Something you CAN do

As the economic bad news piles higher and higher, people feel like there's very little they can do to make things better, that the problems are too big to conquer. It's a crummy feeling. The problems we face are gigantic, if you take them as a whole, but the one thing I've learned over the years is that you can conquer big problems if you break them down, starting with what you know and moving out from there.

So I'd like to turn you on to what I think is a pretty cool idea. Gathering Change is a grassroots non-profit charitable organization that collects spare change from communities for distribution back into their neighborhood food pantries and social programs. The idea is that everyone has a penny jar or a pile of change collecting somewhere, and that when lots of these small collections are all pooled together, lots of money can be raised--painlessly--to help others. You can participate at any level, from making a donation to volunteering to host a collection party to starting a chapter.

Little things add up. Light that single candle, folks.