One Way Every Day: March 1 - One Way Every Day... for One Year!

Wow... it has been a year since I started this project! My original intention was to spend 1 year highlighting worthy causes and charities. Mission accomplished...sort of! I did spend the year highlighting some great charities and sharing with you some awesome everyday people who are making a difference. That was part of the mission. The other part of the mission was to inspire others to get involved and make a difference! That is a little harder to quantify, but I believe from some of the emails I have received that is the case.

I started this journey to honor my sister Sherry, who we lost to Breast Cancer. During her struggle, I watched Sherry as she raised money for Cancer charities and crafted handmade bracelets for other breast cancer patients to let them know someone was thinking and praying for them. I was inspired by her desire to help others even as she was ill and in considerable pain. Sherry embodied the philosophy, Do what you can...where you are...with what you have. I wanted to be like my sister... I wanted to make a difference!

Honestly, it has been my honor and pleasure... This journey has changed me, I am not the same person that I was a year ago and so I want to continue the journey. I hope you will continue to check in on me and check out the charities highlighted on this blog. There will be some slight changes to the blog. I am spending more time this year volunteering, so I will be posting inspirational quotes on Saturdays and Sundays. I will also post "Best of" posts from time to time. I am hoping to free up a little time allowing me to volunteer with a couple organizations I am interested in. Please continue to check back everyday!

I am reposting the original post from March 1st of Last Year in Honor of Sherry... We love and miss you!

Since this is my first post, I thought I would start out with something simple. Please visit the Breast Cancer Site at http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/ and make sure you click on the "click here to give" button to help fund mammogram screenings for women in need. This is paid for by the advertisers who display ads on the page. This is such a simple way to help... Let's make sure we visit this site everyday and click the give button. You can see a breakdown of where women were helped (by state) on the results page.

Some facts about breast cancer:

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, after skin cancer. Today, approximately 1 in almost every 8 women (13.4%) will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer -- and is the leading cause of cancer death among women ages 35 to 54. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2009, approximately 192,370 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and approximately 40,610 will die. Although these numbers may sound frightening, research reveals that the mortality rate could decrease by 30% if all women age 50 and older who need a mammogram had one.

From the site:

Your clicks count! Last year, visitor clicks funded 2,808 mammograms (down from 2008, which was 3,315). Purchases at The Breast Cancer Site store funded an additional 4,178 mammograms for women in need (down from 4,262 in 2008). Let's get those click numbers back up in 2010! Please click every day and tell others about The Breast Cancer Site! Since The Breast Cancer Site began in 2000, together we have funded free mammograms for more than 18,000 women in need through clicks alone!

Don't forget to come back everyday to see additional ways to help.