When I did my act of kindness, I didn’t even think there were prizes involved. I’m sure the same was true for all who supported the call hence its success. It wasn’t forced. It wasn’t show off. The entries were real and from reading the different posts, one can feel the love and effort involved in accomplishing the acts.

I was pleasantly surprised to find my blog among the TOP 20! I am listed among the eight through seventeenth place (in no particular order) winners and the prize is an AD placement on USA Today Print Edition!

Here’s the complete list of winners lifted from the BlogCatalog blog:

First Place — BlogWorld Conference Attendance, Full Page Ad in Blogger & Podcaster, iPod Touch
Listening..Learning..Living

Second Place — 1/2 Page Ad in Blogger & Podcaster Mental Stimulation
Mental Stimulation

Third Place — 1/2 Page Ad in Blogger & Podcaster
Keep It Simple Solutions

Fourth Through Seventh Place (No Order) — 1/4 Page Ad In Blogger & Podcaster
Life Prints
Original me Tees
Sushi for lunch
My Den

Eighth Through Seventeenth Place (No Order) — USA Today Advertisement
Ruthie’s Reason
Local Biz Bits
Sinigang For the Soul
Wahm Cafe
Sharani – Girl on a Road
Guiding Vision
Katalusis
Live from Waterloo
Jessica in Rome
Jericho Monster

There is no word yet as to when the ad will appear but hopefully they will announce in advance so I could grab some copies! What an honor to be picked among the roll of posts! This is simply awesome and I can’t wait for the next challenge! Congratulations to all winners and supporters of Bloggers unite! © 2007

I wanted to be a part of it but I wasn’t sure until late last week that I was joining because I didn’t know what to do. For sure I wanted it to be something meaningful yet something I’ve never done before. I attended a Christmas party last weekend and I met someone who belonged to a Filipino non-profit organization here in Massachusetts, Bagong Kulturang Pinoy, Inc. whose main mission is to spread children literacy through books in poverty-stricken areas in the Philippines. Their slogan is: Helping Filipino children read their way out of poverty. The history of the organization is inspiring. It spurred from a simple idea of one person wanting to give something back to her community in the Philippines. From putting up one mini-library, now 10 years later it is supporting 100 libraries (still says 90 on the website) and counting- with 80,000 books sent out each year benefiting thousands of kids who eventually become habitual readers.

I got into real good talking with her and showed my interest about the program. We exchanged contact information and told her that I’m willing to volunteer anytime they need a hand. I got an email on Monday asking me if I wanted to come for Saturday, December 15 to help out. I didn’t think twice and said yes right away! I drove for an hour to get to the place, in the cold Saturday and with snow from the days before. I get to the place and spent a very good afternoon with very nice people whom I was meeting for the first time. They took me like a friend and I helped stamping out each book (labeling that it came from here), sorting them out and placing them in the famous, distinctly Filipino Balikbayan boxes (care package).

Having had ‘training’ in stuffing just about anything to put in my own Balikbayan boxes I sent out each year for my family back home, they commented how good my packing was making sure every inch of space is utilized and not an air left to breathe inside the boxes. They said I was able to put the books that could have gone in three boxes to fit into one! That was an exaggeration I think but I was pleased they were happy with my work.

We finished packing 8 huge boxes containing hundreds of books by the time we were done! The books are going to 6 different mini-libraries in the Philippines and I can imagine how excited the kids will be once they see the various selections we’ve included on the boxes. This is the kind of thing one would find fulfilling because you can actually see the work in action. You know that every book you donate and ship, kids back home will read and treasure the opportunity because having books in depressed areas in the Philippines is a luxury. It doesn’t come by very often.

I went home with an utterly light feeling and with a smile on my face! It feels so good when you’re doing an act of kindness especially if it’s something not planned and sort of just happened. I never knew such a Filipino organization existed here in Massachusetts. Now, I am hooked! I am going to continue volunteering for this great mission and I promised to visit one of their mini-libraries in the Philippines on my vacation in early 2008 so I could report on its progress. This has truly been an opener. I have been helping in my own little way to give something back to my home country and I just added another one that truly is making a difference in the lives of children in the Philippines. What a way to start my holiday, volunteering and spreading the good cheers around!

Note: I encourage you to visit the Bagong Kulturang Pinoy website to learn more about the organization. Just reading through the different programs and how they’re impacting the lives of poor kids in the Philippines is amazing. Perhaps you may even find it uplifting to share some books or make financial contributions. Help is always needed in whatever form. © 2007

Folgers Gourmet Selections is teaming up with Habitat for Humanity to help Greater Los Angeles, which is among the most overcrowded places in the United States. By way of creating your own commercial or voting for this simple ad I made here, Folgers will donate $1 to Habitat of Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (up to $150,000).

According to its press release, “Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (HFH GLA) strives to eliminate poverty housing through advocacy, education, and partnership with families in need to build simple, decent, affordable housing. Since 1990, HFH GLA has built more than 190 homes, transforming the lives of hundreds of people. In the spring of 2007, HFH GLA kicked off its three-year “Building a Greater Los Angeles” campaign to build or renovate more than 250 homes in Los Angeles County.” Sounds like a plan!

I know there are far more worse areas in the world other than the city of Angels, Los Angeles (LA) but fact still remains, there is poverty even in the United States and there’s one in LA. I believe people and companies are helping every which way they can in every opportunities that come. I am giving back to the Philippines, my home country in any small way I can. However, I live here in the US now too so this is my share…

Clicking on the ad will redirect you to the Folgers website where you can vote. You can also check out and vote hundreds of ads created by others. Then there’s the company ad starring Dr. Miranda Bailey of Grey’s Anatomy, actress-Chandra Wilson and Journalist and world traveler, Lisa Ling.

Spare a minute or two every day to vote on the commercial or better yet, create your own (and start your own campaign) so we’ll be on our way to helping Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles.

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UPDATE: 20 JUNE 2008: Since I moved from Blogger to Wordpress and changed themes twice along the way, some of my posts looked bad in the new theme so I am now checking each one (really hard work! Grrrr!) to see how it looks. I clicked on Folgers again and see that my ad in their website is back!! My ad isn’t “offensive” anymore!! Glad they placed it back! So you can still vote OR make your own ad! Visit the site when you get the chance. It’s pretty cool how they do it…

UPDATE. 18 November 2007: You can view the entire ad from here, but as it turns out- Folgers deleted my ad on their main site because “someone” reported it as being offensive! WTF?! I wrote to Folgers upon learning this and I haven’t heard back from them yet. (So they did reply after about 2 weeks and said they will check on it!)

This is the reason why I removed the navbar in my site- someone could play a prank on you or whatever and they flag your site as inappropriate then next thing you know, Blogger takes out your site on the web! Most websites are handled by autobots- for all I know, Blogger doesn’t have a real person attending to its thousands of mails or complaints. I could be wrong, but tell me: how on earth can this ad be offensive or inappropriate to be taken down like that?!