We’re making plans for the 2009 One Dollar Give, and we’re excited about what this year holds. We’ll be doing things a little bit differently, and we hope you’ll join us!

This year, we’ll be hosting a one-day campaign on December 1st where we’ll focus our efforts on raising money for Feeding America.

If you’re not already subscribed, you can subscribe in a feed reader or by email to be sure you receive all of the updates about the campaign over the next 6 weeks. Help us spread the word, and let’s see how much difference one dollar can make!

I have the privilege of working with a bunch of wonderful bloggers on the following project, and I’m excited to tell you more about it.

This one is different from the rest of the charities we’ve featured here in two ways. 1) This family is not set up for non-profit charity status or part of an organized charity. 2) I’ll be posting updates here for the next few weeks, many of which will include links to donate MORE than $1. We’re working on getting a PayPal account set up for them for $1 donations, but in the meantime I wanted to make other opportunities available.

Let me start by telling you about the family.

Adwai Mulual is a Sudanese refugee currently living in the United States with her newborn quintuplets. She arrived in the United States early in her pregnancy to seek her mother-in-law’s blessing according to Sudanese tradition. At that time, she discovered that she was expecting quintuplets and, due to complications, was admitted to the hospital under the care of a team of specialists.

In December, she gave birth to 5 beautiful, healthy babies – 1 boy and 4 girls. Her husband has still not met his children, as he is serving with the Sudanese Army.

At this time, although many offers of help were promised in the days after the baby’s birth, they have not received much at all. They currently go through about 40 diapers a day! I cannot even imagine the fear and worry that Adwai faces, as well as the exhaustion of caring for her beautiful children. We’re working to get in touch with any and all PR representatives we know who work with baby care companies to get this story in front of the right people.

Additionally, I’ve set up an Amazon registry for the family. Right now it only contains diapers, and I will add formula once I confirm what brand they are using.

A few notes about the registry:

1. Because of confidentiality issues, and to keep their address private, you will only be able to purchase items from Amazon.com directly, not from other merchants.

2. All of the items qualify for free shipping on orders over $25. However, the Pampers pack is $24.69. If someone finds a $1-2 item that I can add to help push those over the $25 mark, please let me know.

3. Please feel free to send them gift cards as well. Either the social worker or I will help them purchase what they need with gift cards.

Please help us spread the word about this family by posting about it on your blog, tweeting it, etc. For a family to face the decision of living in the richest country of the world in poverty or moving back to war-torn Sudan to live in poverty is heartbreaking. Let’s make a difference!

You can access the Amazon registry here!

Thank you!

Hey everyone! I wanted to touch base about two things really quick:

1. Unfortunately, the donations we made to The Yellow Ribbon Support Center are now being returned. There was an error with their PayPal account that they could not resolve, and as a result, the donations are being returned. Becky and the people behind The Yellow Ribbon Support Center feel terrible about the mistake, and want to thank you for your willingness to donate in the first place!

2. We are in desperate need of contributors!!! If you have a favorite charity you’d like to introduce, please take a few minutes to click on the Contributors’ page and send me a short post so that we can continue our campaign in 2009!

Thank you so much!

Hey everyone!

I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to get to this wrap-up post! We want to thank each and every one of you – sincerely – for your participation in The One Dollar Give. We don’t yet have any final numbers on the amount that has been donated through the campaign. It turns out they’re a lot harder to get than we expected, but I’ll be working on that this weekend. However, there are currently about 75 subscribers to our feed, and we’re anxious to know how much we have contributed as a group this month. Beyond that, Tara and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to introduce you to these 31 great charities this month, and we thank you for joining us along the way.

To be honest, if I had known what December would be like for my family, I probably would have never taken on The One Dollar Give as a project. We mourned the loss of a friend of the family and my husband’s grandmother this month and attended both of their funerals. We fought – and seem to have finally won – a battle with the stomach flu that just would not end, culminating in a midnight trip to the ER for my husband. We were excited to learn that I was expecting our fourth child, and devastated when I had an early miscarriage. And then, when our 15-month-old began developing unexplained bruises, we were worried about the worst possibilities as we took her for testing at our local hospital. We were thankful that her diagnosis was “just” idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a blood disorder with no apparent causes and no lasting effects, and not something worse. And then, we once again faced our fears a week later when she was hospitalized with an unexplained high fever, which we soon found out was just her body’s reaction to a nasty cold virus.

