Grommet Good Explodes
I recently posted the happy news about raising $20K for Containers to Clinics. We have exciting progress to report on three other wonderful philanthropies spotlighted by Grommet:
Wine to Water in Haiti
Wine to Water is delighted with its donations from Daily Grommet folks, and is actively fundraising to help with the Haitian relief effort. This, before the horrific earthquake, was our Christmas 2009 story. Doc Henley reported that our community responded strongly—topping $5,000 in donations over the normally quiet holiday weekend. He wrote to convey his enthusiastic thanks for your help in creating economical and sustainable clean water sources in needy third world communities. Now, with the earthquake, Wine to Water ‘s work in Haiti is all the more urgent. Please consider donating. (Thanks again to Steve Curran for telling us about Wine to Water.)
Grey2K USA—got greyhound racing banned in Massachusetts. Grey 2K USA is an educational organization that concerns itself with greyhound rescue. They told their story on Grommet in 2008. One of their political advocacy efforts was to organize a citizen vote to ban greyhound racing in Massachusetts, and they succeeded in 2009. As of January 1, 2010 there are no live greyhound races in the state. Grey2K USA continues on, as greyhound racing endures in other states and countries, and there are many dogs needing to be rescued. (Thanks to Paula Hyde for bringing Grey2K USA to our attention.)
Sustainable Schools International moves forward steadily with school creation. This was a December 2008 story, about creating Cambodian schools that, once created, can be maintained via local economic initiatives. One of the new challenges coming their way is that the Cambodian government recently doubled average class sizes to 90 (yes you read that right). SSI is working hard to fund additional teachers to aid the poorly paid souls who are struggling to teach a classroom of almost 100 children.
I think is is really cool that SSI reached out recently to Daily Grommet community members Jill and Andy McMahon, and they gave us a direct update:
We were immediately drawn to the Sustainable Schools International Charity when it was featured on Daily Grommet. Having visited Cambodia earlier in the year we were impressed by the poverty and resilience of the people. We decided to make monthly contributions and have found that the information sent to us regarding the budget, how it is spent, projected expenditures/ projects for the upcoming year and evidence of the support of the local villages has given us a good indication of the leadership and quality of the organization.
We were happy to have one of the volunteers Elly Goodman seek us out while she and her husband were visiting Boston to attend a micro financing meeting, not to ask for more money but instead to answer any questions we might have about the organization, face to face.
Two students at an SSI school in Cambodia
Thanks to everyone in our community who is help us to amplify “good” in the world in so many wonderful ways.
Jules Pieri 
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