Adventure Kids Give To Charity

My youngest daughter and I belong to an informal group called "Adventure Kids and Dads". There are about thirty dads from our neighborhood who take their young sons and daughters camping one weekend each month. It is always a lot of fun, and a wonderful way to teach the kids that life is not only about TV and playing on the Wii. (Although I will admit when my older kid goes she and some of the other older kids do play games on their dad's iPhones while eating smore's around the campfire). We really like this group, and since I am not the most "out-doorsy" kinda guy.... it makes us go set up a tent and live off the land (ok, we live off gourmet food cooked on state-of-the-art camping utensils, but you get the idea)

December and January are a bit cold in Texas (it could be below 50 degrees!), so we do not camp in these months. In December the kids collect can goods (and go to the store to buy food) to donate to the Capital Area Food Bank... and in January we gather to pick up trash in our neighborhood park and soccer fields. Both activities allow the kids to get together, while our hope is that they will grow up always used to finding ways to give back to their community.

This year we donated 959 lbs of food which translates to about 767 meals to help those who are hungry. Each of the four tribes compete to see who brings the most food. I suspect the competitive level of the dads will fire up next year and we will see higher numbers!

Have A Great Day.

thom