Heifer International

I'm sure that many of you have already started your Christmas shopping, and before you get too far into it, I would like to let you know about the a great place to shop, especially for the person who has everything.

Heifer International is a fantastic non-profit organization. The idea behind the foundation is to give impoverished people training along with 'starter' animals. These animals can provide eggs, milk, wool, meat and even honey and help these people lift themselves from poverty. And, in the end, because of their principle of 'passing on the gift', the recipients eventually become donors themselves, raising the standard of living in their entire community as they share the offspring of their original animals.

If you make a donation in someone's name, that person will receive a card describing the gift in detail and a family in need will receive the animals. Depending on how much you want to spend, you can either do an entire donation or a share of one. They even have some shares starting at $10.00. (Note- clicking on any of the pictures below will take you to the printable gift inserts, which provide more info for that particular gift.)

A couple of the many things they provide are…

-Flocks of chicks, ducks and geese. I think one of these would be perfect for a teacher to represent her flock of young minds. I mean really, how many World's Greatest Teacher mugs can one person have?



-The knitting basket includes 2 llamas and 2 sheep. A share of this would be a fantastic gift for your favorite knitter, maybe along with a few skeins of some fair trade yarn to bring the whole thing full circle.



-You could even give a bunch of tree seedlings (for controlling erosion) to all of your coworkers that can't see the forest for the trees. All for only $10 each. And I'm sure you can find a more inspirational quote to go along with them. Myself, I like this one found here...

The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!' -- John F. Kennedy



If you decide you want to give a bunch of different donations, you can go to this link here to do them all at once.

And if you would like these as gifts for yourself, you can always give a hint to your loved ones by emailing a link to this post. ;)

It's fairly simple to create a registry for weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations and holidays. This little guy set up one for his birthday.

Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?