by Willy Franzen on October 24, 2009

When I saw the name and location of Winston Salem, North Carolina’s Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, I was instantly reminded of one of my favorite recent reads—Thank You for Smoking
by Christopher Buckley. A North Carolina based non-profit with Reynolds in it name has to be tied to the tobacco industry, and it is. “The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation was established in 1936 as a memorial to the youngest son of the founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company,” and it seems to be one of the few good things that has come out of the tobacco industry—”a trust for charitable works in the State of North Carolina.” The Foundation is focused on making grants to non-profit organizations in the areas of Community Economic Development, Democracy and Civic Engagement, the Environment, Pre-Collegiate Education, and Social Justice and Equity, which, in my opinion, is a huge improvement on the other things associated with the Reynolds name.
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by Willy Franzen on September 19, 2009

I love our oceans—everything about them. I love swimming in them, eating the food that they provide, fishing in them, watching sunsets over them, and all of the other wonderful things that they offer. However, our oceans are both blessed and cursed by the same thing—they seem infinite. That’s what makes them so great, but it’s also what has led us to abusing them nearly to the point of no return. A little pollution will disappear in the vastness of an ocean. Overfishing doesn’t matter because there are always more fish. Scraping up the bottom isn’t a big deal because we can’t see the bottom. I wish that oceans were that resilient, but they’re not. Oceana is a Washington, DC based non-profit organization that “seeks to make our oceans as rich, healthy and abundant as they were in our grandparents’ youth.” They recognize the value of their oceans, and they’re doing something to protect them.
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by Willy Franzen on June 13, 2009

There are countless celebrities who support charitable causes. There are many who throw their full support behind a single organization; however, few celebs are as personally invested in their charitable work as Michael J. Fox is. Why is he so invested? Because his life is on the line. He is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, “a degenerative disease of the brain that often impairs motor skills, speech, and other functions.” If you’ve seen Michael J. Fox on tv lately, you’ve seen what Parkinson’s does to the human body. It’s a tragic disease that will hopefully be cured due to the work of the New York City based Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. As an accomplished actor and someone who is living with Parkinson’s, Michael J. Fox is the perfect person to lead the fight against the disease.
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by Willy Franzen on May 24, 2009

You know all those rights that you learned about in school? All that stuff in the Constitution. I’m sure it’s important to you now, but how important was it to you as a kid? Unless you were a unique kid, you just wanted to play. That’s why Right To Play is such an interesting non-profit. They’re “an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world.” Play may seem trivial to many, but Right To Play has found that it’s often the key to opening up those other rights that many of us take for granted. They’re a Toronto based organization with a New York City presence, and they’re currently working in 23 countries: Azerbaijan, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru, occupied Palestinian territory, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia.
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by Willy Franzen on September 21, 2008

As an overweight asthmatic when I was growing up, I was almost certainly one of the least fit soccer player to grace the fields of Fairfield, CT (if only there was a video to share with you). I don’t remember having a particular affinity for soccer, but all of my friends played, so I played too; in fact, it seems like most kids play soccer growing up now. That’s a big achievement for a sport that has to compete with more entrenched sports like baseball, football, and basketball. Much of the success of soccer can be attributed to U.S. Soccer, the sport’s national governing body. One of the major successes of U.S. Soccer was to bring the FIFA World Cup to the United States in 1994. The World Cup generated quite a surplus, and the U.S. Soccer Foundation was started in 1995 as the charitable arm of soccer in the United States to put that surplus to good use.
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by Willy Franzen on January 5, 2008

Were you a baseball fan growing up? Was the floor of your room often covered in baseball cards? Did you spend more time oiling your glove than actually playing with it? Did your Mom make you throw away your favorite team’s cap because you absolutely wore it out? It’s amazing how your love of a sport can define your childhood. Harlem RBI is a non-profit organization that is cultivating that love of sport in New York City’s youths. Through the power of teams, the kids that participate in Harlem RBI’s programs are given the opportunity to play, learn, and grow – hopefully into graduates who are physically fit, confident, caring, and work-ready or headed for college.
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