May Those Who Help The Most Win

Project 10100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Here's how to join in.

1. Send us your idea by October 20th.
Simply fill out the submission form giving us the gist of your idea. You can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.

2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th.
We'll post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. Send me a reminder to vote.

3. We'll help bring these ideas to life.
We're committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible. So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing.

Good luck, and may those who help the most win.

http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html

plant it forward

i stumbled upon a site called abundantforests.org. the site has some cool ideas, but the part i really like is plant it forward:

Do Something Good With Paper And Wood
From reusing paper bags to repurposing paperboard packaging, there are hundreds of easy ways you can help to keep our forests abundant for the future. Enjoy and share these ideas. And tell your friends to Plant It Forward. The more it grows, the better for our forests.

i'd encourage you to take a look at their site, i found the PIF idea tool to be pretty interesting.

bottom line, whether its Pay It Forward or Plant It Forward, its all about sharing good to others.

taking PIF public

i just PIF'ed someone thats not in my company and hopefully it will grow. the pif-recipient had a good idea of creating stickers to put on the gifts to refer back to this blog. the idea would be that they could share their story if they wanted. thats a great idea; although now i have to convince a graphic artist to help me with a logo or something. the other slight downside with that idea is that not all PIFs have to be a gift. a PIF can be anything, for example forgiveness.

anyway, this movement has no goals other than sharing the spirit of giving, appreciation, and love. so, we'll see how things work its self out.

pono: do what's right

an excerpt from maui news, an invitation to do what's right: PONO.

On June 22, 2004, their 3-year-old son, Pono Viela, died from injuries sustained when the all-terrain vehicle he was riding with his father flipped over.

In death, the pono campaign was born. Since then, the couple and their daughter, Jrae, and son, Jai, have adopted the “Pono Do What’s Right” motto and performed good deeds throughout the community, such as adopting a portion of the highway near their home for cleanup, staging a golf tournament that has raised tens of thousands of dollars for local nonprofit organizations, running sports programs, accepting invitations to tell their story in the hopes of helping and inspiring others to do good.

why am i writing about this? well, it is a tragic story but a lot of good has come of the Pono movement. and i'm so proud to say that my cousin dana and friend jen has been heavily involved with pono.

In printing the T-shirts, Paracuelles went to the same company, Spread Pono Co., that designs and prints T-shirts for the Vielas. In addition, owners Jennifer Tengan and Dana Kagawa print shirts using environmentally friendly water-based ink.

The reef T-shirts, which are $18 for adults and $16 for children, will be sold at the event and are available at Working Mommies.

During Reef Night, the Vielas will hold a “Pono Fashion Show” at 7:50 p.m. to unveil their new T-shirt designs. In handing over the Pono T-shirt lines to Tengan and Kagawa recently, Maile Viela said she was hoping to use the talents of the young graphic artists to design shirts attractive to the younger set.

The Pono T-shirts are $18 for adults and $16 for children. They can be obtained at the Reef Night, at Working Mommies in Wailuku and from the Web site www.spreadpono.com.

i'm sporting my pono t-shirt today, but i try to live pono every day. i wish i made the trip out to maui today, because for some reason i feel like i need to learn more about Pono Viela, his family, and more about the pono movement.

forgiveness is a wonderful pay it forward

submitted by kristie

One way to pay it forward to someone else and also receive a gift to yourself is to forgive, to start over. I experienced the release and the relief of "starting over" and "forgiving" someone. This person never apologized, never asked for forgiveness, and never admitted fault... but was willing to start over. I could have tried to make this person admit fault and forced an apology but that would have only caused more strife and false words. Sometimes to do the right thing is to let things go and give up the expectation of others doing what we think is right. Things are much more amicable between that someone and myself. Forgiveness and starting over in difficult times is paying it forward to the situation and also is the gift you give yourself in the process.

My co-worker told me a story of how she rear ended someone and the lady she banged gave her a hug. Remembering this story ... a young girl hit my parked car last week. Everyone was safe and no one was hurt. The poor girl was upset and shook up. Remembering when I rear ended someone and the story my co-worker told me ... i payed the hug forward and gave her a hug and told her that I have banged another car before and I was shook up and crying too. I told her it was okay. So my bumper is damaged ... that can be easily fixed. Getting upset and cursing someone out for an accident can't be easily fixed.

make PIF part of your everyday life

submitted by dana:

It is such an amazing feeling when you are given the opportunity to do something meaningful for someone else. Especially when you don't realize what you have done until later. It is amazing how some things come into your life and suddenly for some reason it all makes sense and feels right. For the past week a friendship has been formed under unusual circumstances, yet through it the true gift came...not in any shape or form, but by being. Being a friend, being an ear to listen, and a rock to support...sometimes it is not the person who is need, but the person providing that gains the ultimate gift. It very much humbles you to learn that you are truly wanted and needed.

The act of giving and receiving has been around for ages, but always with one you expect the other. It is rare to find someone who is willing to give without first receiving, yet when you find one, from the cracks the others will emerge. A movement will be started, and paying it forward will become part of everyday life without you actually realizing it.

how PIF hawaii started

i started PIF hawaii at the company i worked at. i wanted to come up with a way for our employees to better connect, think about others, and improve the already great culture that our company has.

the idea basically started from one gift. one of my co-workers always complained about not having caller-id on her fancy phone. for some reason, she couldn't have the top-of-the-line speaker phone and caller-id in her office (the fancy speaker phones had no caller-id). no idea why. nevertheless she endured that for a year or so. she'll kill me for saying this, but i finally got tired of her complaining and decided that i would make it my goal to solve her problem (i'm joking about the complaining part). i talked to our IT staff and figured out that her office supported caller-id but we didn't have separate caller-id boxes; since she had the fancy phone, she was out of luck. so, i decided that i'd surprise her with a gift. i went to radioshack and bought her a caller-id. later that night, i started to think about the many other random gifts that i could give other co-workers. for example, i wanted to get one co-worker a coffee mug, because every day he uses a small little styrofoam cup for his morning coffee. i didn't really think about "pay it forward" yet, but i knew that i wanted to do get other co-workers small gifts too.

the next day, i gave the caller-id to my co-worker. we tested the device and it worked. she was happy and really thankful. and i was happy to do that for her. we talked later about why i got that for her and i explained that i wanted to get gifts for some of the other co-workers. somewhere in our discussion we figured out that we should try pay it forward. what a great idea!

so, i set out to bring pay it forward to my company. and it started the very next day when my caller-id-coworker bought another co-worker a coffee mug (actually the nice japanese tea cup). then, i PIF'ed (pay it forward) three other people and the movement took off. reaching at least 20 other employees in a month. people got stuffed animals that made noise (a office toy), a custom made t-shirt, a rubiks cube, a series of books, expensive chocolate, wine, gift certificate to a spa, helping someone move their furniture, and screwdriver. and more importantly, each gift came with a smile.

at some point, i knew i wanted to take the great success and fun our company was having with PIF to the rest of hawaii. and i guess now, i'm ready to see if its going work. i'm pledging to PIF at least 3 people. and i hope that some of my co-workers will too. it doesn't have to be something expensive or even that great. it really is the thought that counts. really, i promise.

i suppose the biggest unknown is whether this blog would be utilized at all. will people want to share their stories about PIFing or being PIFed? i have no idea. we shall see. whatever happens, i just hope that people think more about other people. its the small things that really make a difference.