This past week, 100 Girl Scouts in New York City and Los Angeles participated in Yahoo!’s Purple Acts of Kindness program. These girls were empowered to make a difference in the lives of girls and women around the world by designating $50 each to one of dozens of organizations in developing countries through Global Giving.  Girl Scouts were given the opportunity to address critical issues like youth trafficking, bonded servitude, legal defense, clean water, and support for victims of domestic violence. Check out some of their experiences below.

Troop 1350 in the Bronx

Girl Scout Seniors from the Bronx donated to several charities like one in India that teaches women to run their own businesses and another in Kenya that benefits female survivors of sex trafficking. Alessandra, who chose an organization supporting female South African refugees, said that the project helped her to “know the value of giving to ones truly in need.” Abby, Victoria, and Brianna donated money to provide affordable sanitary pads for 1,500 Ugandan girls, saying, “It was hard to think about girls missing necessary stuff like that.”

The Casa Esperanza After-School Site Program in Chatsworth, CA

Juniors and Cadettes at the Casa Esperanza Program in Chatsworth donated their money to support victims of domestic violence, building projects in developing nations, and leadership programs for vulnerable women and girls. Aurora, who gave money to train 300 destitute Kenyan girls for self-reliance, told her program leader that she “wanted to help [the girls] become more independent.” Cynthia chose to support children of domestic violence survivors simply “because they need to stop getting hit.”

Brooklyn, Troop 2696 & Inglewood, Troop 7045

The girls of Troop 2696 made a group decision and contributed their 10 gift cards totaling $500 to the Kenya Legal Defense Fund for Adolescent Girls to maximize their impact on a cause they were passionate about. The Troop 7045 Cadettes of Inglewood, California also pooled their funds to provide aid to save lives with clean water in an Indian village. Troop Leader Cynthia Herron was astounded by the project’s effect on the girls, saying, “They wanted to be a part of helping someone else’s survival. It’s not ME ME ME anymore. It’s THEY THEY THEY.”

From New York to Los Angeles, one thing remains constant – with the help of Yahoo!, Girl Scouts across the nation were given the opportunity to actively engage in helping others.  As Isabella of Eastern Los Angeles put it, “It’s a great thing that Yahoo! has allowed me to help other girls and a cause that I believe in.”

By Travis Reiman, Dean of Students at W.L. Henry Elementary School in Hillsboro, OR

Editor’s Note: Each month, Yahoo! for Good unleashes Purple Acts of Kindness to surprise and delight our local communities. In February, we brought extra cheer to classroom teachers in Hillsboro by delivering purple flowers and gift cards for Valentine’s Day arts and crafts projects. Here’s an account from their Dean of Students.

Last Thursday, the classroom teachers here at W.L. Henry Elementary School in Hillsboro, OR got a special surpise. As vases of beautiful purple flowers were delivered, there were plenty of smiles and lots of confused looks. Is my husband just trying to be sweet??? Did I finally win the lottery??? No one has ever sent me flowers before!!!

Everyone was shocked and excited when they discovered they were the beneficiaries of Yahoo!’s Purple Acts of Kindness Program. In addition to the bouquets, all 19 classroom teachers received $100  gift cards. The gift cards were meant to be used for the school’s Valentine’s Day celebrations so that students could have an extra special day.

This special gift was a great reward for all the hard work and effort W.L. Henry’s students put into learning this year. For the teachers, this opportunity to give their students an afternoon of special arts and crafts projects, candy, gifts, and fun put huge smiles on their faces. Thanks so much, Yahoo!.

How big is your ripple of happiness?

It doesn’t take a lot of money or time to make someone’s day.  Smiling at a stranger can be contagious.  Paying the toll fee for the car behind you may inspire them to pay it forward.  Picking up a $207 grocery bill at Trader Joe’s can turn into $23,000 in donations for the local food bank.

These heartwarming stories inspired us to launch Yahoo!’s “You In?” campaign this holiday season because we believe that one small act of kindness can create a ripple of generosity.

