I love dogs. When I see a dog across the street or around the corner, I try to cross the street or take a shortcut so I can pet it and play with it. Nothing gives me the everything-will-be-okay feeling more than a wet nose, a big doggy grin, and a wagging tail.

I respect anyone who goes out of their way to help any animal in need, but the person taking that extra step for the pup everyone else overlooked just makes me feel happy about the world.

So, you can imagine the disgusting squeal of adoration my poor roommate had to endure when I stumbled on this article.

Katherine Hawkins is only eight years old. She’s not an especially social little girl, but she loooves dogs. And like any good little kid, she begged and pleaded until her parents eventually caved in. They decided to go the more dog-friendly route and rescue a dog – a Golden Retriever, specifically – from an organization called, unsurprisingly, Adopt-A-Golden.

The pup Katherine chose was Rocky. He was an 18-month-old ball of fluff, all wags and happiness. But there was a problem; Rocky had been injured in a car crash, and his leg had never healed right. Vet bills being outrageous, as they usually are, the organization needed to raise $2200 for Rocky’s surgery. Most other families would have passed Rocky by with that kind of price tag, but Katherine was in love. So she proceeded to something about it. A lot of something. Read More »

On my list of all-time most annoying things in the entire world, having long hair ranks right up there with people who purposely screech their fingernails on chalkboards and drivers who cut you off and then give you the finger.

I don’t mind long hair on other people (especially guys, ‘cuz that’s hot). I mind long hair on me. My hair is so unimaginably thick that any significant length just makes it fall flat and stick to my skull. I once tried to get a perm, but my hair was flat again within an hour. How screwed up is that?

Plus, I’m a low-maintenance kind of girl, and I just don’t have the patience for long hair. It takes forever to shampoo and condition, and brushing it in the morning takes 30 seconds that I could really spend doing something else (sadly, I’m serious).

So since about the age of 12, I’ve never had hair longer than shoulder-length. Too much work! I’ve known about Locks of Love for a while, but I just figured I’d never have hair long enough to be able to donate.

Locks of Love, for those of you not familiar with it, is a charity organization that uses hair donations to fashion cool hairpieces for children who are bald or losing their hair for a variety of medical reasons. It’s a great cause, and the kids really appreciate the hairpieces.

Unfortunately, you have to chop off at least 10 full inches of hair to donate. You can have layered hair with 10 inches being the length of the longest layer, but still, that’s a lot of hair.

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We always knew Reese Witherspoon was awesome, but now she’s proving it.

Reuters and the United Nations report that Reese is the driving force behind a partnership with Avon in a campaign to end violence and discrimination against women.

High-five, Reese!

To fund the campaign, Avon will soon be selling women’s empowerment bracelets online with all profits going toward the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Avon has pledged to match the first $500,000 the bracelets make, for a total donation of $1 million. Yowza. In a further move of awesome, the bracelets are actually affordable for most women (at $3 a pop).

Reese is the Avon Global Ambassador, which I think is basically a fancy title meaning that she’s one actress who actually walks the walk of helping people in need around the world. If the rest of Hollywood ripped a page out of Reese’s book, I can only imagine how much money and success charities would have.

As long as I’m on the topic of giving Reese Witherspoon high-fives, I’m going to give her another one for dating Jake Gyllenhaal. Talk about a good move!

Great judgment in ethics and in men: that’s our Reese.

Like most college-aged people, I’m pretty short on cash. I consider it an extravagant treat when I let myself go out for dinner (even if it’s just pizza), and I rarely buy clothes that weren’t bought by somebody else first.

Even though I’m “poor” compared to a lot of Americans, I realize I’m fabulously rich compared to most of the world’s people. So, every once in a while I try to help out others by donating a few dollars to charity.

I don’t donate as much as I should, and I’m working to get better at that. But for those of you who are strapped for cash like I am, two Web sites have made it really easy to donate without reaching for your credit card.

The Hunger Site is part of a group of six Web sites (the Breast Cancer, Child Health, Literacy, Rainforest, and Animal Rescue sites are the others) that rely on sponsor donations to help charities. If you click once daily on the big button on each site, sponsors will donate a small amount for all the causes on your behalf.  Cool, huh? Read More »

Everyone always talks about how difficult it is to find a gift for those people who just have everything. And no one understands that more than me.

One of my best friends from school was born into an extremely comfortable lifestyle. Like private jets and large yachts, comfortable. This girl has everything. Three of everything, in fact. So, holiday time is always quite a stressful time for me as I spend days racking my brain trying to figure out what to get her.

That is when I realized that maybe the best thing to get her is something that can benefit someone else. I mean, there are only so many perfumes/bracelets/vibrators/picture frames a girl can have. Why not take advantage of this season of giving and give to someone/something that really needs it? (Note: This only works with people who are not completely spoiled and selfish jerks).

I began doing some research and found some amazing ideas for gifts that keep on giving. Any one of these would be the perfect idea for those tough-to-buy-for people on your holiday gift list:

Plant a Tree: According to the Arbor Day Foundation, “over the course of 50 years, a single tree can generate $31,250 of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycle $37,500 worth of water, and control $31,500 worth of soil erosion.” Give the gift of trees this year and you (and your recipient) will be making great changes for our future generations. Read More »