I'll accumulate 300 calendars.  But maybe I'll get a few dozen.