Charity and Giving Back - Tell me about it!

I want this part of my blog to be a place to share stories about those people in our lives that give and give without expecting anything in return. Send me your stories. I would love to interview them either by phone or email. I want to spread the word about people and giving back.

For now, here are some way's to make someone's day:

While in the drive through line, pay for the person behind you in line.
When you see someone in the grocery store line with kids, offer them to go in front of you.
If you see someone counting pennies to pay for a gallon of milk, hand them a "fiver".
Donate your time at a food kitchen.
Offer to watch someone's kids for free, so that they can have a night off.
Bring dinner to a new mom/dad.
Leave a really big tip for that server who rocked it, despite being in charge of two sections.

Organize a food or toy drive. I personally started a food drive 5 years ago. We started out the first year donating 400 lbs. of food. This year we were up to 10K pounds of food donated to the North Texas Food Bank.

Here are some things that people have done for me:

We were really tight on money and we had to buy Sarah her school supplies. We miscalculated the cost and our debit card was declined. Two ladies in line behind us gave paid for her supplies.
We have since done the same kind of things to other's. You can tell when someone really needs some help. So do something about it. What you get back is worth more than any amount of money you gave.

One week, we had no idea how we were going to pay for daycare and keep the lights on and feed us all. A friend of ours floated us the money for a few weeks until we could get back on track.

One thing that you might not thing was "giving" at the time, but was the best thing that could have ever happened to me: Having the bank NOT give me my van back, despite having the current past due amount to give them. It was a huge lesson that you must look past what you have now, to the future and be realistic. Plan for the future.

Take the challenge I set forth today, do something for someone today. Seek someone out and make their day. Let them go in front of you in line. Send expired coupons to military families overseas. there is so much you can do. Share those stores in the comments below.