Can You Help?

Let me get straight to the point.

A few weeks ago, I was invited by the presiding bishopric of our church via LDS Philantropies to come to Utah to learn about a new initiative our church is starting to help single parents get an education.

The meeting was amazing, attended by wonderful, vibrant female bloggers...

(See how much fun we had?)

...and the guest speaker was a single mom with a moving, inspiring story. Here, let me have her tell it....

(To hear the video, click the little speaker at the top right.)

I met Megan personally. See?...

(I think that blazer makes me look fatter.)

In fact, I got to sit right across from her at our table where we ate lunch together. I fell in love with her right away, and could see the light in her eyes as she told us the details of her story, one beginning with loss and despair, but ending in brightness and hope as she shared that she had just recently secured an internship in her field of study.

Here are a few statistics explaining why our church is focusing on helping single mothers get an education....

• 28 percent of children now live with just one parent.

• 40% of children under 18 experience a parental breakup.

• 90% of single parent families are headed by females.

• Single moms with children have the highest poverty rates.

• 60% of children living in mother-only families are impoverished.

• Single moms are more likely to be poor because of lower earning capacity.

• Single moms median income is only about 25% what a married couple make.

Students who receive scholarships use this money to pay for tuition, books and other fees. 100% of donations go towards these scholarships.

So here's how you can help. Click the "GIVE" button on the above widget and donate via Paypal or credit card. Even just a little bit helps. A lot helps even more.

If giving isn't possible for you at this time, click the "SHARE" button and spread the word on Facebook, Twitter or even on your blog, by setting up the sidebar widget using the "EMBED" option.

All of us seek to do good because we know that experiencing happiness in our lives steams from serving others. Please do help if you can, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this initiative.

For more information about this project, please go HERE.

Also, in the next post, I'm going to tell you how amazing it was for me to travel with no diapers in my purse, or wet wipes or crackers. I had the time of my life.

Thanks for listening!