Give a gift. Change a life – World Vision Gifts Giveaway (CLOSED)

When I was a little girl, I have many memories of my Mom giving various reasons for why I had to eat every bit of food off my plate. She would either say that “The number of grains of rice left is the number of scars or husband will have on his face” (EEK!) or she would try to guilt trip me with the ever popular “Do you know how many hungry kids there are who would love to have your food?” Clearly these strategies worked most of the time because there’s only one embarrassing story of my falling asleep at the dinner table and waking up with spinach all over my face. Many people joke about the “starving kids” now, and I know that I used to come up with some smart-alecky responses back like “Well they aren’t here now!” or “Why don’t you mail it to them?” (Please forgive me! I was a young kid then and wasn’t always wise with words.) But jokes aside, that doesn’t change the fact that there are countries and people who could use our help.

World Vision, a Christian humanitarian charity organization that is trying to address the causes of poverty, has just launched a World Vision Gift Catalog, giving all of us legitimate opportunities to help people in need. I know that I’ve heard stories about people questioning some of the fund-raising efforts for different organizations, wondering if the money collected is in fact helping the causes advertised. World Vision has posted their complete annual financial statement, which shows that 87% of the funds collect are going directly to their charitable programs.

The World Vision Gift Catalog is a wonderful way to change the lives of others in honor of your gift recipient. The catalog has 35 pages of gift-giving options that can be as little as just $16, which will help proved 2 soccer or basketballs for a child or $25, which provides 2 chickens that can grow to continue providing children with eggs. The concept of the World Vision Gift Catalog is simple. Instead of giving someone an item that they might use for awhile but then get moved to a closet or storage, give a gift which would continue to help people who need it, in honor of their name. It’s similar to when I donated to a fund-raiser in memory of my grandmother.

To give a gift in honor of your gift recipient, first determine how much you were thinking of spending to purchase a “regular” gift. Next, flip through the World Vision Gift Catalog or view it online at donate.worldvision.org to find a charitable git of that amount. There are plenty of options, many of which are animals or shares of animals so that the gift will continue to provide for the people who receive it.  There are also gift choices that help with clean water, health, and education. You can gift US gifts as well, by purchasing a gift for school supplies or household necessities for kids in America. Once you’ve selected the gift, you will be able to select a free card that will ship with your order. This card will tell your honoree exactly what gift was given and how people’s lives are being changed in their name.

One thing that I noticed while browsing the catalog, is how World Vision is showing the joy and happiness that you can bring to people’s lives through their gifts. There aren’t any sad puppies behind bars that make you want to cry. This isn’t an attempt to guilt you to action as much as inspiration. They are showing the smiles that you can bring to people’s lives through your $25 gift.

In honor of their new World Vision Gift Catalog launch, World Vision is offering a 20″ hand-crafted Thai necklace in the WCatDD World Vision Gift Giveaway!

The Prize:

One winner will receive a Handcrafted Thai necklace, hand-beaded with wooden beads.

To Enter:

Make sure you follow the directions carefully. All giveaway entries should use the ENTRY FORM. You only need to fill out the ENTRY FORM once, unless you decide to additional earn extra entries at a later time. You can earn up to 27 entries into the WCatDD World Vision Gift Giveaway by doing one, some or all of the following:

Ways to Earn Entries:

Make sure you use this ENTRY FORM for your entries to count!

1. THIS ENTRY IS REQUIRED FOR ALL OTHER ENTRIES TO BE VALID (+1): Browse the World Vision Gift Catalog and tell me which gift you would give.
2. Become a fan of The True Spirit of Christmas on Facebook (+2)
3. Follow The Spirit of Christmas Tour on Twitter (+2)
4. Donate a gift from the World Vision Gift Catalog (+10)
5. Post this giveaway on your blog (+3)
6. Tweet about this giveaway using the “retweet” link at the top of this post or by tweeting “Give a gift. Change a life. Check out the True Spirit of Christmas with the @WCatDD World Vision Gifts Giveaway! http://bit.ly/8c6Kff” (+1)
7. Subscribe to WCatDD (+1)
8. Follow WCatDD on Twitter (+1)
9. Fan our WCatDD Facebook Page (+1)
10. Follow us on Google Friend Connect (+1)
11. Add the WCatDD button to Your Site (+2)
12. Vote for us in the Divine Caroline Love! This Site Awards – Note: Only available until 12/4/09. (+2)

The Rules:

One winner will be selected at random for this prize.

Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST, December 6, 2009.

Visit our Giveaway Rules page for general giveaway rules that also apply to this giveaway.

Disclaimer: No compensation was given for this review/giveaway. I did receive a World Vision Gift Catalog to look at for the purpose of writing this review. This did not influence my opinions.