Help Yahoo! create a ripple of happiness around the world with random acts of kindness.  Update your online status (on Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter) to share what you’re doing to spread holiday joy at kindness.yahoo.com. Then encourage others to join you by asking “You in?”.  Yahoo! will use our network to share your good deeds with our community. We’ll also be doing our own acts of kindness inspired by your status updates.  Whether your act of kindness is buying someone’s groceries or getting warm coats to people in need, your actions will encourage others around the world to join in.

It’s your world. And it is what you make it.

How big will your ripple of happiness be?

You in?

–

Every week, Urban Sprouts’ Garden Educators visit seven different public middle and high schools in San Francisco, to teach students to build their own school gardens. Urban Sprouts helps youth grow their own fresh and healthy food right at school, while learning about healthy living, cooking, science skills, and protecting the environment.

Each day, when young people harvest potatoes they grew and turn them into French fries, or carefully weed around baby plants they grew from seed, these students change the way they feel about what foods they eat and what toxins their lifestyles contribute to our natural environment.

One major way students in San Francisco can keep the environment clean is by helping reach our city’s goal of recycling or composting 100% of the waste we produce, keeping it all out of landfills. Students in Urban Sprouts’ programs have said, “I learned how to use the compost bin and about how everything affects our earth. I want to make sure we reduce, reuse, and recycle,” and “I have already started to teach my family and friends.”

Now, San Francisco has passed a law requiring separation of compostable waste at home for curbside pick up, using kitchen pails and green garbage cans. Our friends at Yahoo! have generously funded our entire project to help students promote home composting among their peers and families.

Over 700 students at seven schools will participate, building complete compost education stations open to the public at their schools, and creating school-wide peer education campaigns to educate their schools on how to use their green garbage cans at home. Urban Sprouts students will build demonstration compost systems and worm bins, create short videos, and hand out kitchen pail liner bags as part of the campaign.

With help from Yahoo! and San Francisco’s youth, we can reach our city’s goal of Zero Waste!

Abby Jaramillo
Executive Director
Urban Sprouts

Nothing brings a concept home to a kid like a movie. That’s why during Earth Week, we sent the entire 4th and 5th grades at San Francisco’s McKinley Elementary School to a screening of the Disney documentary “Earth.” Part of our Purple Acts of Kindness program, which aims to surprise and delight our local communities with random acts of generosity, this field trip was designed to do one thing – transport children from their urban environment to various corners of our fragile planet.

Before boarding buses wearing Yahoo! hats, the students spent the morning studying the movie’s instructional materials and concepts like animal families, habitats, migration, and hibernation.

With its stunning cinematography, the film’s message is clear. According to the teachers, “After the movie, some students expressed their sadness about the cycle of life, especially when the polar bear had a very hard time walking on almost melted ice, the elephants couldn’t find water for weeks, and the whale almost got eaten by the shark.”

As you can see from the video below, McKinley Elementary kids are already conscious of how their actions impact the Earth, but you can bet that recycling and conservation by nine- and ten-year-olds got a little boost. And parents are probably getting schooled, too.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photo from wablao

Limousines arrived at Gertz-Ressler High School to pick up 10 teens. They were heading out for an evening of film and female empowerment, along with mentors from the Step Up Women’s Network. The girls couldn’t have been more excited and were certainly the envy of their peers! The girls thought the limousine would be the biggest surprise of the night – little did they know what was to come.

After a scrumptious dinner, we presented the girls with a Yahoo! backpack, and they couldn’t believe what was inside. Licetz, the girl I was paired with for the evening, was dancing in her seat when she saw the Flip video camera that was hers to keep and would empower her to make her own powerful voice be heard.

The evening culminated with a VIP screening of “A Powerful Noise,” a documentary presented by CARE about women changing the world. The girls were completely inspired by the strong role models in the film and felt they could also make a difference in their communities. There was a special buzz in the air the entire evening, as the Step Up girls knew they would also have the chance to make a video, capturing their reaction to “A Powerful Noise.”

