AmeriCares – The Goods

Americares: Responding to Hurricane Devastation

August 31, 2017

UPDATE 9/25/2017: Americares emergency teams have been deployed to Puerto Rico and Dominica in the Caribbean. The organization has been working with the Puerto Rico Department of Health to stock emergency shelters in San Juan with medical equipment and supplies. As of last week, Americares has provided $9 million in medicines, supplies, and other assistance to more than 50 partners in Texas, Florida, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and St. Martin to help survivors of the recent storms.

UPDATE 9/19/2017: Earlier this week, Americares airlifted $1.8 million in critical medicines and medical supplies for Hurricane Irma survivors throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hurricane Maria, now a Category 5 storm, is predicted to plow through the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico starting this evening. Visit americares.org for more updates on emergency response efforts for those caught in this hurricane season’s devastating paths.

UPDATE 9/11/2017: Americares has deployed emergency response experts to assist in relief efforts for communities in the path of Hurricane Irma. Before it reached Florida over the weekend, Hurricane Irma killed more than 25 people in the Caribbean and devastated several islands, including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Barts, St. Martin and St. Thomas. Click here to learn more about Americares response to Hurricane Irma.

The Uncommon Life

Better to Give Update

August 8, 2011

Every three months, we get to write checks to our favorite non-profits. We base the size of those checks on you– which charities you vote for every time you make a purchase from our site.

So here’s what these great non-profits have been doing to make the world a better place.

AmeriCares

It’s been a rough year– from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami to the current drought and famine in Somalia. But that hasn’t slowed AmeriCares down one bit.

Your votes at checkout have helped us send $4,500 in the last three months to help AmeriCares deliver critical medical supplies to people in urgent need around the globe.

American Forests

American Forests joined our program in 2010. For every $1 we donate, they plant a tree. And with your votes, they planted more than 4,400 trees in the last 3 months.

Here are a few projects they’re working on right now.

Ecosystem Restoration in Los Padres National Forest, California
Trees: 224,000
A large-scale project to replant 14,000 acres, to include a sanctuary for the endangered California condor. All but eight percent of this national forest has been deforested by wildfires and other factors.

2011 Red Mountain Restoration, Idaho
Trees: 86,000
Replanting areas of the Boise National Forest to reduce erosion, improve water quality, and support habitats for local wildlife species like the lynx, boreal owl, northern goshawk, and northern three-toed woodpeckers.

Forest For Monarchs, Mexico
Trees: 200,000
A long term initiative that has already planted five million trees in the last four years, this year’s project works to restore 687 acres of the oyamel fir forests that make up the monarch butterfly’s wintering grounds, and will train local residents in sustainable forestry management.

Check out American Forests for more info on how you can get involved.

City Harvest

Using a fleet of 18 trucks and 3 cargo bikes, City Harvest will rescue more than 30 million pounds of food this year, helping to feed more than 300,000 men, women and children each week. At a cost of just 27 cents to rescue and deliver a pound of food, every dollar donated provides nearly four pounds of good food for hungry New Yorkers.

In May, our company helped out with City Harvest’s largest one day fundraiser, Skip Lunch Fight Hunger, where fundraising teams and individuals throughout New York City donated what they would normally spend on lunch to raise nearly $500,000. Those funds will help feed almost 24,000 children and their families throughout the summer months.

RAINN

RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, runs a national hotline to help people in crisis. You voted RAINN into our Better to Give program last fall, and voted to donate $4,500 to support their work over the past 3 months.

The hardworking folks at RAINN just told us, “Last month, July 2011, RAINN helped 12,659 survivors of sexual violence through our hotlines. It was the highest number of people we’ve helped in one month in more than 8 years.”

All these organizations run with the support of people like you, so thanks for your votes! Got a cause you’d like to see us support? Leave a comment to suggest a non-profit doing great work in your community.

The Uncommon Life

Coming Together Across Continents

April 4, 2011

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that shook Miyagi, Japan on March 11, members of the UncommonGoods family are reaching out to lend support to the families of nearly 11,000 who lost their lives and the hundreds of thousands who were left injured and homeless by the massive quake and the subsequent tsunami, which struck Japan’s eastern coastline.

AmeriCares, our Better to Give partner, is working to help those affected by this catastrophic natural disaster. Within hours of these events, AmeriCares began sending relief workers, organizing donations and contacting doctors to provide aid.

“Working with a local partner, AmeriCares distributed hundreds of cases of hygiene items—including soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and paste, diapers, baby wipes and bottled water—to shelters in the hard-hit cities of Iwanuma, Watari and Yamamoto in northeast Japan,” their online newsletter explains.

With thousands of individuals and families displaced, and more than 16,000 people still missing, AmeriCares continues to provide support to those in need.