A GIFT THAT TRULY KEEPS ON GIVING

Mission of e-Partners in Giving:  Provide an efficient, convenient, and secure way for anyone to make an online donation – specifically for significant life events.

In laymen's terms:

We want people to give back on their birthday;

we want people to give back when they get married;

we want people to give back when 

they graduate high school or college.

(I could go on for days)

We are essentially trying to change a culture that revolves around unwrapping tons and tons of materialistic junk that is driven by nothing more than "gimme, gimme, gimme."

I have one buddy who said ENOUGH and is already living this cultural shift of giving back.

I LOVE IT!

For his son's first birthday, my friend and his wife decided to collect shoes for a Metroplex non-profit instead of having their guests bring gifts.

It was a huge success.

The birthday boy, one-year-old Ryder (photo below), helped collect 50 pairs of gently-used shoes for the Dallas Shoe Bank, which gives them to homeless men and women in Dallas.

The caption on The Shoe Bank web site read: "This young Fort Worth resident, with a little help from his parents, recently celebrated his first birthday by collecting more than fifty pairs of shoes for The Shoe Bank."

My friend said there were four factors that spearheaded this idea (all of which I LOVE):

1) They simply wanted to give back;

2) They want to instill those values in their son at an early age;

3) They knew that Ryder had NO IDEA if he was getting a pair of shoes for someone less fortunate or a new thingymagiggy for himself, because he's ONLY 12-months old. (His dad said, "A lot of times, they're just happy with the box.");

4) "It was a little selfish, too..." Ryder's dad said. "We didn't need anymore stuff – especially toys. We have plenty."

I applaud Mike and his wife for briefly taking the emphasis off their family and giving back.

SO WONDERFULLY GREAT!