For three years, Shelley Seale would travel to the orphanages of India, bags loaded with treats and toys to share with the children who had made such an enormous impact on her. After all, these were the same children who inspired the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Each time she got to know the children’s stories a little more, which compelled this Austin writer to compose a new book called, “The Weight of Silence: The Invisible Children of India.”

“I hope that people will see that even though this topic is serious and the stories often heartbreaking, it is not a depressing book or subject!” says Seale. “The kids’ hope and resilience amazed me time and time again; the ability of their spirits to overcome crippling challenges inspired me. The issues are tough, what has happened to a lot of these kids makes you want to cry – but the bottom line of their stories is a very strong, hopeful voice.“

I interviewed Shlley to find out what compelled her to travel, return, and make the children of India such a big part of her life.

What prompted you to travel in India and get to know these children?

In early 2004, I read an article in Tribeza magazine about Caroline Boudreaux, who had visited India three years earlier. She had happened upon an orphanage full of children living in incomprehensible conditions and had returned  home and started The Miracle Foundation, a nonprofit which raises money and recruits sponsors to help support the home. I began volunteering for the organization and sponsored a child, and Caroline invited me to go to India with a volunteer group. My first visit was in March 2005.

Was the situation what you expected?

Yes and no. When I arrived that first time, I assumed all the kids there were orphans in the true sense of the word – their parents had died. Instead I was shocked by how many of them had been “orphaned” by poverty; their parents had left them at the Miracle Foundation home because they were too poor to feed them, which in some ways seemed an even greater tragedy. I wondered when each of them had stopped wanting to go back home, or if they ever had. Afterward, there was simply no way to go on with my life afterwards as if they did not exist.

I had gone expecting it to be a sad place, an emotionally wrenching experience with these parentless young people. But those expectations had been turned on their head. Yes, there were stories behind each one of these children – many of them painful and tragic. Yet the man who ran the orphanage, and the house mothers, had made the kids their own in a community of sharing and acceptance. They were poor in wealth but not in spirit; limited in resources but not in joy and laughter. They gave me a complete unconditional love, for nothing more than showing up.

This kind of journey isn’t for everybody… is it?

Probably not. The specific type of trip I took with The Miracle Foundation, the volunteer trip to the children’s homes, is not the same as a sight-seeing vacation.

India is definitely a complete culture shock for someone who’s never been there, especially if you haven’t traveled in a developing country before. The poverty and hardship is stark and in your face. At times, quite honestly, I just wanted to look away and say I’d had enough. But the suffering remains whether we choose to look or not. They do not go away simply because we decide that to be a witness to them, to say I care about your story, is too difficult for us.

But still, like I said before, the moment you meet these kids, that all goes away. I have been on four different trips with all kinds of different people, some of whom love India and some who barely tolerate it, yet every single one of them fell in love with these kids and had the time of their life.  It’s amazing how this experience hooks you – I sometimes tease Caroline Boudreaux about putting something in the water. But the truth is, we go thinking about giving something back, and in the end it’s us who end up getting something amazing out of it. We are the ones who get rescued.

I guess sometimes it seems hopeless. There are so many children who need help. What do you think?

The truth is, each person can create incredible impact with even small actions. It’s a ripple effect, and I have seen it happen over and over, so many times I can’t even count them. Most of us could never sell all our belongings and go work in the trenches in India, but that doesn’t mean we should think, then, that we can’t do anything at all.

If you can change the course of the life of ONE person – still, that one person’s life is different and better because you impacted it.  I think that’s worth it. Don’t focus on the big picture, just focus on what you are passionate about, what you want to do. For me, I can’t constantly think about the 25 million kids in India who live in orphanages or on the streets – I can only think about the one who is in front of me at that moment.

What do you hope to accomplish with the book?

My sole purpose in writing the book was to give these millions of children a voice that could be heard by others in the world who, I was convinced, would be as moved by their plights as I was. And so, the main thing I hope to accomplish is awareness – followed by action. Some kind of action. I think the key is to discover what you are passionate about, what you have genuine feelings and caring about – and then do something about that issue. But just do something.

To learn more about the book, go to Seale’s website or purchase one from The Miracle Foundation. Note that for all books purchased through The Miracle Foundation, all proceeds are donated to them.

