I am so amazed by the opportunities that have come simply by having this blog. Who woulda thunk? I mean, you buy a domain name, start rambling about your weird ailments and crazy behaviors, and the next thing you know, you’re being flown to Oklahoma to film a webisode with the legendary Pioneer Woman. Holy cow.
Yep, I made the spastic announcement on Twitter last week, and can now expand a bit. In just a couple weeks, I’ll be meeting The Pioneer Woman, aka Ree Drummond, aka the green acres goddess who puts every housewife in America to shame. I’ll be joining blogger Susan Wagner on an episode of Putting It All Together, a lifestyle series produced by BlogHer and sponsored by Macy’s. The video project is all about putting it together: your house, your closet, your life.
And yep, it’s being filmed at Ree’s ranch in Oklahoma! You know, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain. (Come on, I just had to. Now excuse me while I do I side leap.) It’ll be a whirlwind trip, though I did promise my friend Jenny that I’d try to bring home a cowboy for her. She said a signed cookbook will also do.
Here’s where you come in. Our episode will be about giving back. We’ll be talking about all the things that you—our readers—are doing to help your communities. I’ve participated in programs such as Girls on the Run, and I donate when I can to individuals and organizations I feel a connection with, but I know I can be doing a lot more. Life has been really good to me lately. I need to pay it forward.
I’d love to hear your ideas for giving back. Please share them with me in the comments and I might give you a little shout-out on the show.
Help a wannabe cowgirl out, y’all.
Am I jealous? Yep. Yup.
Giving back? I participate in the Heart Gallery–photographers take pictures of kids who are looking for forever homes, and those are displayed in galleries around town to raise awareness and to try to get some of them adopted. I’m looking to do a bit more, so I can’t wait to see the other responses!
Some friends and I will be volunteering in a couple weeks as “personal shoppers” for The Glass Slipper Project (http://www.glassslipperproject.org/). I’m SO incredibly excited about it.
People donate accessories and gowns and girls who might not get to have a pretty prom dress otherwise get to shop for free. Every girl should get to feel like a princess and I’m psyched to get to help some make that happen :)
Also you already how incredibly excited and super jealous I am for you. Can I get a signed cookbook too? Ask Ree if she can be my hot older sister who cooks bad ass food? Smush Charlie dog’s face for me and smother him with kisses?
God. I’m creepy. I’m going to stop now.
This is something of a project for me at the minute too! While I too donate to charities here and there, support my friends in their fund-raising efforts and donate blood a la regular, I am not involved in something specific.
There’s been some on-going ideas drifting around about WHAT I was to get involved in, so we’ll see.
I teach 8th grade English in a very poor community, and my first year, I noticed that some kids didn’t have backpacks, but were using duffel bags, plastic bags, or worst, no bags. I started either bringing old backpacks OR buying cheap ones each year for kids, just to have around, just in case. Having a backpack is such a “status symbol” and it breaks my heart to see kids without a seemingly simple essential.
Also, I’m really stoked about the fact that in May, I’ll be starting the orientation process to become a mentor through a local organization called Wonder, Inc. where you mentor a foster kid for a year, take them on outings, call them, etc. I can’t wait.
Look at you, superstar! I wanna watch the video when it’s done. So happy for you.:)
ALSO: AM SO JEALOUS THAT YOU’RE MEETING REE AND SUSAN. I adore Ree and Susan’s blog is one of my faves and she’s sent me some really nice emails (including a super helpful one about freelancing) and I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU.
OMG! one of my FAVS!!! please take lots of photos – and lemme know if marlboro man is HOT IRL as in rhee’s photos. >.<
What?! You can’t be serious, I’ve been following the Pioneer Woman for quite some time now! I would love it if you had her write on a piece of paper to say, “Hi Tram from Nutrition to Kitchen!” on it and take a picture. Just if it’s not too much trouble…. hehe
In terms of giving back, my hubby and I have been donating to Vietnamese orphanages for a couple of years now. Next month, we are humbled to actually go to Vietnam and do what we can to help make the kids’ days a little brighter and have them know that someone cares about them. We’ll be traveling to a few orphanages and I know I’ll shed a few tears when it’s time to leave. :*(
You’ve already supported Kids of Kilimanjaro through stories on my Dad. It’s only $29 a year to feed a Tanzanian child for an entire year so it’s a really easy way to help out. Or we’re always looking for volunteers who want to help spread the word. Social networking is a great way to expose us to the online generation. http://www.kidsofkilimanjaro.org. Have fun!!!!
I have been a big sister to a girl named Lorena for going on 7 years now!!! We started when she was 9 and now she’s a sophomore in HS. OMG. We see each other about once a week at which point I tell her she’s plucked her brows too thin and she tells me my hair looks better today than it did the other day when it was “fuzzy.” And, you know me, I only did this bc when I moved to Phx, I was soooo lonely and I needed a friend, so I found a poor Mexican girl who would take pity on me if I bought her lunches. And, well, it’s worked out. ;) I also teach 2-3 spin classes a week at my YMCA, which is a volunteer gig. And again, I only started doing this bc drinking out all the time was making me fat and this FORCED me to work out. But the thing I do to really try and give back is to generally adopt a policy of just saying yes almost all the time. To parties? Sure. To donating time? Of course. To showing up to the thing you organized that matters to you? Def. Sometimes “giving back” can be as easy as just showing up for the people in our lives – coming with them to things, helping them accomplish little tasks, buying the next glass of wine. I find that even when I’m tired or feeling lame, there is always someone who I can reach out to, or who has asked me for something small and I can just say Yes to them…
What a great opportunity, Michelle. So very cool. While I’ve never been to Oklahoma, one of my very dear friends is from there … they do breed good people. =)
I have done all kinds of volunteering over the years. One of my favorites was when I hosted a gathering in my home for girlfriends. I asked each person to bring something off a wish list for a shelter for victims of domestic violence. My car was full by the time I drove donated goods to the shelter.