The two featured videos below were created by Step Up girls who won an all-expense paid trip from Yahoo! to attend the CARE conference in Washington D.C. in May. This is sure to be a life-changing experience for them.

I’ve found it rewarding to volunteer for Step Up’s program for high school girls. It gives these teens an opportunity to be mentored by many professional women throughout their high school years as they prepare for the next step — college. As the first person in my family to receive a college degree, I know how important it is to these girls and their families that they go to college.

These girls don’t often have the opportunity to feel special and privileged, and I was so impressed with Yahoo! for giving them this wonderful, first-class experience.

Edie Lynn Ortenberg
President and CEO of The Hollis House
Volunteer for Step Up Women’s Network

At 11:30am, the delivery volunteers start to arrive and exclaims of “Flowers!” fill the room as they notice the purple flowers from our friends at Yahoo!. “Do we get to take these to the clients?” they ask, knowing how much this thoughtful gift will mean to our clients. Everyone we serve faces a life-threatening illness and most also face tremendous loneliness. Any gesture of thoughtfulness, of remembrance, is magnified for the people Project Angel Food serves.

Well into the afternoon, bags of nutritious meals are loaded into cars with purple flowers peaking out, chocolate tucked inside and a card with Happy Valentine’s Day wishes from Yahoo!. These gestures of kindness, of thoughtfulness, will be remembered for months to come –- and beautifully represent Project Angel Food’s motto of “for Life, for Love, for as long as it takes.”

Margaret Steele
Chief Executive Officer
Project Angel Food

So when Yahoo! offered to buy tickets for our families to ride the 24th annual Freedom Train as part of their Purple Acts of Kindness program, we were absolutely thrilled. Surprises like these are definitely a warm welcome. This San Francisco Bay Area tradition is an amazing opportunity to take part in celebrations honoring Dr. King’s legacy. And what better way to bring these lessons to life for our members?

Over 200 members from BGCP (kids ages 6-18 and their families) traveled on the Freedom Train for a ride from San Jose to San Francisco to join the Freedom March and Rally Celebration. This year’s theme, “The Realization of Hope,” was very appropriate as we mark Barack Obama’s inauguration as our first African-American president. This all-day march and rally was an incredible time of joyous celebration, quiet reflection and hopeful preparation for what lies ahead. When we boarded the train to head home, many of our young people left with a twinkle of excitement in their eyes, awed and inspired by the powerful messages from the day.

Dae’Von Bishop, a 13-year-old Club member, summed up his feelings when he wrote, “I think that Obama’s inauguration will open many doors for young black males like me because people will have higher expectations for us. I hope that as I move forward with my life I will be able to inspire the next generation the way he has inspired me.”

Thanks to Yahoo! for a remarkable day of inspiration!

Amy Liebert
Development Associate
Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula

OK, so there was no actual football, but getting to build bikes for low-income children with members of the San Francisco 49ers was just as cool. As part of Yahoo!’s Purple Acts of Kindness, a monthly program that surprises and delights our local community with random acts of generosity, a group of Yahoos teamed together with the 49ers and TurningWheels for Kids this week to help build 49 bikes for boys and 49 bikes for girls. The bikes will be given to underprivileged children in San Jose, Calif., to enjoy during the holidays.

I was one of the lucky few who volunteered quickly enough before spots filled. Being an avid 49er fan, the event proved to be a great way to give back to the community while getting a chance to meet some of the players I’ve watched play on the gridiron. Upon arriving at the 49ers’ Santa Clara training facility, I was fortunate enough to be paired with Shaun Hill, the team’s starting quarterback. Together, we built 2 bikes –- 1 for a smaller boy and 1 for an older boy. Shaun focused on attaching wheels and brakes, while I worked with the handlebars.

In between interviews with the numerous camera crews roaming the area, I found myself chatting with a very down-to-earth, Kansas-bred guy. We talked about our similar experiences attending Kansas University’s summer basketball camp and meeting Coach Roy Williams. I also mentioned that his performance in the 49ers’ previous game had vaulted my fantasy football team to the playoffs, which he had a chuckle at. Unlike other events I’ve been to with professional athletes, Shaun was in no hurry to bolt after a few pictures. Rather, he spent time with me to make sure the bikes were put together well. We not only did this to build a good-looking bike, but more importantly, we wanted to build a safe bike that a child could enjoy for years to come.