Rich Vasquez, Aaron Bramley, and David Neff

There’s a little more than a week to submit your entries to the nonprofit film festival, Lights.Camera.Help; the deadline is June 30, in fact. I highly encourage you to submit any film, YouTube video, PSA or series, and be a part of this first-ever film fest in Austin.

Austinites who launch these projects-with-a-cause continue to amaze me. Just when you think it’s an empty marketing trend, another social entrepreneur impresses you with their creativity, energy, and ideas. This is definitely the case with Lights.Camera.Help, founded by David Neff, Aaron Bramley, and Rich Vazquez.

I spoke with them at the launch party last month – here’s a quick, behind-the-scenes interview.

Dave Neff: We’re all kind of in the film industry in one way or another. And the whole idea is that we want to give validity to this films-for-a-cause genre.

Rich Vasquez:The great thing about video is it gives you a chance to engage a person with a narrative, but also with facts and figures. I think we can help people demonstrate what makes film different, how nonprofits are using it, and what they are using it for.

Aaron Bramley: So part of our original focus was that the winning film would get all the proceeds of the festival. We’re not actually spending much money, which is encouraging: People are stepping up to make sure this happens.

RV: We really believe in this, and it shows. Plus, I think they believe in it, too.

DN: I think Austin really values altruism. That, plus there are a high number of nonprofits here, and we’re a tech city and so much of this film and video stuff comes out of tech. So it’s a confluence of factors that are making this happen.

RV: We’re trying to catch up to that momentum.

Now all you have to do is submit. Check out these photos from the launch party and read more about Lights.Camera.Film.

Dana Shetto and John Turner

Jennifer Campell, Weatherby Swada, and Buffy

Mando Rayo and Layla Fry

Kim Righter, Ehren Foss, and Laura Maher

David Neff

David Shaw and Jordan Viatar

I grew up in the shadow of that big American Indian chief statue on NW Loop 410 in San Antonio, the one that sits on the Red McCombs car dealership, so I’ve known the name Red McCombs all my life. For a while, I thought he was an Indian chief.

I was able to meet him this past weekend (he is not, BTW, and Indian chief) and the emotional and inspiring YMBL Sunshine Camps grand opening celebration. McCombs donated about $1 million toward that project, which opens next week to about 70 at-risk Austin kids with high leadership potential.

(There’s a concert tonight to benefit the camp tonight at Umlauf Sculpture Gardens. Tickets $10 for teens, and $25-$75 for adults. Kids under 12 are FREE. It’s from 6 -9 pm. Great place to take kids, see sculpture, have some wine/beer/appetizers… consider.)

ANYWAY, doing what it is that I do, I interviewed him. He’s got such a great voice and presence (he was one of the best car salesman in the country, remember?) that video was the best medium.

And he did not disappoint:

See? I was just talking about this exact thing the other day: A public recognition site for volunteers. Except the RecognizeGood people have made a site with the potential for much more than that.

I’ve tried the site. First you register – name, city, etc – then you just fill out the thank you. You include the person’s email address so they can be informed about the thank you, and it’s otherwise totally obvious what to do.

You have the option to make a donation on the site, and that goes to the site’s hometown beneficiary, in this case Samaritan Counseling Center of Austin. But what’s cool about your donation is matched by the site’s corporate sponsor – and that part of the donation can go to one of 10 partner nonprofits. And the thank-you beneficiary gets to choose which one.

I spoke to Nancy Blaich of the Samaritan Counseling Center of Austin , founding beneficiary and lead nonprofit for the site, for a little more information.

Why this site now?
“I don’t think we say thank you enough. There are thousands of act of unselfishness that go unacknowledged, and we wanted to create a public forum for these thank-yous. We think that the stories of kindness and charity – all of our stories put together in one place have got tremendous power, the power to create a movement toward more kindness in the world, a cultural shift.”

How it started.
“In 2007, we gave our Ethics in Business Award to Tyrex Group. John Bosch, the principal an d co founder of Tyrex, at the same time he received this award from us, had some things occur in his personal life for which he received extraordinary acts of kindness. And he didn’t feel like thank you was enough. He wanted someplace public to tell the world what people had done for him. That inspiration combined with Samaritan Center honoring him inspired him to come to us as a business partner to develop this social media site.”

What you can do to help.
“Use the site, first of all. But also, help us spread the word! Take advantage of the Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, and other social media tools on the site to share it with friends.

