Small Acts in the Spirit of the Season

A few gifting ideas and one plea for help.

LifeHacker offers tips on re-gifting (a valuable and effective skill when done right) and investigating the charities BEFORE they receive your well-intentioned donations, while BoingBoing discusses the conundrum of selecting the right gift before we all give up in favor of The Human Fund. Also from BoingBoing, check out Cory's well-considered (and generally admirable) list of worthy recipients for those donations.

From the "helping-the-extended-community" file:

J. Robbins (Government Issue, Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels) and his wife Janet Morgan¹s baby boy Cal was born with a serious genetic condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Though there is no cure for this condition, there are lots of treatments that promise to give Cal the best possible quality of life. Unfortunately, many of these, especially the alternative treatments, are not covered by health insurance.

J. and Janet have given so much over the years to the music community we're all a part of. Kim Coletta and Bill Barbot of DeSoto Records are hoping you can see in your hearts to help them out now.

They have set up a website with more information and a place to make a donation. All of the money will go straight to J. and Janet to help defray their growing medical bills.
http://www.desotorecords.com/cal/index.shtml

More (cheerier) holiday content coming soon...