ASPCA: The American Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals is a well-known nonprofit organization that helps save neglected animals from abusive homes, offering medical services, food, shelter, and much needed love to a truly vulnerable population. The ASPCA also helps match these deserving animals with families who will love and care for these poor, mistreated creatures. Animals do nothing to provoke man's cruelty and yet, they are the ones who suffer from it most. With no ability to defend themselves, communicate to others, or leave the situation, animals--more than anyone else on the planet--need our help. Please visit the website to learn more, donate and volunteer:

http://www.aspca.org

4-H Camp Bristol Hills Campership Fund: Camp 4-H Bristol Hills, part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension, provides one-week overnight and daytime camping experiences to children and teens, ages 7-16 in Bristol, New York. The camp helps teach kids about environmental responsibility, recycling and sustainability through a variety of fun and engaging activities within a wooded, mountain setting. The camp features a fishing pond, archery range, pottery facilities, olympic-sized lap pool, and a number of designated nature trails and camp-sites for orienteering, astronomy, hiking, canoeing, and kayaking. There are also rocketry classes and a variety of other fun, educational learning experiences for young people of all ages. The Campership Fund helps deserving children from low-income families go to camp for 1-2 weeks each summer; in 2011, 57 children benefited from the Campership Fund. In 2012, 4-H Camp Bristol Hills will have a full week designated to improving the lives of children with Autism.

Rebecca Housel served on the 4-H Camp Bristol Hills Committee for five years and continues to support this wonderful camp's efforts to improve the quality of children's lives through accessible education and empowerment, building strong connections to our natural world. To learn more and/or donate, and, volunteer, please visit the website:

http://www.4-hcampbristolhills.org/donate.html

Cape Abilities is a nonprofit organization located on Cape Cod that helps provide activities, jobs, homes, and transportation to people with disabilities. The Cape Abilities farm gives people with all levels of disability the opportunity to grow fresh, organic produce, care for farm animals, learn to bee-keep, and then use those skills to benefit the larger Cape-community. This organization provides important social connections and services to a largely forgotten portion of the American population, including educational opportunities, independent living, and empowering the socially vulnerable through remarkable efforts that greatly improve both the quality and quantity of life for those with disabilities. 

Rebecca lived on the South Shore for 15 years, visiting Cape Cod beaches every summer as a teen. Rebecca also became physically-disabled at age 30 after removal of a malignant brain tumor caused permanent impairments to her mobility. Dr. Housel has been an avid supporter of Cape Abilities since 2008. To learn more and/or donate, and, volunteer, please visit the Cape Abilities website:

http://www.capeabilities.org/ 

Children Awaiting Parents (CAP): CAP is the only nonprofit organization in the United States that helps older/teen children, children with siblings, and children with disabilities who have been forgotten in the foster-system for far-too long find "Forever Families." Hilary Swank and her production company, responsible for the film, The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock, supported CAP at a Hollywood benefit in February 2011. But you don't need free drinks and swag-bags to learn more, volunteer, donate, and/or, consider adopting these amazing young people. Just simply check out their website:

http://www.capbook.org

Housel donated 10% of her 2010 book proceeds to the CAP Holiday gift drive; she also donated consulting services in 2011 to help CAP fundraising  goals.
Soles4Souls is an American nonprofit that donated more than 11-million pairs of shoes to people in need all over the globe. After many of the recent natural disasters in places like Chile, Japan, Haiti, China, and of course, states like Alabama and Mississippi hit with devastating hurricanes, Soles4Souls is often first on the scene with not only replacement shoes for people who have lost everything, but clothing, bedding, and emergency supplies. In 2012, Sole4Souls has promised to raise 12-million pairs of shoes for people in need. 

2011 marked a milestone birthday for Rebecca Housel as well as Housel's 20th anniversary as a cancer survivor; in an effort to give back by helping people in need move forward, Dr. Housel held a shoe-drive and benefit for Soles4Souls. To learn more about the organization, please visit:

http://www.Soles4Souls.org

Wikipedia: The concept by founder, Jimmy Wales, was to provide a "living library" like a "public park" of all human knowledge, making a truly universal, global community of minds for anyone to access anytime, and, at no cost. There are no advertisers on Wikipedia. This collection of all the human knowledge on planet Earth exists solely by donation and volunteer efforts. Wikipedia is a nonprofit organization, empowering through accessible, free, education to all and in almost every language. It's an immense undertaking that has to be admired. To learn more and/or donate, or, volunteer, please visit the website below:

https://wikimediafoundation.org

Thank you for your support of Rebecca Housel and her books. In 2011, Rebecca donated 25% of her book proceeds to the above organizations, as well as several others. Repairing the world isn't just an empty philosophy to Housel, it's a way of life. Everytime you read something written or edited by Rebecca Housel, you're helping to repair the world, too. Even a single grain of rice can tip the scales...let's keep that momentum going in 2012!