“Our goal is to have 15,000 thank-yous. We also hope to take the site worldwide. Austin is just the first host city; our goal is to invite 500 other host cities, each with their own host nonprofit and then each of those sites will have their own nonprofit partners. We have 10 nonprofit partners… so if we can get thousands more nonprofits involved in this worldwide, that would be exciting.”
 
“We’re also looking for community reporters. These are people who will commit to finding five acts of kindness a week and reporting about them to us for the site and a future newsletter.” (If you’re interested in helping, contact Nancy at the Samaritan center.)

Check out RecognizeGood and let us know what you think.

Yesterday, I posted about Rio Grande’s Philanthropy Week, during which they’re donating 10% of bar sales during happy hour to a different nonprofit each day. You can see the details here.

Lots of local businesses contribute a portion of their sales to a local nonprofit from time to time. Why? Is there anything in it for them besides the potential for profit?

The fact is, it takes lots of planning and coordination with a local nonprofit – and probably an accountant – to make the whole thing work. So it can’t all just be about attracting customers. Plus, if you do use it to attract customers, the fact is you’re only going to attract a certain kind of customer – the kind that has a conscience. Most other restaurants don’t care if their customers have consciences or not; they kinda just want your business.

So it is special when a restaurant hosts a “philanthropy week,” like Rio Grande is doing this week. The thing is, restaurant owners are people, too. Duh. When they feel compelled to give back, they usually do so through their business, creating a win-win for the community: You get a nice drink, they get a little money, and a local charity gets a little money. Why not?

Here’s a real live restaurant owner – a person! – talking about why his restaurant, Rio Grande, is giving back.

The United Way’s Spring Day of Caring event always brings out the crowds, and the most recent on April 24 was no different. This time, though, it also brought out the mayoral candidates.

Candidates addressed the crowd of volunteers, encouraging them and mostly staying away from any campaign talk. It was nice to have their support. Brewster McCracken talked a bit about Austin’s great spirit of giving; JD Gins, who showed up for an ill Lee Leffingwell, made similar comments to the crowd; and Carole Strayhorn threw some energetic one-liners that sounded like they truly came from the heart. (I heard she stayed for the whole morning, working on a volunteer project.)

After the pep rally, we spoke to McCracken, Leffingwell, and Strayhorn, though an equipment malfunction totally ruined the interview with Carole. Sorry, Mrs. Strayhorn. (Thanks to the Leffingwell team, who let me borrow the rechargeable batteries from their own Flip.)

We chatted with them about volunteering and asked for their thoughts on how Austin could do philanthropy better. See the videos below.

A couple of things here intrigue me, mostly J.D.’s reference to a “Mayor’s Corp.” I wonder how this will turn out?

Thanks for the invitation, United Way. And thanks for letting me bring my son along. He took some … interesting photos. Might post those later.

More about Laurie Loew and her real estate agency that gives 25% of its commission to the charity of your choice in your name (still blows me away) in our next issue. In the meantime, enjoy this short interview by Christine Cox.

Check out more GivingCity videos on our YouTube channel.

The My Little Flower cupcake, available through May.

I don’t want to get into the endorsement business, but I have to share a story about a great experience I had with a local small business: Hill Country Cupcake.

In early February, my son Sam, 5,  volunteered with me at Marathon Kids. He woke up way too early for a Saturday morning so that we could get to the Burger Center, and in the strong winds and light drizzle, he helped me hand out medals and cheer the bigger kids on.  Afterwards, I had to hustle him to a playdate, but before that, as a treat, we walked to the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market in the Burger Center parking lot, and I bought him four of the loveliest cupcakes we’d ever seen. A couple were vegetarian and vegan (Hill Country Cupcakes make plain old regular non-veg cupcakes, too), which worked out great because the little brother of his playdate was allergic to eggs. So that was our volunteering/cupcake story for the week…

But then…

The next week, I wanted to celebrate my daughter’s  1-year-old birthday at her daycare with her friends. So my first thought is, of course, cupcakes. But the teachers in her class informed me that morning that one of the babies is a vegan. “Is this his personal choice?” I ask. “I mean, has the infant been given the opportunity to taste butter?”

