Have you made a difference?

Question

have you done something to create a change, not with yourself, but in society, in your community, in your neighborhood? if so, what and how?

Answer 1

I invented the question mark

Answer 2

Before I only did it as part of the pack. With a group of people.

Now I'm starting a recycling campaign in my 'oblivious to the environment'  community. Everyday on my jog I'll gather paper from the various houses not bothered to recycle themselves, and them once I have enough... deliver it to a recyling centre.

Also doing the Terry Fox Run... and other smaller marathons.

Donated old clothes and shoes. Never changed my moblie phone over 5 years. Loads of other insignificant little things.

I provide free bottled water to laborers on the roadworks. The water they have to drink is from the taps... and in this country it's not sanitary.

Shame

PS: long way off... but it's my dream to be able to provide information to the poor african nations ( and other countries). The world has been benefitted by free stuff like wikipedia, and linux. Building low-cost... durable computers for people to get an education doesn't seem like a task too hard. As I said... long way off. First I need to earn that kind of money to give away.

Answer 3

Yes I have.  I have been with American Red Cross for more than 15 years. I  have been to most major disasters and on a daily basis, I respond to local fires.  This weekend, in less than 24 hours, we had 3 seperate incidents of structure fires, displacing 5 families, or 28 people.

Answer 4

I am collecting and compiling all the good things that had made a difference and impacted lives,hearts and souls.Impact can be material and compassion.Material is important and compassion is much more important.I am preparing online compendium of information,insights,ideas and initiatives that have made a difference. I have already collected material entered in to system.searching for funds to put on the website.

Answer 5

Maybe, who knows? I've feed the people who walk the cold. I've given homeless people money. I've volunteered at nursing homes. I was invited to assess Habitat for Humanity homes and contributed my skills to that. I've contributed bursaries of five hundred dollars dozens and dozens of times, I've done all sorts of stuff. I have the strongest doubt that anything makes any difference at all. It's all really pointless I think. For anyone who gives there is always someone who will take. The only real benefit is the massaging of my personal ego and the slight chance that I've hedged some Karma or earned a place in a less than likely afterlife. still, it doesn't stop me, just makes me cynical when I do it.

Answer 6

not in my own community but i went to Macedonia and helped build houses--so yeah i think i made a change..i'm also going back next year to help a little more in the building :)

Answer 7

I think you have to start in your own backyard.  Every year I make holiday cards and take them to our residential skilled nursing facilities and personally deliver them to the patients there.  Some of the residents have no living relatives or friends and some aren't even aware that you are there.  But, the smiles on their faces when you tell them you brought them a handmade card, makes them feel that someone still cares.

Also, we live in an area where wildfires have become a 4 year cyclical event.  We all have to work together to keep ourselves and our properties safe.  Long before the first fires hit, we developed a plan to regularly clear the land surrounding our canyon, notify each other about evacuations, assist our elderly residents in emergency situations and check on them regularly.  Since the fires, we are more vigilant about fire danger, about ensuring everyone's safety and about maintaining contact regularly so we know what is impacting our neighbor's lives.  And the system works...

Just before Christmas, our neighbor was hospitalized with a cardiac arrest.  I was making and bringing his wife meals because I know he does most of the cooking and I wanted to make certain she was eating well under all of the stress.  As soon as other neighbors discovered what had happened, they too began offering help and we all worked together to make a stressful time easier on her.  You have to start where you live and in your small corner make the difference you want to see in the world.