We’re all winners, aren’t we? But, I mean that this was the week where each giving circle came to together to choose this quarter’s charity. All of the charities nominated this cycle we’re great, so it was a difficult choice. Below you’ll find a little more about who we chose and why.

People For Pets Giving Circle Donates to PetAid Colorado

PetAid Colorado has two main services. One is to provide subsidized veterinary care for Colorado residents. They have a veterinary hospital in Denver where residents can visit, they have a mobile vet clinic they use to visit pet owners who are home bound, and they reimburse veterinarians around the state for providing below cost care for the low income in their community.

We believe strongly in this part of their mission, but it wasn’t just that. They also assist Colorado communities during emergencies with caring for displaced and injured pets. Many of our members have close connections to the Northern Colorado area, so when we were impacted by a large and devastating fire, we saw how difficult it was for people displaced by the fire to care for their pets. PetAid’s advice and assistance helped many of those animals, and their help was deeply appreciated.

Additionally, they had a matching donation opportunity, so our $672.50 would be equivalent to $1,345. We are delighted to support this great charity!

Poverty Busters Giving Circle Donates to Mines Advisory AND Nuru!

For the first time, we had a tie! It was very difficult to decide between these two charities– both of them are saving and changing lives, and since we split down the middle, each charity will receive half of our $747.50 group donation.

Mines Advisory Group is removing landmines and destroying small arms in countries around the world. But wait… you’re thinking, “What does that have to do with poverty?” A lot it turns out. When the land is not safe it cannot be farmed and important infrastructure like roads and schools can’t be built. The community remains without the resources necessary to educate their children and create economic opportunity, so they are stuck in poverty. When people don’t have access to economic opportunity but they do have access to arms, violence and crime happen creating an unpredictable environment which furthers hampers the creation of wealth. MAG also pulled deeply on our heart strings as we saw the real human suffering involved in landmines. If you want to shed a few tears, you can watch some videos at MAG’s website: http://www.maginternational.org/videos/

Nuru International is quite different than MAG but doing equally important work. What’s unique about Nuru International is their comprehensive focus on a single area in Kenya. Some organizations focus on creating economic opportunities. Some focus on clean water and sanitation facilities. Some focus on building schools. Nuru does all of that and more. Their goal is to to take this one area, the Kuria district in Kenya, and improve all aspects of the community providing a place where the residents can be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Once they’ve met their objective, their plan is to leave. We feel especially strong about the intention for NURU to leave and so make the community self-reliant, because once a baseline is established, people CAN take care of themselves and SHOULD have the dignity of taking care of themselves.

We also like that each of these organizations partner with members of the local community providing jobs, training, and leadership opportunities.

Veterans Giving Circle Donates To Give An Hour

Give An Hour provides free and anonymous mental health care to active duty, veterans, and family members of those who served in the Afghan and Iraq wars. We are especially happy to support this organization because suicide is a massive problem in the military. Did you know that more soldiers have died due to suicide than in combat related deaths?

There are a few key components that make Give An Hour services so valuable.

1) Anonymous. Many soldiers are afraid of the stigma of seeking counseling and many with special clearances worry that if they seek counseling, they could lose their security clearances. Even though the military is striving to change this perception, it’s still common, so having an option for anonymous care is very important.

2) Help for the families. Everyone is impacted when a family member is struggling, and it’s important that spouses and other relatives know how to help and cope with the unique challenges that come from military service.

3) Free. The military does not have enough mental health professionals to meet the current demand, so many soldiers face long backlogs and inconsistent care due to too few counselors and too many soldiers.