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  • 1.  Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Thu December 01, 2022 01:40 PM
    Edited by Stephanie Wilkerson Thu December 01, 2022 03:09 PM

    Do you have a favorite organization that you contribute to with funding and/or in-person volunteering?  If so, we want to hear about it. Post a link below to your favorite charitable foundation or group that is addressing sustainability, social justice, health, or quality of life issues and tell us in a few words why you connect to it.

    We'll highlight as many as we can during our end-of-year virtual celebration, "Let's Create a Better World with Automation" on December 14, 2022 at 11 AM ET. We even have a few spots available if you want to speak about an organization making a difference (register for the event here).

    Open to all members of our four Automation Communities – AIOps & IT Automation, Business Automation, Integration and WebSphere, Liberty, Java & DevOps – this hour will share highlights from 2022, plans for 2023 and feature a special guest headliner, Rachel Reinitz, IBM Fellow and Founder of IBM Garage, who will present a new methodology for starting Automation called, "Identifying Automation Value in a Few Hours."  We will call out your submitted organizations throughout the hour.

    I'll go first.


    The Center for Coastal Studies     in Provincetown, Massachusetts is focused on the impact of the rapidly warming Atlantic Ocean. They have teams of scientists mapping flood zones for coastal towns, tracking the Right Whale population and freeing them of ropes and netting, as well as studying the behavior of sharks, turtles and seals in the Cape Cod Bay. They are doing the kind of work needed to predict and prepare for Climate Change and helping us to understand the changing coastal ecosystem to keep it healthy and thriving for people, fishermen, and the animal life that depends on it. 

    A team from the Center for Coastal Studies disentangles whales from fishing nets and lobster trap lines, in a dangerous, but lifesaving operation.  


    Learn more here: https://coastalstudies.org/



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    DAVID Jenness
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  • 2.  RE: Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Thu December 01, 2022 01:48 PM
    Edited by Stephanie Wilkerson Thu December 01, 2022 03:10 PM
    https://www.jimmyfund.org/
    I've been a team member for 28 years and it has been very rewarding to be a small part of this effort to fight cancer.

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    Paul Gardiner
    TAM
    IBM
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Tue December 06, 2022 12:05 PM
    Edited by Stephanie Wilkerson Tue December 06, 2022 12:08 PM
    I used to foster dogs for the Shiba Inu Rescue of Texas:  https://www.sirtx.org/

    We don't foster currently, but this was one of our favorites. She was an older dog, 9 years old and very feisty (meaning that she did not get along with other dogs, etc and was a bit bitey). She would be perfect with everything and then slowly take over the house, becoming the leader. 


    She was returned to us after she was adopted, but didn't work out for the family. My in-laws asked to adopt her and she lived until she was 16 at their house!

    Shiba Inus can be difficult dogs, but they are very popular now with dogecoin and memes, so there are lots of opportunities to donate and help foster!  https://www.shibas.org/rescue.html


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    Stephanie Wilkerson
    IBM
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Tue December 06, 2022 06:01 PM
    My family sponsors a child in Cambodia through World Vision - the way they do sponsorship is neat. They pool the funds for all the kids in the community and work with government and faith-based organizations in the area to understand the community's needs and help break the cycle of poverty. They work together to help the community thrive - it benefits not just the kids, but everyone because everyone's thriving is interdependent. They stay in each community for about ~15 years to help build sustainable development. Another neat thing is that 90% of World Vision's total operating expenses are used for programs that benefit children, families, and communities in need, so they keep overhead and operating costs to what's necessary. Right now World Vision is helping more than 3.5 million children in nearly 100 countries.

    And you get to exchange letters with a child too :) https://www.worldvision.org/sponsor-a-child




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    Kristen Park
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Wed December 07, 2022 12:44 PM
    Edited by Portia Melita Wed December 14, 2022 09:23 AM
    My friend Jammella Anderson is a Queer & Black Albany-based community activist, abolitionist, trauma informed yoga teacher, and doula. Jammella started an organization to get fridges filled with free food for the community in the capital region of New York. It's called "Free Food Fridge Albany" but serves Albany, Schenectady, and Troy at the moment. I know they are trying to expand. 

    Their mission is to make fresh foods, fruits, produce, low-intervention foods, ready-to-eat meals (and more) accessible to all. "We serve as an anonymous & direct food access point to food insecure neighborhoods, systemically oppressed and marginalized neighborhoods, as well as, and communities that hold the global majority. Access to fresh foods and produce have been a continuous issue in Albany and beyond, due to structural racism & redlining through city planning. Yes, our project was born out of a response to the immediate need that the Covid-19 pandemic presented. However, food insecurity is no stranger to the underrepresented and underserved people within our communities."

    They give away whole turkeys for thanksgiving and get prepared organic, vegan, gluten free, and allergen-free food from local restaurants and co-ops so that folks who do not have access to kitchens can still utilize the fridges. A lot of the time, the fridges are emptied just a few hours after they are filled.

    Each fridge is painted by a local artist. I have had the honor of working with Jammella to design posters for the fridges as well as to draw some of the fridges for fundraisers. I grew up in Albany and I have watch it continually be underserved even though we are the capital of New York. Regardless of where you live, food is a basic human need and many people live in food insecurity. I will leave the link to the Free Food Fridge of Albany site here, but I encourage everyone to learn more about how to donate to/volunteer for their local community fridges.


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    Portia Melita
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Fri December 09, 2022 04:28 PM
    I'm a huge fan of Cake4kids.

    https://www.cake4kids.org/

    Not every kids family can afford a cake on their birthday.  Unfortunately, it happens all the time, but Cake4Kids is changing that by delivering free, custom birthday cakes to at-risk and underserved youth across the country!  My family loves to bake, we've focused this towards helping kids in need feel special on their birthday with a cake of their own.

    The youth we serve may be in foster or kinship care, living in group homes, survivors of domestic violence or human trafficking, living in low-income housing with or without a parent, or even homeless. It may just be a cake, but the children we bake for know that a stranger took the time and effort to do something special just for them.



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    Chris Thomas
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Tue December 13, 2022 02:42 PM
    I regularly contribute to the American Cancer Society - a leading cancer-fighting organization with a vision to end cancer as we know it, for everyone.
    https://www.cancer.org/

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    Neil Parrott
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Let's Create A Better World – What is Your Favorite Charity or Non-profit That's Making a Real Difference?

    Posted Tue December 13, 2022 05:31 PM
    Edited by David Awerbuch Tue December 13, 2022 05:33 PM
    As you might be able to tell from my profile picture, in my spare time I am a volunteer firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in my home town on Long Island.  We're not a charitable organization per se, though we are non-profit - can't turn a profit when you don't have an income.   

    So why am I adding this to the list of responses? 

    1. Two simple words -- Community Service.   Volunteer fire departments and ambulance corps across the country, and in some cases around the world, are staffed by community minded volunteers of all ages and background, both men and women, mostly ages 18 to .. there's no real age limit.
    2. Recruitment -- all volunteer fire and ambulance services are actively recruiting new members every day of every year, as we have for the past 115 years in my department and for more years in many others.  These vital life-saving services are facing staffing shortage like we have never seen before, and we need many more community and civic minded individuals to step up and become a lifesaver, where you can and will make a difference in someone's life, and seeing it first hand, know that for sure, not just get told by someone you don't even know.
    Please consider volunteering for your local fire department or volunteer ambulance service, while you continue to support the other organizations that are important in your life.

    Thank you.




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    David Awerbuch
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    Original Message