Parents Teach Philanthropy

Daddy Clay: Our kids are growing up in a society that threatens to define them by what they buy. Daddy Brad: Kids see an average 40,000 commercials a year. How can we fight back as parents? Daddy Clay: By giving it all away. Daddy Brad: This week’s lab is all about teaching our kids to give back. It is brought to you by charitywater.org because one out of every six people on the planet lacks clean drinking water. Daddy Clay: Now, you may call it community service or charity or flemfy, whatever, most parents agree that this is an important value to teach the kids. The trouble is finding a time to fit it in. Daddy Brad: Especially if you have a young family. Giving away money when times are tight and if you are a parent who are trying to pay for college. Oh! That is the toughest hour. Daddy Clay: Yes. Maybe you do not feel too good about taking the time with them in the suit kitchen or you got a ‘too career’ family and the time is tight. It is a tough time to go on non-profit. Daddy Brad: Plus, like you need one more thing to fill out and hold about. Daddy Clay: Yes, but there’s got to be a way whether it is once a month or once a quarter to model ‘giving back’ for your kids. Taking stuff to goodwill counts. Maybe ask the kids to pick one item for inclusion and talk about goodwill during the car ride. Daddy Brad: Adventure is a great way to go. Here in Austin, you can often find as family friendly benefit concert with the likes of the beautiful and talented singer Hickman with Joe McDermott. It is a great way to spend an afternoon, do some good and you also might get a slip in a lesson. Daddy Clay: Benefit fun runs and bike races that have got a kid’s provision, a great way to get out, get some exercise and do some good. I recently took my older two kids to a fun run that was benefiting a school scholarship fund and the race is only a mile long, but the kids have done it, they’re just so full of pride in their accomplishment. They wore the numbers on their chest all day long. And when the race was over, the students of the school had organized these fun activities for the kids. It was absolutely a blast, a good time! Daddy Brad: Some national organizations like raceforthecure.org and the Make a Wish Foundation at wish.org hold event all over the country. Go to their websites, check them out, find one near you and go! Daddy Clay: One final thing you could do, go to charitywater.org and make a donation today. Daddy Brad: Charity water first caught our eye with their cool video of Jennifer Connelly carrying water. If you haven’t seen it, go and check it out. Daddy Clay: And we‘ll watch Jennifer Connelly do pretty much anything. But, that’s not really what ‘seal the deal.’ It was the cool statistics result on their website that point out that 1.1 billion people – that is one out of every six human beings on the planet struggles everyday just for this five gallons of potable drinking water. The average American uses 150 gallons of water every single day. That is 25 of these five gallon jugs. Daddy Brad: You can make a straight forward donation and you also can teach your kids about the value of giving back by using their really cool interactive website. Daddy Clay: Now, if you are feeling really ambitious, check out their fund raising kit. It is really cool! What they will do is they will shipped you a case of their water along with some bracelets and t-shirts and an instructional DVD, and basically you can take your kids door-to-door selling this individual bottles of water for $20 as a contribution. If you sell the whole case, you have raised $500 for charitywater.org. Sell ten cases and you have raised enough money to drill a new well for a village that will serve them for years to come. Daddy Brad: If you have an idea about how to instill the value in your kids of giving back, drop us a comment. We would really love to hear it. Daddy Clay: Then now, you would not be registered for a give away because this week’s give away is sponsored by you. You are going to go to charitywater.org and make a contribution toda