Giving Back

As travelers, we all feel touched by the kindness of strangers at some time on our journeys. I also feel immensely grateful for the free time and economic ability to travel the world.

It is so easy to "give back" along the way, through volunteer work or donations from home. I've taken school supplies to Cambodia and Burma, carried clothes for Nepalese orphans, and donated to very worthy non-profits like NYF and Kiva. We'd love to hear your stories of "giving back" so we may share some of them with others.

My great-aunt gave me this advice before I traveled alone around the world: "Give the best you have to the world, and the best will come back to you." May we all find our own way to give.

-Marybeth

Bond Girls Bike America

Mother’s Day 2010 found me and my daughter JC on a grand adventure for a good cause: biking across America to raise funds and awareness to help fight osteoporosis, which runs in our family and affects millions of American women. Daughter Annalyse trained with us and was along for part of the ride, and goddaughter (….Read more)

Saving Girls From Slavery in Nepal

Olga  Murray spends half her time in  Sausalito and the other half in Kathmandu, where she works to buy girls out of bondage in a rural farming district in southern Nepal. Poverty forces families to sell their daughters, as young as 7 years old, as domestic slaves or worse. She learned about the practice of (….Read more)

Grass Roots Philanthropy. Biked 3,115 miles Across America for Charity and Challenge.

No stilettos. No shopping… just pedaling to promote strong bones for life!    www.bondgirlsbikeamerica.com The Bond Girl Team, composed of Marybeth, her 22-year-old daughter and a friend, biked 3,114 miles from the Pacific to the Atlantic and raised $52,000 for the National Osteoporosis Foundation for research and education. Their all-female campaign brought awareness to the (….Read more)

Giving Back

A rewarding aspect of travel is learning about organizations around the world that help the people and places we visit, and giving back to them to support their causes. Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF) The Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation, founded by Olga Murray, is a nonprofit organization based in Sausalito, California that provides education, health (….Read more)

Who Gives Away TWO TONS of GOURMET FOOD Every Week in San Francisco?

The leftovers from Tante Marie’s cooking class are donated to Food Runners serving the hungry in San Francisco www.foodrunners.org Meet Cooking Teacher and Humanitarian of the Year Today  at Tante Marie’s Cooking School I met an extraordinary woman and culinary entrepreneur.  Mary Risley, the fun-loving and focused founder of Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San (….Read more)