Let's Talk: Giving Back
In the midst of all of this hustle and bustle for the holidays I wanted to take a moment to talk about giving back. I spoke earlier about how I was planning to shift the majority of my content this year away from lots of gift guides and posts encouraging buying a ton of presents to a bit of a different focus. Over the past few years James and I have actually stopped exchanging gifts over the holidays in favour of supporting animal charities instead. Once James and I made that shift in our own gift giving I realized how much better I felt contributing to something that made me feel good rather than running around stressfully shopping for endless presents. From there, I made the shift to stop buying gifts for my family and now even most of my friends.
Rather than buy gifts we tend to contribute to a charity or, chip in on an experience (a concert, nice dinner, mani/pedis, etc) and it has helped immensely with my stress around this busy time of year. So, earlier this year when Ford reached out and offered to pamper Herman and I, rather than buy ourselves something (because let’s be honest, neither Herman and I want for much- especially Herman! haha), I thought that we could give back instead and Ford was 100% on board to help out!
Animal charities have always been my primary focus whenever I give back because I have such a soft spot for animals. I think of how ridiculously spoiled and lucky Herman is and it breaks my heart to think that not all animals get to experience the same love and comforts that he does. So, thanks to a bit of help from our friends at Ford, Herman and I went on a little shopping trip in the new Ford Escape to pick up a few supplies and toys for dogs who don’t have it as good as Herman does. Thankfully the Ford Escape has lots of trunk room for loading up with donations, and the GPS to get me there because let’s be honest, I get lost going everywhere! haha
We used this list to select some of the most urgently needed items and then took them to the Humane Society.
You can see here in some of the photos that Herman may not have wanted to give all of the toys away but he has enough toys for probably 4 dogs so all of the toys and the cozy Ford blanket are at their new home at the Humane Society. I love that Ford supports not only this blog (they’ve been a HUGE supporter over the years which I really appreciate) - but when I asked them for help with this little giving back adventure they were more than happy to help! Plus, driving around in the new Ford Escape was a perk for me so it was a win/win if you ask me!
This whole experience reminded me that it is so important to take the time to give back over the holidays. So many of us are so so lucky and quite often take that for granted so I hope today’s post is a little reminder to you to give back in any way you can!
If you’re looking for a bit of inspo on where/how/who to help, here are some of my favourites:
Second Chance Animal Rescue Society
London Drugs Stocking Stuffers for Seniors
Do you try to give back over the holidays? I’d love to know what causes are important to you too!