Overall, participating in the bike build and watching Yahoos and 49ers work side-by-side to do something good for the community gave me a great feeling. In a season that often emphasizes materialism, it was wonderful to see people giving back to the community and doing something positive. Given the ever-worsening economic atmosphere, I know that the bikes we built will go a long way towards making a child’s holiday season a bit more joyful. That alone made the event a rousing success.

Kenny Liao
Corporate Strategy Analyst, Yahoo! Corporate Development

Photo from Yahoo! for Good. Additional photos found here.

As part of Yahoo! for Good’s Purple Acts of Kindness program, a monthly initiative that surprises and delights our local community with random acts of generosity, we reached out to Yahoos all over the country to invite them to share a story about someone they know who could put a $50 commuter check to good use. In just a matter of hours, we gave away commuter checks to 100 deserving individuals. Here are just a few of their inspiring stories:

• “I’d like to get commuter checks for my girlfriend. She commutes every day from San Jose to Oakland on the Capitol Corridor train. She wakes up at 5am every morning to catch the limited schedule. She doesn’t get home till 7:30. She could take the easy way out & drive everyday to save time, but she really wants to help the environment by taking another car off the road.”
• “My girlfriend currently commutes back and forth from Fremont to Oakland. She is a single Mom who is a nurse for the Children’s Hospital in Oakland. She has to be at work at 5:00 to 3:30.I know she could use the pass to save on both money and sleep. =)”
• “I’d like to give my dad a commuter check because at age 58, he has taken up riding Caltrain and his bike to and from work (3 mile bike ride to the station, Caltrain from Hillsdale to San Jose, and then an 8 mile bike ride to his office).”

To find out how you can deal with high gas prices and help the environment at the same time, check out these tips on Yahoo! Green.

Connie Chan
Associate Manager, Yahoo! for Good

Photo from richardmasoner

In shock that so much was happening all at once, I immediately began to worry for all the firefighters. The week continued with reports of more wildfires, news of evacuations and massive firefighter deployments.

We got lucky. My husband never got sent out. He quite fortunately had the day off when his shift was deployed. He ended up working overtime locally to cover for the missing crews. The days continued and the intense winds kept the firefighters from getting the upper hand. Reports said that it could be a week before firefighters would return home, and I knew, from dealing with my husband, that firefighters only carry 3-4 days of supplies in their bag. The command centers would be stocked with water, food, and firefighting equipment, but items like toiletries, socks, and T-shirts came from each firefighter’s personal supply. It was clear they’d need some help.

I mentioned this to a co-worker, who suggested bringing it up to Yahoo! for Good to see if Yahoo! could help. Working with my husband to figure out what would be needed, I rallied some volunteers and worked with Yahoo! for Good to engineer a “Purple Act of Kindness” to donate the requested supplies. Yahoos from our Burbank and Carlsbad offices traveled to command posts this week to deliver everything directly to the firefighters.

Yahoo! has helped about 3,000 firefighters in just a matter of days. That we could play some part in bringing these brave men and women comfort and words of thanks at a time when they’re so focused on helping other people is amazing. I’m happy to know that I work for a company that was so willing to repay those who always risk their lives to protect others.

Stefania Bisharat Bauer
Senior Revelance Analyst, Marketplace Compliance
Yahoo! Search Marketing

Having been heralded by the daily late afternoon thunder and lightning storm, the clouds rolled in to create a dark and moonless humid night. There were 18 of us on our nightly turtle watch. Without our flashlights — or as our British friends would say, “torches” — it was nearly impossible for me to see more then a few feet away.

