One(sie) of a Kind

Customized onesies are always a fun gift, but they're especially sweet for a 1st Mother's Day. Kids made the heart cutouts for this little T for baby girls or boys, and half the design proceeds help kids through Save the Children.

Not Mom's first rodeo? Try a "peace, love & mom" theme for Mother's Day with this cool T for older kids, also featuring children's artwork and benefitting Save the Children. Happy Mother's Day to all!

Rise and Shine

photo: The Delicious Life via photopin cc

On November 15, Stamford, Conn., kids will roll up sleeves for their annual Thanksgiving Bread Drive to benefit peers in need. Using kitchen facilities donated annually by an area school or store, kids come together to bake loaves of yummy nut-free pumpkin bread, then sell them for $10 each as holiday treats. Their 2011 sale raised more than $2,000 to redo a youth-designed playground at a local shelter. Wonder where the dough (sorry, couldn't resist) will go this year?

Yard Work

Yard sales and summer go together like ice cream & sprinkles, and what a great way for kids to earn money for their favorite child-serving organizations. That's what 11-year-old Allieanna Pierson did at her Alton, Ill., home. Piggybacking on her successful collection of coloring books and other art supplies (plus Beanie Babies -- always a hit) for young patients at St. Jude's Children's Resarch Hospital, Allieanna gathered belongings she was ready to part with and set up shop last month. Shoppers were encouraged, too, to drop off new coloring books, crayons and other supplies, along with cash donations for St. Jude's. A post-sale trip to deliver collected goods and donations with her aunt and grandmother was Allieanna's first trip to Memphis. "She did it all herself," mom Tanya McGee told the local paper. "She's always got something on her mind."

(Photo: The Telegraph)

Book it!

By customer request, personalized bookplates are the latest addition to our family shop, Karate Kat Graphics, which uses kids' artwork to help kids in extreme poverty through Save the Children. Choose from a variety of critters (the ladybug design shown, a dragonfly, bird, butterfly & an ocean scene) or go with flowers or a purple-hued rainbow. A sheet of 20 adhesive bookplates sets you back about 5 bucks.

Lemon-Aid

It's still solidly hot chocolate weather here in the Midwest, but before long we'll have flowers, and sun, and kids' lemonade stands. The drinks always taste a bit better at stands giving all or part of their proceeds to charity. I'm counting on some that benefit the Red Cross this year or other organizations helping Haiti. And it's likely that at least one local kid-preneur will again set up an Alex's Lemonade Stand to help kids with cancer.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation started in 2000, when then 4-year-old cancer patient Alexandra Scott set up a lemonade stand to help "her doctors" find a cure for cancer. Despite failing health, she repeated the practice for four years and ultimately turned it into a nationwide lemonade-stand campaign. Alex lost her battle with cancer in August 2004, but only after raising more than $1 million through her campaign. And the organization she inspired has now raised more than $30 million for childhood cancer research, treatment, and family support -- nearly half of that through lemonade stands led by kids of all incomes & ages. How sweet that is.