There’s never a bad time to clear the clut­ter out of your home or garage or to do a wardrobe purge.  When you donate your stuff to Good­will, the rev­enue from the sale of your dona­tions helps fund job train­ing and place­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties and dis­ad­van­tages directly in your com­mu­nity. That’s clean­ing with a purpose.

Good­will in cur­rently run­ning the “Donate Stuff. Cre­ate Jobs” cam­paign. Thanks to the pro­grams and sup­port ser­vices made pos­si­ble by dona­tions of clothes and house­hold items, more than 261,000 peo­ple earned jobs in 2013 – that’s one per­son find­ing a job every 27 sec­onds of every busi­ness day. So you’re lit­er­ally donat­ing your stuff AND help­ing to cre­ate jobs.

Check out this quick PSA:

Check out some other videos on how you can help here;

• Job Training & Employment- Bike (30 seconds)
• Job Training & Employment- Bike (60 seconds)
• Job Training & Employment- A Better Answer (60 seconds)

You can even cal­cu­late how much your donation helps your local com­mu­nity by using
 Goodwill’s Dona­tion Impact Cal­cu­la­tor. Sim­ply input the items you’re donat­ing to cal­cu­late the num­ber of hours of career coun­sel­ing, on-the-job train­ing, résumé prepa­ra­tion, finan­cial plan­ning classes, and other ser­vices you’ve helped pro­vide some­one fac­ing chal­lenges to find­ing employment.



Blog­gin’ Mamas is sup­port­ing the Ad Coun­cil in spread­ing the word about Good­will®, by spon­sor­ing this $100 Ama­zon Gift­card Give­away. It runs 5/19/15 12:01am EST through 6/2/15 at 11:59pm EST, and is open to US res­i­dents 18+.

ENTER BELOW!

This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Mazda Motorsports, National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS), U-Haul and the Ad Council announced the high school and college winners of their fourth annual Project Yellow Light college scholarship competition. <strong>Project Yellow Light is a national contest and scholarship program that calls on students to create short videos educating their peers on the dangers of using mobile devices while driving.

According to a 2013 NHTSA report, ten percent of all drivers aged 15-19 years old involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crashes. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted.  To further the reach and impact of the peer-generated content, NHTSA has partnered with the Ad Council to turn the winning videos into public service advertisements, which will be distributed to more than 1,600 media outlets nationwide.

"Distracted driving is deadly and young drivers are most at risk, so we need to make sure they get the message," said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind. "The Project Yellow Light contest, which uses peer-to-peer messaging, demonstrates how creative public awareness efforts can reduce distracted driving on our roads."

Established in 2007, Project Yellow Light was started by Julie Garner of The Martin Agency, in memory of her teenage son Hunter Garner who was killed in a fatal car crash. The annual competition aims to encourage young adults to be safe on the road, and generate education and engagement around this issue.

“We’re thrilled with this year’s contest; we had a record number of participants from all over the country,” said Julie Garner, Founder of Project Yellow Light. “All of the students produced top-notch films and are doing their part to save lives. I couldn’t be prouder of the youth and their effective efforts to stop distracted driving.”

Winners were selected from two age categories: high school juniors and seniors, and college students. The high school grand prize was awarded to Marlowe Lexvold of South Haven, Minnesota. The college grand prize was awarded to brothers Sam and Wrenn Senser from South Bend, Nebraska. The winning videos can be viewed below:

“Teaming up Project Yellow Light with our young Mazda racers has been a great match. The creativity of the students matched with the courage and conviction of our racers gives us two paths to share the message of the dangers of distracted driving. We’ve been very impressed with how Mazda racers like Ben Albano, Kenton Koch, Tristan Nunez, among many, have embraced this program. Their efforts are a clear example of Mazda’s Drive 4 Good efforts in the local, regional, and national marketplace” said John M. Doonam, Director of Mazda Motorsports Mazda North American Operations. Ben Albano, a Mazda racer, who started a karting event in his hometown that raised $4,500 for Project Yellow Light, was among the judges.“With almost 600 videos submitted this year, I was blown away by the incredible creativity and raw emotion that each of the finalists conveyed. Distracted driving is a growing epidemic in our country and it is reassuring to watch my generation through the PYL scholarship contest get that message out.”“Project Yellow Light empowers youth to create and share messages with each other about the consequences of distracted driving. Peer-to-peer education models are powerful and NOYS is proud to partner with Project Yellow Light as they mobilize youth to positively influence their peers,” said Anita Boles, Chief Executive Officer of NOYS. “Congratulations to all the talented creators who submitted videos for this competition,” said Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council. “Peer influence is such an important factor in changing minds around issues like distracted driving, and we hope that these authentic PSAs will resonate with young drivers across the country.” This year’s contest ran from October 31, 2014 through March 17, 2015 and received nearly 600 submissions. 

Buckling-up is an important habit to instill in children at a young age. Parents can lead by example by wearing a seat belt themselves and by insisting on seat belt use for every passenger in their vehicle. Seat belts and safety seats, if used correctly, dramatically reduce the risk of fatality or injury to children.