Speakers at conferences and events are often thanked with bottles of wine (even if they don’t drink…) or garden seedlings (even if they don’t have gardens…).
It’s true it’s the thought that counts, but we thought there had to be a better way! So we created Good Gift Cards, which are a way to say ‘thank you’, with meaning, and without giving people stuff they don’t really want or need.
Instead of receiving ‘stuff’ for themselves, recipients can use their Good Gift Cards to make donations to charities they care about — so they can share the gift of giving.
When we recently launched Good Gift Cards, we thought they would make perfect gifts for conferences and events — for special guests who really don’t need more bottles of wine, seedlings, or other traditional conference gifts.
And the Perspectives on Charity Law, Accounting and Regulation in New Zealand Conference, held in Wellington in April, was the first big NZ conference to give Good Gift Cards to all of its speakers.
As part of their speaker ‘thank you packs’, all 45 speakers received $20 Good Gift Cards, which they can use to make donations to charities of their choice. (That’s $900 of goodness!)
The conference speakers were mainly accountants, lawyers and regulators, and many also wear other hats as charity board members, supporters and volunteers.
Conference committee member Sara O’Hara, of Chartered Accountants ANZ, said it “made good sense” to give Good Gift Cards to the 45 conference speakers.
“All of the speakers gave their time free of charge to come and speak and we wanted to thank them in some way,” Sara said. “The conference was mostly about charities, we had a lot of charities attend, and we wanted to tie in giving back to them.”
And since the conference, the speakers have been steadily redeeming their Good Gift Cards at The Good Registry, for a wide range of charities including Big Buddy, Wellington Free Ambulance, Garden to Table, and Kaibosh Food Rescue.
On behalf of The Good Registry, and our charities, thank you to the 12-member organising committee of the Perspectives on Charity Law, Accounting and Regulation in New Zealand Conference, to everyone who attended, and especially to their 45 presenters who are paying forward the giving. Thanks for being part of the giving revolution with us!
Two ferries, one plane and three trains (one that boarded a ferry itself), were my modes of transportation these past two weeks. Since Natalie left Helsinki, I have been traveling solo. In the past two weeks I explored a part of the world I only imagined, and now it seems my dreams have come true. I’ve seen Finland, Sweden, Denmark and now I’m in Amsterdam!
When I arrive in Stockholm I celebrate Midsummer, a holiday second only to Christmas. I find myself at Skansen, an open air museum in the center of the city with thousands of other locals and visitors. It is an amusement park with cultural history along with an aquarium, zoo and so much more.
I even tried some local protein, elk. It was pretty good. And don’t you love the wreath I made myself!
The beauty is amazing and I am loving the weather. The average temperature has ranged from the high 50’s to the mid 70’s. There might have been one day in the 80’s in Stockholm and I was warned to be careful with how hot it would be, ha ha. I received reports from my family in Alabama that temperatures have reached 100 degrees already. I have to say I am pretty happy where I am right now. That’s not to say that there is not a rainy day or two, but those days are perfect for visiting a museum or reading a book.
If you asked me one year ago, let alone six months ago if I would travel abroad by myself I would have said “I would love to think that I could, but I don’t think I would.” Well, that has all changed in the past month. Part of the appeal to being part of The Great Enlivening was that I would be with two other people, two amazing women with a sense of adventure and the means to take time off from life to explore the world. Though we had not been through all the same life experiences, we all felt a need for something new and different.
Both Rachel and Natalie took this time as a source for healing, but for me, I believe it has been a way to break out of my shell. There have been so many firsts on this trip, the biggest by far is spending almost a month traveling around Europe solo. I left all the stability of a good job with benefits and a family that loves and supports me for – uncertainty. But with that uncertainty comes the chance for growth that I think I needed for a long time. I believe that I have grown up these last four months. I was pushed from my comfort zone and put myself in situations that I am not always comfortable with.
I love getting out and experiencing this amazing world that we live in, but usually I have someone with me. My sister or brother are the usual suspects who accompany me. Now I have taken day excursions alone on trips or flown solo to visit friends in different cities, but never a weekend let alone 4 weeks without knowing a single soul.
So I have had to put my smile to good use and meet people, strike up conversations with random strangers, like in a line at the Rijksmusuem in Amsterdam that lasted about two hours. It was worth it to see two Rembrandt paintings that have not been seen in public since 1956. Also I got into the museum for free since it was opening day, hence the queue.
Or trying to figure out the quirks of an electric stove at the hostel in Copenhagen. I have learned that backpackers are some of the friendliest travelers, always willing to lend a hand or tell you the tricks and quirks of kitchen appliances. Who knew a morning tutorial would lead to an evening at a Biergarten with a fellow American and an Aussie.
I have had my days when I miss Rachel and Natalie. I pass a cafe and imagine the three of us sitting outside enjoying a glass of wine and sharing our thoughts on our day or our experiences in the past. But I know that their departures and my decision to stay are no coincidence. I truly believe that God was preparing me for this adventure by myself. I don’t think I would have had the confidence to travel alone from the start. I am also reassured by the amount of people I have met throughout this journey who are traveling alone as well. There is a certain amount of freedom that you are allowed because of it.
