Charitable Children

I'm so proud of my babies. They each won $6 yesterday in a drawing at school. We had a fundraiser (the first of many this year) for discount cards good at local retailers. Every child that brought back an order form got to participate in a "money grab". They were both so excited to have "won" and I told them that they could either put the money in their piggy bank or we could go to Target and they could each get something. They love putting money in their piggy banks (both are saving up for something "big") and decided to do that.

This morning, on our local news, I learned about a money drive being held this afternoon for The Salvation Army and asked the kids if they'd like to donate their $6 to that instead. My daughter is aware of what has happened in the South. My son knows there was a "big storm" but not much else. He hasn't asked me as many questions about it as my little girl has. I explained that donating the money to The Salvation Army would help those people (whom she has seen on the news - wet, stranded, crying) get food, blankets, beds etc.. Both kids easily and happily agreed to go with me to place their $6 in the box at the money drive.

Speaking of charitable giving, I was pleased to learn about the following corporate donations at WWL-TV out of New Orleans:

-- Chevron: $5 million.

-- JPMorgan Chase: $3 million.

-- Citigroup: $3 million.

-- Walt Disney Co.: $2.5 million.

-- Pfizer: $2 million.

-- Abbott Laboratories: $2 million.

-- State Farm: $1 million.

-- EDS: Will match employee contributions up to $1 million. -- Eli Lilly: 40,000 vials of refrigerated insulin.

-- Wyeth: antibiotics and nonprescription pain relievers.

-- Merck: antibiotics and hepatitis A vaccines.

-- Johnson & Johnson: Pain relievers, wound care supplies and kits containing toothbrushes, soap and shampoo.

-- Abbott Laboratories: At least $2 million in nutritional and medical products.

-- Nissan: 50 trucks for Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

-- General Motors: 25 cars and trucks to the Red Cross.

-- Sprint Nextel: 3,000 walkie talkie-type phones for emergency personnel.

-- Qwest Communications: 2,000 long-distance calling cards.

-- Kellogg: Seven truckloads of crackers and cookies.

-- Culligan International: Five truckloads of water.

-- Anheuser-Busch: more than 825,000 cans of water.

-- Office Depot: Contents of its five New Orleans stores, valued at $4 million.