Donate a Dollar -- Without Dropping a Dime

My home town of Scotland, South Dakota, is a great little place. (And, yes, I mean little. Instead of the metropolis of 1,100 people it was when I was growing up, it's now down to about 900.)

It's basically just like any other small town in the middle of the country. There's a main street. There's a K-12 school. There's a park and a library and a yearly rodeo. There's even a hospital and a nursing home. Sure. It sounds just like any other small town, right?

Except, you see, it's NOT like any other small town. For one thing, many of the small towns around where I grew up have lost their schools over time. They don't have libraries. There's really only one hospital about every 20 to 30 miles in most areas (and that's being generous as you go to some of the more remote areas of the middle of the country).

But Scotland has a lot of heart. I've known that ever since I was a little kid growing up there. I had relatives and family friends all over the place, so my family would travel to visit them in California, or Washington (DC), or Montreal, or wherever we could drive. And we would come home to find that Scotland was still waiting for us -- along with the mail and the groceries and everything else.

These days, I love that I can go home to visit my parents for a long weekend (it's about 5.5 hours from here), and take Christopher and show him the great place I grew up. These days there aren't quite as many businesses on Main Street, but a couple of them have been replaced by more interesting things.

There's a "store" which is actually a kind of trading post for donations of household goods. If someone moves into town and doesn't have a bed (or chair, or kitchen table, or cookware), they can contact the "Good Stuff" and someone will show up and let them choose from the available donated items. There's no cost. There's no judgment. There's just help for someone who needs it and a soft ask for that person to pass the good stuff on when they no longer need it.

But... To the point of this rapidly-becoming-long posting: There is also a Youth Center on Main Street in Scotland. It's in an old storefront, and it supplies after school care (including homework help, snacks, and the basic "someone to talk to" after school). They opened their doors in 2008 with the help of a pretty decent state grant, and they've been raising money to stay afloat any way they can for the past couple of years. This is not a simple task, considering their barebones operating budget, as they help out 12-18 elementary and junior high kids every day after school.

And, well, this is our chance to make their job a little bit easier. There is an ethanol-advocacy group called GrowthForce which has started a program called "Growth Force Now" which is donating $1 for each person who signs up on their newsletter. Okay. Yes. This means that you'll be getting their newsletter (until you contact them to opt out), but I think the website says you'll also get a "complimentary gift pack" AND -- most importantly -- it also means that, with a few quick keystrokes, you can donate a dollar to a really worthy cause.

All you have to do is enter this Plant ID number: 7046 on this page where you sign up.

So, why not take a minute of your day and donate a buck?

Some really great people will really appreciate it. And good Karma... well... good Karma is worth a minute of your time, isn't it?