Ways to help 6-10
6. Send online cards
E-cards are ideal ways to make someone's day a little brighter, even when you're strapped for time and distance is an issue. Best of all, no stamp is required. Hundreds of e-card sites exist: name the occasion, they've got a card for it. Here are four sites where you can find fabulous, free digital greetings: www.greetingsnecards.com, www.care2.com, www.free-e-cards-online.com and www.123greetings.com.
7. Share your knowledge
Touted as the world's "largest reference website" (there are more than 1.3 million articles in English), www.wikipedia.org is a virtual encyclopedia of free content, written collaboratively by people worldwide. With the exception of a few main-page articles, anyone with Internet access can correct, edit or improve any information on the site, simply by clicking the Edit this page link. So you can take a little time out to share your wisdom with others.
8. Help fund mammograms
By clicking on the Breast Cancer Site, you can help fund free mammograms for working-poor, homeless and uninsured women in the U.S. Toronto food stylist Ettie Shuken has been clicking daily for two years. "If I can make it easier for someone to have a screening by just a click, that's amazing,” she says. The Breast Cancer Site is part of the GreaterGood shopping village, which also offers these “click to give” sites: the Hunger Site, the Child Health Site, the Rainforest Site, the Animal Rescue Site and the Literacy Site.
9. Adopt a pet
Find your dream pet and give it a loving home, all from your computer. The Humane Society of Canada's "pets" page has a listing of adoptable pets, with contact information so you can directly communicate with the pet's current owner. There's also a place to post "lost pet" notices. For another searchable database of animals needing homes, as well as a directory of more than 9,000 animal shelters and adoption centres across North America, visit Pet Finder's website.
10. Be a virtual mentor
Encouragement comes in many forms, even digitally. Torontonian Alison Korn, former two-time world champion rower and former Canadian national team rower, mentors a few up-and-coming rowers online. She answers questions and shares training-camp etiquette and survival tips. “It feels good to help the next generation of rowers by passing on my hard-earned wisdom,” she says. One of Korn's virtual protégées won a world championship. “I'd like to think that, maybe, my tips had some small effect on her progress," she says. "It makes me feel connected, in a very small way, to her success.”
Whether you're donating Shoppers Optimum points, offering up your old piano to a budding musician or adopting an abandoned pet, there are so many ways to enrich the lives of others with just the click of your mouse. And all it takes is a few minutes out of your day to make someone's spirit -- and your own -- soar.
Did you know: There's a World Kindness Day and a World Kindness Week in November. For more information, visit the Random Acts of Kindness Organization's website.
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