Giving Tuesday: How will you participate?

[caption id="attachment_21081" align="alignleft" width="300"] Helping the homeless[/caption]

Editor---Across the country organizations and individuals are preparing for a special event. Of course, many folks are preparing for Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays, but folks are also including something else that is important and adds to the spirit of the season; and that's Giving Tuesday.

The Melanoma Research Foundation is among many groups who are finding ways to give back and to give to others in need. While MRF needs funding, just as other social service, research organizations and charitable groups, the organization is reaching out to join others in the helping professions to help people in particular need of support.

Given the cutbacks in food stamps, this Giving Tuesday becomes especially important.

On Tuesday, December 3, people will be organizing and lining up to give back and pay it forward to others as part of a major campaign that includes everyone from the White House to the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates. The day allows people a time to reflect and to serve, to give more than voice but action to help the poor and those in need in ways that count.

But it isn't just the United States that's involved. Organizations and groups across the world are also focusing on Giving Tuesday, as the organizers proclaim. There are volunteer service projects, parties for fund-raising, and hands-on help programs that allow people to contribute, including online. Giving Tuesday is now in its second year and the number of groups that have signed on as partners has more than doubled since the first year. There are now 6,225 separate organizations in 50 U.S. States and 15 countries.

So as folks line up for the bargains on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, if you are one of them, what will you be doing on Giving Tuesday to join others in remembering those for whom those bargains are luxuries and outside the family budget as they focus simply on having shelter and sufficient food not just for the holidays but for their future as well.