Maggie Doyne — Why the human family can do better from The DO Lectures on Vimeo.

Most people on a gap year are content with just seeing the world. And not to try and change it. But on her return, Maggie decided to start a home in Nepal with the aim to sustain and improve the quality of life for children of Nepal. Her next big goal is to to build a school for the children. She has since started her foundation called BlinkNow Foundation to share her ideas with other young people. Maggie won The prestigious Do Something award in America for all that she has done so far.

Maggie speaker profile — http://thedolectures.co.uk/speakers/speakers-2010/maggie-doyne
Maggie’s website — http://blinknow.org
More Do Lectures — http://thedolectures.co.uk/speakers

If you live in the Inland Empire, the San Bernardino County Homeless Partnership (SBCHP) needs your help. They’re getting ready for the biennial “Point-In-Time Count” of homeless persons living in San Bernardino County.  The survey is aimed at helping SBCHP be more effective addressing homelessness in the county.

“Point-In-Time Count” will take place in January, 2011. The valley regions will happen on January 26, from 11:00 PM – 3:00 AM; and the desert/mountain regions, January 27, from 11:00 PM – 3:00 AM.

SBCHP needs one-thousand volunteers. I signed up yesterday. I’ll be encouraging my church to participate as well. You can find out more information at the SBCHP website, or call Michele Bletcher at the Office of Homeless Services (909) 421-4680. You can also download the 2011 PITC Flyer.

Getting ready to pack boxes!

My family just returned from a week in Nashville, TN, were spent Christmas with our extended family. One of the highlights of the week was the evening we spent volunteering at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. My sister-in-law, Julie, arranged for our entire family, even our children, to spend an evening volunteering at Second Harvest’s massive distribution center. We spent two-half hours on an assembly line packing boxes of food to be distributed to the poor. I worked with my son Braden and his cousin Aiden, packing boxes of canned meat and fruit. The boys rocked!

I was impressed with the organization. They claim, “Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee is one of the largest and most comprehensive of over 200 food banks and food distribution centers nationwide.” If you’d like to learn more about how it works, check out their History page on the website. There’s a short video that will tell you about how they began and what they do. And if there’s anyone in the Southern California region who knows about an organization similar to the Second Harvest Food Bank, please let me know about it.

Some more good stuff from Jan Paulsen, President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists:

I stumbled on David’s Berman’s book Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World. I haven’t read it yet, but I like the premise of the book—no matter your profession, no matter your work, you can use your skills to help make a more just society. Berman’s book is primarily for professional designers, but his key question is relevant for any profession: Does your work make the world a better place?

His challenge is very simple. Take the Do Good Pledge, stating you will, 1) Be true to your profession (Ethics); 2) Be true to yourself (Principles); and my favorite, 3) Spend 10% of your professional time helping repair the world (Effort). Check out Berman’s blog and consider making the pledge (even if you’re not a designer).  So far 88,000+ hours have been pledged. It’s a simple idea, but I wonder how much better our world would be if we really took the pledge seriously—from food servers to CEO’s. So what do you think?