My journey is not finished yet and I know I still have more to learn. But I do know that I have grown through this Great Enlivinging. I am stronger than I think and can do much more than I ever imagined. I know that these are facts that I must take with me on my next adventure in life. What am I going to do when I get back to the States? But luckily I am not quite there yet, I still have a little time to see the world and find out more about myself.
Katy! Great job of taking that leap of faith…there are no accidents as we focus on Him and obey what He desires for each of us!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and adventures, even though you are flying solo…there is always One closer to us than a brother! 🙂
Love this update and hearing about your travels! I miss you and love you and look forward to seeing you in less than 2 weeks!!! 🙂
Good for you, Katy! Thank you for the update. What special memories you are making. God bless and direct your steps!
I love your stories and I am impressed by your adventurousness. I would love to see some of the places. I was in Vienna for several days in February and saw the same sights you did. I was there to unearth a famous race car that I had been chasing for over 25 years. Success! It is now here in Asheville awaiting restoration.
The Ukrainian government has released recordings of alleged phone calls between pro-Russian separatists discussing the fate of Malaysian Flight MH17’s black boxes.
Ukrainian security officials released the tapes on Sunday, claiming that they proved Russia had directed the separatists to find and hide the black boxes.
The call is between Alexander Khodakovsky, leader of the Vostok (East) battalion of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine and one of his men (“Oleksiy”) at the crash site. You can listen to the conversations below:
“Do it really quick, urgently. Moscow is asking where the boxes are… [they] must be under our control”.
In a second call less than an hour later, Khodakovsky talks to another man at the crash site (“Andriy”), telling him,
“I have a request for you. It is not my request. Our friends from high above are very much interested in the fate of the black boxes. I mean people from Moscow.”
Around the time that the recordings were released, Reuters released footage of what appears to be the black boxes being removed from the crash site by the separatists:
Earlier this morning, the news service Interfax reported that rebel Russian separatists in Ukraine had handed over the black boxes to Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee.
Andrei Purgin is the self-proclaimed deputy prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist government in the rebel-held city of Donetsk. Purgin told Interfax:
“Of course, we most likely will give them [the black boxes] to the Interstate Aviation Committee, to Moscow. High-level experts, who will be able to determine exactly the reason of the catastrophe, work there.”
So it seems that the black boxes are on their way to Moscow, if they’re not there already. This will definitely raise a lot more suspicion about Russia’s involvement in the MH17 tragedy.
But, for the sake of objectivity, it is definitely worth noting that these tapes have not been independently verified yet, and are being released by the Ukrainian government, who has every reason in the world to want Russia to be responsible for the tragedy.
That doesn’t mean I believe the tapes are fabricated- it’s just a reminder to tread carefully when trying to make sense of such a complex issue.
Has bocce ball ever been an Olympic sport? Maybe it should be! It started with the ancient Greeks, and came to southern Italy with them, where it has stuck fast. The French adopted it as boules–and could bocce be the distant ancestor of the bowling alley across town?
The Italian tradition of bocce is kept alive in St. Louis. Milo’s Bocce Garden is a tavern in The Hill, the Little Italy of St. Louis, which bills itself as the “sports center of The Hill” in neon lights. Milo’s installed bocce courts in the 1980s and maintains an active tournament schedule. But bocce was alive and well on the Hill long before that, as the following video reveals.
Four million Italians immigrated to America between 1880 and 1920, creating little pockets of Italian culture, neighborhoods all over the USA known as “Little Italy”. I visited one such neighborhood in January, and here are some photos from “The Hill” in St. Louis.
If you are longing for a blast of Italian culture, food, and style in the midwest, check out The Hill.
Posted in Travel, Uncategorized	| Tagged immigration, little italy, St. Louis, The Hill, travel | Leave a comment
My daughter and her husband moved to St. Louis, Missouri in early January, and three weeks later, we visited them, eager to see “The Hill”, St. Louis’ Little Italy. They took us out to dinner at Gian-Tony’s Ristorante, where I had my first taste of Ravioli Tostati.
This deep-fried ravioli is a tradition of St. Louis–but perhaps somewhere in Italy too, the cook accidentally knocked a raviolo into hot oil instead of water, inventing a crispy appetizer. I was told that several chefs on The Hill have claimed that fortunate mistake, sometime in the 1930s or ’40s. The popular dish is available in many parts of the Mid-west now, and some East Coast restaurants too.
So we enjoyed a plate of Ravioli Tostati before our dinner at Gian-Tony’s, dipping the crunchy squares in marinara sauce as we visited. I have to say, the cooks of St. Louis are on to something! Since coming home, I’ve looked for recipes, and am sharing links to a couple of them with you. Here’s a fast-food version from All-Recipes website. Charlie Gitto’s, one of the restaurants that claims the invention, provided this recipe on the Food Network website.