Phew, it’s been a wild ride, and we’re ready for a break from the crises for sure!

However, I’m thankful that I didn’t know all of that was going to happen, because I learned a lot about commitment and perseverance from the administration of the campaign, and both Tara and I were inspired by the passion of our guest bloggers and of you as participants.

We will be continuing The One Dollar Give in 2009 on a weekly basis (although, to be honest, this week has snuck up on us and we don’t have one lined up). Now would be a great time to share the campaign once again with your friends and family, blog readers and social networks. While we hope that the campaign will continue to grow and we will be able to have a significant financial impact on the organizations that we feature, there is no doubt that there is value in simply spreading the word about these great charities…and in reading about them and remembering those around us living with poverty, sickness or persecution.

We look forward to a great year in 2009, and again, thank you!

Mandi and Tara

Angie is a wife and mom to 4. As a Christian mom, she can be found blogging at Thrifty Florida Mama about spending less, saving more, and following the Dave Ramsey plan to get out of debt by December 2009.

The story I’m about to tell you is true. It is about my cousin Josh and his family. It will both bless you and break your heart. Josh will turn 27 tomorrow and I would like to honor him with this post and participation in The One Dollar Give.

Josh was born prematurely and at birth suffered a lack of oxygen leading to Cerebral Palsy. He has one of the worse cases of this condition that cause him to have no control over his muscles or movement. He has been confined to a wheelchair his entire life, he cannot read, walk, or do any of the physical things that most of us take for granted every day. But he is remarkable. While he was in school he was a member of a local 4H club, showed pigs in the county fair from his wheelchair, went on field trips, and even to the prom three times. But after his graduation there was little for him to do or participate in around oir small, rural community. In order to care for him, both of his parents work full-time and Josh needed a place to go during the daytime. Sending him to an institution, nursing home, or hospital was out of the question. Josh’s parents wanted him to stay with them and he will as long as they are physically able to care for him. That’s when our family first learned of the ARC of Bradford County.

The ARC of Bradford County is a private non-profit organization dedicated to providing needed supports to people who have developmental disabilities and their families. It exists to continuously assist individuals who are developmentally disabled to ensure they have full protection of their rights as citizens, live in a world where they are valued as people, are treated with dignity and respect and have full inclusion opportunities in the community.

Josh particpates in the Day Program at the ARC where he learns educational and life skills and participates in community service projects. The wonderful people at the ARC treat Josh as if he were as normal as you and I. In the past year Josh was invited to our state capital to speak out against funding cuts for people with disabilities, rode on a float in the Christmas parade, went to a University of Florida football game, and toured Daytona International Speedway during an overnight trip with chaperones from the ARC. Josh needs the ARC program as do the other disabled clients it serves each and every day. But with the economic situation the funding for ARC is threatened. Florida ranks at the bottom in terms of funding for its disabled population, and that was before the recent threats to cut funding even more. I shudder to think of what life would be like for the clients and families served by the ARC if it cannot continue to exist. It would send many people back to the days of institutionalize disabled persons, cost more in terms of caring for these disabled adults, and take away the few freedoms they enjoy now. But even more than that, it would take these precious people out of our community and out of our lives. I cannot imagine life without our Josh around. He is the first one to remember people’s birthdays, the one who reminds us of important upcoming events, cheers the loudest for the Florida Gators, shows us that serving one another is a good thing, and teaches us that every ability we have is a gift.

Please consider donating to the ARC of Bradford County. Show Josh and his disabled friends that they are valuable, precious, and deserving of the best life possible. Your donation will ensure that educational and community based programs will continue for those served there and offset the financial cuts that they have endured from both the federal and state levels. Thank you for reading about my Josh.

To donate $1 to the ARC of Bradford County to make a difference in the lives of Josh and other disabled adults, click here. Please use “One Dollar Give” in the dedication portion of the donation form. After you’ve donated, come back and vote in the poll so that we can count donations!

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(Yes, the poll offers you the choice between “Yes.” and “Yes.” because I didn’t think we really needed to count the “No” answers, and the poll required two choices! Hey, it’s not a perfect system, but it’ll work!)