A Mama's Rant

Infant and child CPR classes in Colorado

Living in the Denver area and looking to take an infant and child CPR class? Or maybe you want enroll your preteen or teen in a babysitter training course.

Currently, the Mile High Chapter of the Red Cross is offering Infant & Child CPR Certification courses and Babysitter Training Courses throughout the Denver metro area.

Learn more about each course and how you can get 15% off in my post, Get 15% off Red Cross Mile High Chapter child and infant CPR and babysitter training classes, at This Mama Cooks!

Make it happen in your community with the Pepsi Refresh Project

You may have read that Pepsi is not advertising in the Super Bowl this year. (The only exception is the Doritos brand.) Instead they have decided to invest their resources – over $20 million – to fund community projects through the Pepsi Refresh Project

Pepsi wants to fund great ideas

Pepsi is looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact and are asking people to look around their communities to think about how they want to change it.

This could be anything from upgrading a worn out playground or ball field to starting a food bank in your community. Maybe your child’s school would like to start a greenhouse project like my kids’ school does. Or maybe your senior center needs a new roof or van. Whatever it is Pepsi wants to hear what your community needs so they can help.

How to participate

Each month, you have the opportunity to submit a proposal in one of six categories: health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhood, or education. (Grants range from $5,000 to $250,000.)At the end of the month, Pepsi will post the top submissions on RefreshEverything.com and let the public vote on the winners.

This month, visit RefreshEverything.com and vote for your favorite submissions for February's grants. You can also connect with the Pepsi Refresh program via Twitter @Pepsi, on Facebook or on the Refresh Everything blog.

For more information:

• Submission kit for tips [PDF]
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Official Application Guidelines
• Send Pepsi Refresh an email
• Call Pepsi Refresh at 1-800-768-2784

How to help Haiti

As you may have noticed I’ve put a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) badge on all my blogs.

MSF appeals to me for many reasons including that they make sure 87% of donations go their work, only 12% to fundraising and 1% to administrative costs. I also like how they make good use of social networking sites like Twitter at @MSF_USA, YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook. But that’s me and you may want to help out in other ways. Here’s how:

Check out Mom Central's 5 Ways to Help Haiti. Besides linking to MSF, they also give you ways to donate through Oxfam, UNICEF, Mercy Corps., and via your cellphone.

Another way is to donate to the William J. Clinton Foundation for Haiti Earthquake Relief, President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation. There are two ways to help. You can donate online at clintonfoundation.org/haitirelief to help provide immediate relief and long-term support to earthquake survivors. You can also text "HAITI" to 20222 and $10 will be donated to relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. One hundred percent of your donation will be used for Haiti relief efforts.

The Clinton Foundation is also suggesting that you donate to:

UN World Food Programme (BlogCritics is recommending them, too, as part of their Bloggers Against Hunger efforts.)

American Red Cross: International Response Fund

Mercy Corps: Haiti Earthquake Fund

Partners in Health

If you’re a blogger you can put badges on your site:

• UN World Food Programme’s badge page
• Doctors Without Borders badge page
• Partners in Health badge page (lower right)

You can create a Mercy Corp donation page. And make sure to join all the charities Facebook and Twitter pages, too!

Blogher has some excellent suggestion on HOW to raise money for Haiti.

Finally, On Friday, January 22 at 8-10 p.m. ET, George Clooney and Wyclef Jean will host a live telethon to benefit earthquake victims in Haiti. The telethon will air on all of the MTV channels worldwide, along with ABC, NBC, HBO, and CNN. You can also donate money to Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti Foundation by texting "yele" to 501501 from your cell to automatically donate $5 to the Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund.

Helping others through Oxfam America Unwrapped

This year Oxfam America Unwrapped is giving you a chance to help those in need while giving you a convenient, easy way to find something for every one on your list.

Here’s how it works:

• First, browse their online catalog, and find a gift for a friend or relative.
• Then you’ll receive a free card with the image of your specific gift. You can personalize the card online and have it sent directly to your friend or relative. Or you can have the card delivered to you to write your own message.
• Your donation will go to the people who need it, and where it will have the greatest impact.

Gifts start at $12 and go up to $10,000. Remember, all Oxfam Unwrapped donations are tax deductible and you will get a receipt.

You can have a lot of fun with these, too. For example, if your boss is a total sh*t, you can send him a gift of manure for only $12. (Too bad they don’t dump it on his office chair.) In reality, a gift of organic manure increases crop yields and is cheaper, greener, and safer than chemical fertilizers. It’s another way of telling people that you really “give a $%@#” for the planet.

Here are some other ideas:

• For the bookworm, give a gift of books for kids for $18
• For the jewelry lover, give a gift of beaded jewelry for $18
• For the gardener, give a gift of a grove of "miracle trees", planting of 50 trees or planting a vegetable garden for $30 (each).

Learn more about Oxfam here.

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Disclosure:  I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Oxfam America Unwrapped and received a credit for a gift on the Oxfam site.

Learn how to talk to your kids about drinking with MADD’s The Power of Parents

At my house, we talk to our kids all the time about drugs, alcohol, and sex even though they’re still fairly young, just six and nine years old. Nathan and Lucie have already attended a few Just Say No and “good touch” presentations at school, so we try to keep the conversation going.

Yet many moms and dads are unsure how to talk to kids about drinking and being responsible even though 74% of kids (age 8-17) say their parents are the leading influence on their decisions about drinking. Research shows that as moms we are the number one influencers in dealing with this issue. Remind your kids that alcohol is an illegal drug – a zero tolerance policy is the best policy to have as a parent. 

To help you start the conversation at your house, there’s a new resource, MADD’s The Power of Parents website, which just launched today.