Who am I to judge? Except now I need six vegan cupcakes by that afternoon. I like baking and all, but I don’t even know where to begin with a vegan cupcake. Then I remember: Those cupcakes in the parking lot…

After a little Googling, I find her: Hill Country Cupcake. She delivers the cupcakes just in time for the baby girl’s party, babies are stuffing their tiny little mouths with frosting and strawberries and cake… everyone’s happy.

I go ahead and gush to this woman, Katie Bycura, that she is a cupcake angel. I come to find out that, of course, she actually is an angel, having donated cupcakes or proceeds from cupcakes to a few really great causes.

“I know I’m a young business, and donating my time and cupcakes at this point is often a much larger cost than most in my position would take on, but Austin’s women, animal rescue, education, and health care causes are very much important to me,” she says. ”I am truly a blessed person and I am passionate about trying to do good for others not so fortunate.  Do what you love, love what you do.”

Here’s what Katie told me about the causes and projects she’s supported through her cupcakes.

1) Girls on the Run, an organization that caters to encouraging healthy behaviors (like exercise and smart food choices) and self esteem in elementary and middle school girls.  It is a cause especially close to my heart, as my older sister is on the board and an assistant running coach.  The girls are wonderful and I’ve served as a substitute assistant coach several times.  The program runs for the length of the semester and culminates in a 5K race the girls complete.  The girls last ran the Jingle Bell 5K – and I donated low fat cupcakes as a special treat after all participants successfully finished the course!  It was wonderful, and I’ll continue to donate cupcakes and volunteer as a sub when I can.
 
2) Zooma Womens Race Series, a womens-only half marathan and 5K scheduled for April 9, 2009. I will be donating 2500 cupcakes to this event – quite a challenge for my small, one-woman and volunteer help only business! I look forward to it, however, because, like Girls on the Run, it encourages women (young and old) to pursue a confident and healthy lifestyle.
 
3) Austin Pets Alive, a no-kill rescue group that takes animals off the euthanasia list at local shelters. I helped them with their Sweet Barks Honky Tonk fundraiser this past Valentine’s Day. It was a day-long event at Jo’s on S. Congress – I sold my cupcakes, and all proceeds went directly back to the cause.  The event raised a total of over $1,200 that day! 

4) Eanes Education Foundation, which helps fund additional educational opportunities for Eanes schools. As I grew up in Westlake, I know a lot of who I am today stems from the great education I received. I donated cupcakes to their annual silent auction and gala event this past February – it was a great success. Last year the EEF granted $995,000 to various causes, like more teacher positions and foreign language opportunities in grade schools throughout the district.
 
5) The Seton Fund, aimed at helping fund medical care at the area’s Seton hospitals. I’ve donated cupcakes to their silent auction fundraiser scheduled for this spring. As someone with a nursing and health care background, I realize the inadequacies of our national health care system. Our local health care system is no different. I became a volunteer at Sweet Charity, Seton’s volunteer-run gift shop at 26 Doors shopping center.  All proceeds from the shop go the Seton Fund.  Ever since learning about this cause, I have wanted to contribute however I can.
 
See? Isn’t she an angel? Sure, you could buy your cupcakes at HEB and call it good. But when you buy cupcakes from Hill Country Cupcakes, you’re not just supporting a local businesswoman, you’re helping her support our community.

In  GivingCity Issue #2, we interviewed three African-American social entrepreneurs to get their opinions on East Austin, gentrification, and being African American in Austin.

I was a little worried about running that interview. What worried me is that I had never heard anyone say these things before. Yes, I’m a little naive and ignorant about East Austin issues, so maybe none of it was news; but I also worried about things like fact-checking and getting the other side of their stories.

But then I figured … you know, we’ve heard the other side of their stories. I’m just going to give these guys some space and hear what they have to say. So I just had the interview transcribed and just got out of their way.

This is an excerpt from that story. To read the whole thing – and see some gorgeous portraits taken by Austin photographer (who still shoots film!) Owen Laracuente – download GC2.

Michael Lofton, Director of The African- American Men and Boys Harvest Foundation
Lofton is a community leader who has worked for many years on behalf of the African-American community in Austin, with a particular emphasis on education and mentoring.

What inspires me is the salvation of the kids. It bothers me to no end to see 56 percent of our kids dropping out. Because you have to realize that when you have 50 to 60 percent of the kids dropping out, and the stats are 6 out of 10 that don’t graduate will end up in jail, we as a community need to come together and address not only the community but address the educational systems and try and bring in whatever social service programs needed in order to turn the kids around.