Another successful event was hosted by my local alumni organization when I was president of it and the alumni group from our arch rivals. It was a contest to see who could donate the most used books (childrens + adults). The winning school got bragging rights. But, at the end, a shelter for the homeless was the real winner as we pretty much stocked their library.
First of all, there are absolutely zero words that can express how jealous I am that you’re visiting Ree. I love love love her and if I give you my cookbook, can you get it signed for me? I’m not kidding. I see you this weekend.
Okay, back to important stuff:
I recently volunteered at the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children in Downtown LA. It’s an amazing place. It’s completely funded by donations and the center is new and gorgeous. It has 4 or 5 sets of apartments for women and their kids, along with communal areas, gardens, and computer labs. The kids are fantastic! Very friendly, smart, and sweet. And I don’t even like kids. But it’s nice to see them with their moms, getting back on their feet. Here’s the website, if you want to check it out: http://www.gschomeless.org/
OMG I am so jealous and excited for you!! I can’t actually form sentences. So. wow!!!
How exciting Michelle! Congratulations! (I’m obsessed with Pioneer Woman’s recipes and Susan is the BEST!)
I don’t have a lot of time sans children to give and I don’t have a lot of money, but I try to support World Vision and Doctors Without Borders. I think the work both orgs do around the world in places that most people avoid even thinking about is just inspiring and utterly amazing. The Afghan Women’s Writing Project (http://www.awwproject.org/) is also an amazing program that supports Afghan women writers, many of whom write in secret even from their families. It gives me a sense of gratitude to the freedom I have as a woman to speak and write without fear. I’d like to find a local org to support too. I don’t want to turn a blind eye to the need in my own community.
Good for you Michelle! I’m so happy for you!
Hello I live in Oklahoma WHERE THE WIND COMES SWEEPIN DOWN the plains! And I hate to admit this but I didnt’ even know that the Pioneer Woman lived in Oklahoma. (Yikes, don’t tell anyone, OK?)
Where in Oklahoma will you be and for how long?
seriously i am so excited for you and cannot wait to hear about the ranch, more specifically ree’s kitchen, haha.
as for giving back, i’m part of an organization called the i have a dream foundation and they help kids in low income areas that barely have a chance of making it to high school go to college and give them a small scholarship. once the wedding is over i am planning on signing up to become a mentor and volunteer a lot more with them and their local events.
Wow, I’m so inspired by all that you guys are doing to help others. Love it. Thank you.
OK, I’ve got all of your requests for autographs, photos, dog face smushes (ahem, Jamie). I’ll do my best, really!!!
Keep the ideas coming, everyone!
FIRST of all, excuse me while I turn GREEN with envy. And excitement for you, of course. Also expect a major OMG moment in person tonight. Just sayin’.
Secondly, giving back. How to give back. Hm…let’s see. I’m gonna go with volunteering. I mean, it’s really the most selfless thing you can do. Go and help others — whether they be people or animals or what have you — for absolutely no pay, just out of the goodness of your heart? You really can’t beat that. I used to volunteer at a soup kitchen and it was so freaking rewarding.
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This sounds like a very neat thing you’re getting to do! Is it just me, or is it a little odd (in a good way) when people step out of their blogs and turn out to be real people and not just something on my monitor playing out for my amusement? Anyway.
Giving back — I give away 10 percent of my salary every year. I spread it over a variety of groups, but they usually involve a Phoenix homeless shelter, Heifer International, the Red Cross, something involving the military and something involving schools (like DonorsChoose.org, or buying school supplies in August, which is just about the funnest moment of the year).
The thing about giving away a big, scary chunk of your salary is that you just have to DO IT. I’m afraid if I ever stop (like I’m tempted to this year, to help pay for my new roof), I won’t be able to get back into the habit.
So what if most of my clothes are 10 years old? A family just got a cow and a new start.
But it’s also so much fun to give of yourself. I’ve helped rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina (an amaaaaazing trip). I knit watchcaps for soldiers, baby blankets for Phoenix Children’s neonatal ICU, chemo caps for cancer patients, and scarves for the Orphan Foundation of America’s Red Scarf Project (look up that group; they’re really cool). And there’s no better high than treating a couple of street kids to lunch.
One year I was so tired of homeless people asking me for money (which I was afraid would be used for less than nutritious means) while I was grabbing a sandwich during a dinner break at work, that I went to Costco and got a bunch of supplies to make food bags: gallon-size Ziploc bags to hold beef jerky, juice boxes, fruit-salad cups, gum, water bottles, crackers, etc. Then I’d carry a few filled Ziploc baggies in my backpack when I went out to dinner, so that I could give those away instead of saying no. But then no one ever asked me for anything! Maybe my dingy old backpack made me look too needy myself.
There’s a reading-for-the-blind thing I’ve always meant to look into, but I might be too lazy to work that into my schedule!
Wow, I just realized how long my post was. Sorry about that. I tend to get excited about this kind of stuff.
Ivan and I, but mostly me dontate money to sfballet.org for their community outreach to bring dance to communities that otherwise would not experience it. In part we do this so that we can get better seats when it comes to season tickets, all the same that’s what the money helps.
That is SOO great! I hope you’ll share stories and pictures from your trip when you get back! :)
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