Kickball Showdown Results!

On Saturday June 11^th, a battle broke out. Four teams came to compete; only one would conquer. The Donor Squad Kickball Showdown was in session and people of all types and ages had one thing in common; they craved some kickball action!

Kickballer’s from Meetup.com and Facebook chose to participate in the tournament for a good cause. Each player donated $15 to the Seattle Humane Society and brought canned goods for Northwest Harvest, two admired Nonprofits in the Seattle area. Altogether we raised $500 and collected around 125 pounds of nonperishable food.

People from all walks of life joined the donor squad tourney, including the furry kind. Members of the FurLife Meetup group arrived with enthusiasm and entertained us with fabulous furry costumes, noisemakers and kites. It may not have been a regular site, as the kickball field was adorned with lions, otters, bears, birds, foxes and dogs, but the furry team put their paws to good use and slid around the bases with ease.

Aside from the furries were many Donor Squad ninjas and sports enthusiasts. Dressed in black and carrying swords, some of the players were practically invisible. After 3 hours of playing, tummies full of pizza and sore from laughter, a ninja championship game began. It was a close game, but one team broke the tie and claimed victory of the tournament! The games were all in good fun, so everyone felt like winners that day. The lucky team was presented with a fabulously bedazzled trophy and individual Ivar’s gift cards.

The tournament would not have been the same without the delicious pizza that the teams congregated around before and after games. zPizza donated a generous 15 different pies for the tournament! We heard nothing but good comments and yummy sounds come from the stuffed mouths of each kickball player. zPizza is new to Capitol Hill and uses all natural ingredients. Their goal is to have each store give away $4000 worth of pizza each year to support community fundraisers, and we thank them for the support.

We also thank all of the players and donors for supporting our local charities and participating in another Donor Squad event. Now that we’ve gained new friends and mad skills, keep your eyes peeled and your ears open; you never know when or where Donor Squad will declare another kickball battle. 

The Gift of Giving

The debate on when to donate to charity happens to so many of us. All year long we say we want to give back to our community or support a cause we believe in but don’t because there are so many other things we need that money for. Then Christmas rolls around and we have to buy gifts for friends and family while trying not to break bank. Well why not kill two birds with one stone?

The gift of giving is becoming a huge online trend along with online donations, which have greatly increased in the past few years. Now there are many website that offer online platforms that focus on different kinds of giving - i.e. teachers and classrooms, small business start-ups in different countries, artists trying to get started, all varieties of charities or individual causes.  All you have to do is buy a gift card on a giving website and the person you gift it to can then make a contribution to any cause they want. It’s a win-win situation because you want to get gifts for family and friends, but also want your money to benefit good causes.

If you’re not convinced, here are a few things worth thinking about. Shopping during the holiday’s means dealing with huge crowds, traffic and sold-out items because it’s the busiest time of the year. Wouldn’t you rather order all of your gifts from home, on the Internet, in one transaction? You won’t have to worry about websites running out of gift card either. The other thing about Re-giving is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money. More online donations are made each year and the average donation amount is becoming smaller. The idea of Micro donations is that everyone can make a difference and every little bit helps. You can buy everyone a gift that you need to with the same small amount. Whether you’re giving to your friends, family, co-workers or teachers, they will be pleased and excited to receive any size gift that they can turn around and give to something they support.

This Gift idea was one of my favorite before it was one of Oprah’s “favorite things”. If you would like to receive something like this, chances are your friends would like it too. Choosing this gift route means you can actually relax and enjoy the holidays like we’re supposed to instead of worrying about presents for 12 different people.