Kids have lost hope in the educational system. Too often kids recognize the disparity in the disciplinary process. But that is what prompted us to start hosting the African-American Men and Boys Conferences, because we saw so much disparity in the disciplinary process in putting our kids in the juvenile system.

Now, you’ve got tons of kids that are coming out of high school with a criminal record already. And it’s sad that as big as Austin is, we only have 280 African- American males in the 12th grade right now, and how many of those are going to graduate?

So what I’m saying is the community is going to have to come together to talk to our young men, talk to our young ladies, and find out what the problem is, and give them those strategies to deal with things that they don’t have somebody at home to talk to them about.

Gator, Co-Founder of The Cipher
Gator is a hip hop and spoken word artist, community activist, and youth leader.

I’m a native of Austin, and I’ve stayed in East Austin and Northeast Austin all my life. I’m only 22, and I didn’t develop a conscience at about community until recently, you know. But I remember the Juneteenth festivals and how they used to be, and just seeing a lot of African-Americans come together; it was real positive back then. You had more adults involved in that process.

When you fast-forward to today, it’s just not what it used to be. I see the gentrification and the effect that it’s having on the people. A lot of youth, when they see it happening they don’t really know what’s going on and don’t realize that it’s going to have an effect on their lives.

But there are a lot of community organizations involved in educating the youth, for example Michael’s organization and our organization. We try to get Eastside kids involved, because they don’t feel like school is that important anymore.

On the other side of I-35 it’s totally different, and at those schools they have more to work with. In our schools, some of them, it’s different. Like Reagan, for example, that’s the school that I went to; I remember a time where Reagan was full of pride, and it was just the school to be at. And now it comes to a point to where it’s almost sad.

It’s like what Michael was saying about the dropout rate—they just don’t feel like school is that important anymore. You have to question that and why do they think that.

Harold McMillan, Founder/Director of DiverseArts Production Group
McMillan is a nonprofit producer of multidisciplinary art and culture projects and programs, and has been involved and active in Austin’s art and music community for the past 20 years.

The black community has to do a lot of that. And like I said, I hate to be cynical and jaded, but my area of interest and expertise is cultural history and cultural preservation, that piece of a community’s life. And I am heartbroken over what has happened on East 11th Street and what’s not happening on East 12th Street at Rosewood. And I fear that it just might be too late—it just might be gone.

As the population declines, as the African- American population inside the city of Austin declines and that money goes in this wave, two waves ago many of the foundation bedrock families of central East Austin that actually do and did have money, they moved out, too.

Part of my disappointment is that many of those people that really do or I think should have an emotional stake in the community took their money with them, too. We can blame the gentry for coming in and developing on East 11th Street. But we can also blame moneyed black folks whose families grew up in that neighborhood who walked away a long time ago and never brought their money back. You know, that’s really disappointing to me.

Langston Hughes has a poem that has a line in it: “Lord have mercy, they done stole my blues.” Sometimes you give your blues away. And I am disheartened by the high rate that people are cashing out and just getting out of the community. It will never be the same, we know that—we can’t stop progress. But there’s a legacy of a rich culture there that’s being trampled on right there that hurts me.

Austin’s a great town for volunteers. In fact, we’re ranked among the top five cities for rate of volunteerism. Unfortunately, we still have a ways to go before hitting the top five list for rate of donations. Why are we so great at volunteering but not so great at donating locally?

Lots of people think it’s because we have such a young population. Young professionals, for example, may not have the means to make large donations, but they do show their commitment to the community through volunteerism. So it’s obvious we have a whole generation of caring, committed young people who will help build a culture of philanthropy in Austin. Now we just have to support, encourage, and recognize them.

In fact, we want to recognize a few of these young philanthropists in our next issue. We’re looking for people under 40-ish (no birthday deadline) who are going to become philanthropy leaders over the next few decades. Are you one of these people? Do you know someone who is?

Please send us their name, a little background like a Facebook or LinkedIn page, and some contact information by February 20. We’d like to invite them to a photo shoot later this month, and share their work with our readers.

Feel free to write me with any questions. Thanks for your help.

Monica

monica@givingcity.com