One of the challenges facing relief organizations as they work to quickly help people in need is getting supplies directly to people who need them. Rob Kramer, of Global Water Trust, one of the organizations that formed Lime Aid, spoke at Eren’s fundraiser after returning from Haiti and said that large amounts of aid is sitting at the airport and isn’t being delivered because it isn’t addressed to specific people at a specific location.

Lime-Aid seeks to make a very concrete difference by helping a couple of specific groups in need with specific things they desperately need.

The organizations supported by Lime-Aid are the ANA Children’s Center and the Brebis de Saint Michelle Orphanage. They are collecting 10 critical staple supplies:

1) 25 or 50 pound bags of rice
2) peanut butter
3) spaghetti
4) cooking oil
5) multivitamins
6) bleach tablets
7) milk powder
8 – liquid formula
9) dried meat
10) dry beans

The final thing that Lime-Aid is collecting is of course money, to deliver these supplies to the children, and to help relocate many of them – 54 children from the orphanage recently arrived in Pittsburgh, which was covered by CNN.

According to The New York Times, Lime-Aid was formed by west coast production companies such as Lime Studios teaming with The Global Water Trust to find a specific, targetted way to make a difference – they have been assisting the orphans in Haiti for years before the recent devastating earthquake. To find out more or donate, go to the Lime-Aid website.

According to the story in the Abbotsford-Mission Times, the event, which was held January 29, featured a wide variety of entertainment and fundraising, including food, music, door prizes, a 50/50 draw and a silent auction, all for a $20 ticket. The event was hosted in partnership with Country 107.1 FM, which promoted the event, and is holding another event on February 5 at the Coast Chilliwack Hotel. 100% of all proceeds from the event went directly to the Salvation Army Haiti Relief.

The green fair created by Bates is titled “Summer Solstice Celebration – Growing Greener Every Day”, and is being held at the Prisco Community Center in Aurora, Illinois. A full-fledged, all day environmental festival is being planned, with music, food, vendors with environmental products, demonstrations, educational workshops, and more. The fair is being modeled off Elgin, IL’s ECCO Green Expo.

To get involved with Aurora Green Lights or to find out more information about it or the Summer Solstice Celebration/environmental fair, call Bates at 630-605-9244 or go to www.auroragreenlights.org.

Trost says she believes women often put themselves last when they are going through times and she wanted to do something that really empowered those women in what they were dealing with – women who weren’t on public assistance but didn’t have the capability assist themselves as much as they needed. One woman attendee who had been unemployed for over a year got a new job immediately after the event, attributing this success from the confidence she received from being there.

Trost was also amazed and gratified by the huge generosity of local business owners who gave their time and services to make the event happen – to see a complete list of businesses who contributed and read the complete story, read about it at the Living Healthier Now web site.

Specifically, much of the money went for badly needed supplies for the Charle Street short term residential facility, which starts homeless men on the road to sobriety free of charge by having them stay there and take part in a twelve-step program. The facility is volunteer run, all of whom are sober but many of whom were former residents.

Money raised also goes towards the Hamiltom House medium-term facility for 12 newly recovered alcoholics. All of the money for the organization comes from private citizens.

Jochum, who took on the project in his Landmark Education self-expression and leadership program, accomplished much of the fundraising simply through Facebook and other simple means. His latest post indicates $8200 has been raised.

Fletcher says she was inspired by the saying that “it takes a village to raise a family”. A Qigong instructor and dance facilitator, Fletcher passionatley believes that dance is “one of the most powerful ways to build a strong and loving family”.

The first event took place in November, and another followed the next month. The dance jam starts with an opening dance with everyone in a circle, which Fletcher leads. Freeform dancing takes place the rest of the evening.

To get involved and see the schedule of upcoming Dance Jams, which take place from 4-5:30pm at the OmCulture dance space in Wallingford, WA, go to Fletcher’s QiDancing blog.

Rao teamed with six other colleagues in the tech industry to work with him in pooling their time and money to restore dilapidated ancient monuments. His project, first titled “Unseen Karnataka”, began when he wrote about these monuments and the benefits it would bring society for them to be restored. But when he talked with his friends, they all decided that more than writing was called for. Rao relates that they decided that taking direct action was a once in a lifetime opportunity to contribute to their homeland.

They worked with the Archaeological Survey of Indian, identifying different sites and spending their weekends investigating them. They visited twenty-five locations and began work at three of them. In doing so, they both educated local communities and tourists online about the different sites. In the months that followed, they worked with local citizens and college students to unearth a number of ancient temples.

The costs of excavation are of course very high. Go to the Unseen Karnataka website to get involved.

Talan has a personal stake in defeating lung diseases, as his mother died of lung cancer 25 years ago, a week after he got married. Talan starting creating large climbing teams for the “Hustle up the Hancock” climbing event as a project in Landmark Education’s self-expression and leadership program. This year’s team has raised over $7,000 thus far. For more information or to contribute, take a look at The Hustle up the Hancock website, the “Life is Good” team fundraising page, or Talan’s personal fundraising web page.

See also a story about Talan’s original project at the Landmark Education News site.

Evans has also created a Landmark Education: Native Style Facebook page with hundreds of fans. Visit the page to learn more.

The project was created in 1999 by Wendy Sternberg, and involves extraordinary musical performances by artists from all different cultures and religions in the Middle East. Recently Sternberg gave up a successful career as a doctor and professor of internal medicine to focus on the non-profit organization she created full time – she is Genesis at the Crossroads’ artistic director.

Here is a brief piece of the article describing the organization:

Her formula is simple. Pair artists from polar opposite communities and cultural backgrounds, and cultural healing isn’t far behind.

Since its inception, Genesis has created and prodced more than 100 cross-cultural collaborative programs, three nationally touring concerts of Arab and Jewish musicians, as well as their Israeli-Palestinian, Gesher-Jisr, Building Bridges performance, featured at the United Nations’ 60th anniversary celebration.