Parents: Consider Trick or Treating For UNICEF

I just got my UNICEF boxes in the mail! I'm so excited!! 

I've recruited my Daisy Scouts to carry around these nifty little Halloween collection boxes as they go trick-or-treating at the end of this month!

I learned all about the United Nations Children's Fund from my friend Shari whose heart for giving is so large, her teeny little body hunches forward from the weight of it. She says she goes to the chiropractor because of her allergies but that's just a cover. She needs adjusted from her ginormous, overgrown heart. She doesn't fool me.

Shari's been an advocate for UNICEF for years! When I was in the local mom's club, she inspired us to take the collection boxes out for Halloween and the kids scored big time! Most of that is because she's trained her daughter to never leave a trick-or-treat house without having collected money.  

And if someone says, "we don't have any cash right now," her daughter says, "that's okay. I'll just stand right here waiting, shivering on your doorstep, while you get in your car, go down to the closest ATM you can find and bring me back some cash. Cause I'm not leaving here without money. Because CHILDREN LIKE ME ARE DYING!"

That's when people usually start digging through their couch cushions and junk drawers for a few nickles. Just to make that little girl GO AWAY!  

Whatever...it works! I thought about getting Shari to come talk to my Girl Scouts about the proper way to collect for UNICEF but I knew that her outline would look like this:

1.  Practice your sad faces.

2.  Never leave a house without cash.

3.  Consider getting one of those nifty devices that attaches to a smartphone so you can swipe credit card donations.

4.  You're not above begging.

5.  Memorize this line: "If I were thirsty, would you give me a glass of clean water?"

You think I'm joking, don't you?

So yeah, she may be a little passionate. But that's what UNICEF needs, people who really care and aren't afraid to think outside of the Halloween collection box!  UNICEF started in 1946, as a way to reach out to children around the world who were in desperate need of emergency food and healthcare after the devastation of World War II. And ever since then, they've been committed to helping children in need.

Yesterday, UNICEF received an anonymous donation of $150,000. For every dollar people like you and me donate between now and Oct. 19, this donor will match it (dollar for dollar), up to $150,000. And this is exactly what UNICEF needed.  

Right now there is terrible flooding in Niger, the worst in 80 years and children are dying of cholera, many of them in a matter of hours.  Many are also dying of diarrhea.  Workers are expecting the numbers of those infected to continue to rise as the waters do the same.

Do you have an extra $10? Would you be willing to donate it to UNICEF?  If so, click here. None of us are called to fix all the world's problems. Just to do our part.  And now, thanks to the anonymous donor, your contribution is instantly doubled!  

Please consider making a donation. Or else I'm going to ask Shari to bring her daughter over to your house and stand on your doorstep. :)