Nationwide on Power of Parents, It's Your Influence by MADD from MADD Online on Vimeo.

Help a community maintain their own field of dreams

My son Nathan started baseball practice last week. Now that he’s old enough for the peewee league, he’s playing at our community’s new regional sports complex. The project was funded by Great Outdoors Colorado, which is supported by lottery money. It’s a beautiful facility and close enough to our home that we can walk to it.

However, many communities are sorely in need of help to maintain their ball fields and don’t have the funds or grants to do so. That’s why I’m helping get the word out about Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Plant a Seed program.

Out of hundreds of fields submitted to www.frostedflakes.com, 30 have been chosen as finalists from across the country. Many fields are used heavily by their local communities, but the town or the school district doesn’t have funds to maintain them properly.

Look great while doing good: Yummie Tummie gives to Donate Life for Organ Donor Awareness Month

April is Organ Donor Awareness Month (or National Donate Life Month) a cause that is very close to the heart of Yummie Tummie creator and co-founder, Heather Thomson. Her son received a liver transplant when he was 5½ months old, which saved his life.

To support this cause, Heather has designed the Life Tank, a special limited edition Yummie Tummie. All proceeds will go to the New York Organ Donor Network, which coordinates organ donations.

About Yummie Tummie

Yummie Tummie is an amazing line of shapewear fashions. Not only is it created by someone who’s a fashion designer and celebrity stylist, but Heather’s a mom who understands that women want to be comfortable, sexy and wear attractive things, including shapewear.

I originally read about Yummie Tummie in The shape of things to come - Goodbye, muffin top. Modern shapewear slims and smooths without squishing in the Denver Post and was impressed that their tops were long enough so they wouldn’t roll up. (That’s a major problem I have with shapewear camisoles I own.) Plus, their products are so attractive that you can wear it as outerwear.

Organ Donation

Seven people die each day waiting for an organ. Organ and tissue donation saves lives! Please help me and Yummie Tummie spread the word and give the gift of Life. Register to be an organ donor today!

Donate your old phone and help a victim of domestic violence

With all the hoopla surrounding Rihanna and her abuser boyfriend, Chris Brown (and the fact that she used her cellphone to call her assistant who called police) recycling your old cellphone through Verizon Wireless’ HopeLine® program seems timely.

HopeLine collects old wireless phones, batteries and accessories in any condition from any wireless service provider. Proceeds from the program are used to provide wireless phones and cash grants to local shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention and awareness. 

Two convenient ways to donate a phone to HopeLine

• Drop off your phone at any Verizon Wireless Communications Store. Find the nearest store by visiting the Verizon Store Locator.
• Print out a Verizon Wireless Hopeline postage-paid label and adhere it to a box/envelope. Please be sure to review all shipping instructions carefully and include a return address on the label.

So, open the junk drawers, check in your closets and please let others know if they donate their old cell phones it can mean hope and new beginnings to a survivor of domestic violence.

Buy a T-shirt and help Tide give Loads of Hope

Support Tide Loads of Hope by buying a Tide Vintage Tee. All profits go to support families affected by disaster.

I’m a huge believer in taking a lemon of a situation and making something good out of it. So I love when companies think the same way. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the need for clean clothing became critical, and Tide found a way to help. So in November 2005, the Tide Loads of Hope truck headed to Camp Hope in the Metairie, LA area and cleaned over 10,000 loads of laundry. The spirit of this first venture informs and inspires everything Tide Loads of Hope program does.

How Tide Loads of Hope works

Tide Loads of Hope helps in the aftermath of a natural disaster by providing clean clothes and a sense of comfort to families in need. Partnering with Feeding America, they travel to disaster affected neighborhoods with the Tide Loads of Hope truck or vans, their free mobile laundry service.

The Tide Loads of Hope truck has 32 high-efficiency washers and dryers and can do 300 wash and dry cycles a day. They use Tide Loads of Hope trucks during massive disasters where electricity is unavailable in the region, and will wash about 9,000 loads of laundry over a four-week period.

In partnership with local laundromats, the Tide Loads of Hope vans provide free laundry service at the same load rate as the trucks. The vans are used during disasters where communities have a source of electricity,

To date, Tide Loads of Hope has washed more than 35,000 loads of laundry for over 20,000 families. Most importantly, the Tide Loads of Hope program means we're equipped to take action whenever and wherever there is a need in our country.

Sony and Operation Smile

This month Sony Electronics is helping more children smile through its support of the worldwide children’s medical charity Operation Smile.

Sony’s retail promotion for Sony Cyber-shot® cameras featuring Smile Shutter^TM technology at Sony Style^® Stores, Sonystyle.com, and other participating retailers. Through this effort, the company will make a $100,000 donation to the organization. The funds will be used to provide free physical examinations and reconstructive surgeries for children suffering from cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

Sony is also donating Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras to help Operation Smile volunteers capture smiles at more than 30 mission sites around the world. Equipped with Sony’s distinctive Smile Shutter technology, the cameras automatically capture a smile when the feature is activated, without having to press the shutter button. The result is snapshots with natural-looking smiles and expressions.

I have the Sony Cybershot DSCW170. (See Forget that Soccer Mom Crap - Just Call Me Sony Mom! to learn how I got it.) It has Smile Shutter technology, which I never use because my children are such hams. But if you have a “reluctant smiler” in the family, the camera can detect that brief moment when your child smiles – and quickly takes the picture. I’ve seen it in action and it really works!

Bravo to Sony for doing helping Operation Smile and giving us moms an excuse to pick up a great camera. Don’t need another camera? Then make a donation to Operation Smile instead.