03Apr

A Mother’s Day fashionABLE Gift That Will Change Lives

FashionAble

A few months ago I read my amazing friend Liz's recount over at Mom-101 of what it was like to watch her mother run a small clothing label out of her attic when she was growing up.  She connected the story (beautifully) to a group of women that she met at the non-profit, FashionABLE while visiting Ethiopia. It's a place where all the proceeds on the scarves that they create go towards helping the artisans, not only through wages but with medical care, medicine for TB or HIV, counseling, a housing stipend, educational tools and daycare for their Read More

14Feb

DoGoodCon: Creating Meaningful Change in the World.

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I am thrilled to be announcing my involvement with a new event called DoGoodCon. I’m always looking for ways to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place, and how to translate that potential into action and this is one. DoGoodCon is a CONFEST (not a conference!) celebrating social entrepreneurs who are embracing a for-profit business model with a built-in social mission. The speakers, panelists and vendors represent a variety of industries – Design, Education, Entertainment, Food, Film, Finance, and more! I Read More

01Jan

Evolving and Entering 2013

2012/2013

I'm determined to reflect and write an account of 2012, as I do every year. It helps to think about my achievements, as I am ending the year on a bit of a low.  I wasn't sure why I feel this way around this time of year until I saw this tweet from one of my favorite writers and actresses, Lena Duham, and realized I'm not the only one: Then I realized that if she, the queen of everything creative and successful, can feel this way, I'm not a total loser.  I have so much to look forward to in 2013 and I need to focus on the good in my life.  I'm at a Read More

30Nov

Believing in the Power of Travel to Change the World

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Travel has had a profound change on my life. I first went to Israel when I was 16 to spend a few months of my high school career there and came back to America a changed person.  I never imagined the world could be so beautiful.  So I returned several times as a young adult to study during my University period.  While I was there, I worked with Holocaust survivors, I worked with children at the famous Israel Museum in Jerusalem and I worked at Yad Vashem in the archives of one of the most famous Holocaust Museums in the world.  But my most rewarding work Read More

27Nov

Follow Giving Tuesday Today and Give Back to Your Community

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Today is #GivingTuesday, a national initiative dedicated to shifting the post-Thanksgiving focus from finding the biggest deal to making a bigger difference. People across the country will engage on social media, volunteer, and make contributions to their favorite causes.  There are a lot of amazing people behind the idea, read the list here. There's no question that I see the value in Social Good.  I've written about it time and I've seen its power.  I've been inspired by what I've seen online in amazing campaigns like Shot at Life and Save the Read More

26Nov

Time to Rebrand

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When I started to conceptualize this blog in late 2009, I spent months agonizing over everything.  The URL, the logo, the content, my writing.  I was not technical in the slightest.  I remember starting out on Blogger.com and writing my first post.   I remember thinking, what do I have to say?  I wanted to start a travel blog, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to travel enough.  And then this came out, my first blog, titled "No...Wire...Hangerrrs!" Joan Crawford said it in the classic film “Mommy Dearest”. We never forgot it. Such a great line. Read More

16Oct

Feeding the World on World Food Day

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Did you know that one in eight people goes to sleep hungry?  Hunger is not an issue I take lightly. Last year my good friend, Jill Smokler, over at ScaryMommy.com, involved me in media coverage of a campaign that she led on her site to raise money to provide 400 needy families with Thanksgiving dinner.  During this process, I discovered that last year, 17.2 million households in the United States were food insecure, the highest level on record, as the Great Recession continued to wreak havoc on families across the country. Of those 17.2 million Read More

02Oct

#Giving Tuesday: A National Day of Giving Around the Annual Holiday Shopping Season

Giving Tuesday

I'm always looking for a way to give back easily and effortlessly.  Making a difference; that's what life is about. As I heard Hillary Clinton say recently at the 2012 Social Good Summit, “We’re living in a time where anyone can be a diplomat.  All you have to do is hit send." It's never been this easy to make a difference and change lives.  With a simple click! And that is why the campaign I'm about to describe is so amazing. It was at this conference that #GivingTuesday launched. The 2012 Social Good Summit was a dynamic, worldwide Read More

25Sep

Spreading my Social Good Wings

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I'm always looking for ways to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place, and how to translate that potential into action, and this past weekend's Social Good Summit was no exception to help me think about how to spread my social good wings. With the growth of social media use, it's amazing how people can come together to toot its horn to help people.  The CEO of Ericsson estimated that 80% of the world will have access to 3G mobile by 2017 and there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. As much as I Read More

10Sep

Rosh Hashanah Twitter Party: Ring in the New Year Twitter Style

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During the Jewish holidays, our families look to us to lead them through. Some of us are looking for ideas. How do we make Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur meaningful? How do we keep things interesting without breaking tradition? Are a round Challah and some apples and honey really enough? Join me and MamaDrama on Twitter this Thursday night at 9pm EST…the ultimate diaspora…for a special High Holiday hour. We’ll talk about our traditions, food/recipes and all things Rosh Hashanah (and if you want to throw in talk about Yom Kippur, why not?  We just Read More