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"Last fall, my kids joined me as we participated in the Leukemia &amp;amp;amp; Lymphoma Society&amp;#039;s Light the Night walk to raise awareness and funds for blood cancers. They carried the red &amp;quot;supporters&amp;quot; balloons, while I carried a white &amp;quot;survivor&amp;quot; balloon. I think it made them feel like they could make a difference in fighting the cancer that had struck their mother. Next month, we&amp;#039;ll do the walk again, only, this time, I&amp;#039;ll have hair and I&amp;#039;m in remission. Though back-to-school time is all about the kids, I think it&amp;#039;s also a great time to teach them to help others. Here are three web sites designed to help tweens (and adults) to volunteer their time and effort to helping others: The League: (http://www.theleague.org) The LEAGUE is teaches students about giving, service and civic engagement. Right now, they&amp;#039;re running their ONE DAY Event, a &amp;quot;servathon&amp;quot; where students identify, organize and plan a service project that meets a need in their community. Students can create their very own service project such as visiting seniors, tutoring peers, or cleaning up neighborhoods. The event runs through October 8th, but there are many other events after this one on The LEAGUE. I&amp;#039;m thinking of getting our Cub Scouts pack involved this year. (Yes, even though I keep saying I won&amp;#039;t get involved in Cub Scouts.) Lose Your Excuse: (http://www.loseyourexcuse.gov) In a national survey of kids ages 8-12, 85 percent believed that they could lead their family to do what is needed to consume less energy in the home. So, the Department of Energy and the Ad Council launched Lose Your Excuse, a fun web site designed to teach kids to be more energy efficient. I played some of the games on the site, a fun little time-suck, and learned quite a bit. And now, I&amp;#039;m going to go unplug my cell phone charger. Later, I&amp;#039;ll let the kids test out the games on Lose Your Excuse. Light the Night: (http://www.lightthenight.org/) Now in its 10th year, this is a great fundraiser open to kids and adults alike. It&amp;#039;s really exciting to see all those lit up balloons taking to the streets. (And what kid doesn&amp;#039;t like a balloon?) Plus, it raises money for the Leukemia &amp;amp;amp; Lymphoma Society; every ten minutes, someone dies from a blood cancer. Most of the walks are taking place in the next few weeks, so drop by the site to see how you can get involved. My kids and I thank you. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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