Here are a couple of things well worth contributing to, in my not-terribly-humble opinion:
Knitters Without Borders (and also sort-of knitters, if you include me): Sponsored by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot to raise money for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontieres) . Here's the explanatory post, here's the FAQ page, here's the MSF homepage . . .
MSF is an
independent international medical humanitarian organization that
delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics,
natural or man-made disasters . . . and, as far as I can tell, they don't play politics in deciding who to help. Plus, nearly 90% of donations go to actually helping people and not paying salaries or more fundraising.
The current goal is $240,000 . . . the total to date stands somewhere around $200,000. So maybe you'd like to add a little?
(And if you haven't read Stephanie's books, you ought to. All of them, but most especially At Knit's End. Even if you aren't a knitter. . . the sum total of my knitting thus far is one very long and very colorful garter stitch scarf which took me three months to finish, but I loved them all anyway.)
Bears: Jo-Anne in Ontario knits bears. Specifically, bears for charities both local and worldwide (Russian orphanages, for one). The post is on Shelley Kang's blog, and I'm going to quote Shelley quoting Jo-Anne:
"I can use any weight, from sock yarn to the chunkier or sports yarn
weight. I knit them from pure wool, wool blends, and acrylics as well.
I wish my budget would allow all pure wool bears, but it doesn't. As
for colours - anything, the brighter the better. If it stripes, or is
variegated - that's good. Solids are good too, even the darker ones,
for bear pants or the base of the sweater. If I find the wool too fine,
I can easily double it up, or combine two wools. I'm pretty easy, and
used to working with lots of different wools and weights (thanks to
your help!).
I'd love to get lots of ends and small balls, left-over
sock bits, etc. I think knitters often have small balls left that they
hate to throw out, but have no use for them. I'm okay with sharing my
address if people want to email me at fourgump AT sympatico DOT ca"
I've boxed up the variegated acrylic and Wool-Ease that has been languishing in my spare closet (otherwise known as the Fabric Hole), bought for various projects that I am never, ever going to do . . . like the baby blanket for the baby who is now five years old . . . ah, let's not even go there. It might as well be useful somewhere, and it certainly isn't going to be here. So if you have any spare bits and pieces you're willing to part with (I was unable to part with my wool scraps; I use those for hats. Maybe later . . . ), email Jo-Anne for her address. She's very nice, and she's doing good things.
Heifer International: This is where our Christmas gifting money went; we bought two flocks of chickens, two flocks of geese, two flocks of ducks, and two hives of bees, in the names of everyone in both families except the smallest ones. Here's their website, which will tell you all about their various projects. (I didn't realize it, but they do work in the US, too: 29 states in 2006.) And the recipients of Heifer's projects are required to pay it along, by giving chicks/lambs/whatever to others as they can, so there's a ripple effect.
There are scads of others, of course, but these three are my choices this year. It's almost embarrassing how much we have, really, compared to most of the rest of the world—and a lot of people right here, too. John and I have a nice dry house, plenty of food, good heat, reliable transporation, medical care when we need it . . . and an awful lot of extra stuff, too. We have a very good life—in fact, I have very nearly everything I ever wanted—and it's a shame not to share.