Pulga (that’s flea in Spanish), the neighborhood dog, started barking and howling. Despite our leader’s no light rule (“don’t scare the turtles”), the flashlights came on to reveal the oddest creature any of us had ever seen. It was about three feet long, mostly white with a black saddle. But it had no visible face — just a long skinny snout. Startled by Pulga, it stood on its hind legs and began a funny kung-fu-like dance while making a kind of eerie screeching-howling sound. Fortunately for all involved, it quickly decided flight was better than fight and scampered off into the jungle.

We all stood there amazed and then laughing at what we had just seen, not knowing for sure if it was for real or some sort of live Muppet show. We found out later we had just had the rare privilege of seeing a Tamandua (banded or lesser anteater).

Our Tamandua sighting was just one of many different and wonderful experiences we enjoyed during our nearly two-week tour of Costa Rica, thanks to Yahoo!. I’m a second-grade teacher from Butler Creek Elementary school, located in Gresham, Oregon, and I had the privilege of being chosen by Yahoo! to participate in a free eco-trip with G.A.P Adventures. I was nominated by my school because of my work with our environmental club. Choosing a trip from the menu of fantastic adventures G.A.P offers was difficult, but my husband Tom and I decided on Costa Rica because this particular tour included a week of volunteering at a sea turtle protection project. We both prefer experiencing the local culture first-hand rather than spending our time at a resort. This also seemed to fit the eco theme. Did we get it right!

Our group of 17 strangers from England, Canada, and different parts of the U.S. went on an incredible journey that included a sloth rescue, monkey sightings, an up-close-and-personal sea turtle egg-laying experience, horseback riding, volcano viewing, a jungle cruise, white water rafting, zip-lining, and much more.

As I think about how this trip will affect me as a teacher and what I’ll bring back to my students, I remember the day we visited the local elementary school at Playa Matapalo. I was able to sit with a small group of children, about the same age that I teach, and despite the language barrier, it quickly became apparent to me that I was talking to the same kids I see every day. There was the jokester, the shy one, the thoughtful one — the same mix that is in my class. It truly is a small world. A world we all must appreciate more before there is nothing left to appreciate. Whether we are protecting sea turtles or salmon, pine trees or palm trees, we must leave for our children the wonders that we enjoy today.

I am very grateful to Yahoo! for their commitment to our environment and to the next generation. Through campaigns like Be a Better Planet or product efforts like your Autos Green Center, you are helping us all be more aware of alternatives to our more destructive habits. The Internet can be a powerful tool that can help us all appreciate the world we have and environmentally responsible companies like Yahoo! are at the forefront of that effort. I truly appreciate the opportunity that Yahoo! gave me to explore just a tiny but important part of our world.

Mary Nemmert
2nd Grade Teacher
Butler Creek Elementary School
Gresham, Oregon

As part of our Purple Acts of Kindness program, we sent Jaide 900 (purple) canvas shoppings bags. She’ll sell them for $5 a piece at local supermarkets to raise money for organizations that preserve the environment and improve the lives of kids, including Keep America Beautiful, the Topeka School Fund, and the American Heart Association.

Yahoo! also donated a Web Hosting account to help her set up a website for her Kids in Care of Kids charity so she can receive donations.

Imagine where she’ll be in thirty years. (Yes, I feel wholly inadequate.)

UPDATE: If you want to buy one of these purple totes, they’re now available in our online company store by popular demand.

My team, Yahoo! for Good, had the privilege of previewing An Inconvenient Truth as a result of our Earth Day efforts in April. We even got to hear from Al himself — he was a surprise guest at a theater filled with only 50 people. He was so passionate and, get this, witty. Where was that in 2000?

Our team left the theater truly transformed. We wanted to ensure that the most people possible saw this film. We even arranged for hundreds of low-income high-school students in Los Angeles and New York City to see it opening week.

Fast-forward to the DVD release. What a no-brainer to make the film available to the youngest (and sometimes most powerful) influencers. So we donated more than 220 copies of An Inconvenient Truth to high-school science teachers in neighboring communities of Yahoo! offices — from California to Oregon to New York. After all, it’s required viewing for all students in Norway and Sweden.

After hearing that the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) rejected a donation of 50,000 DVDs from the movie’s producers allegedly for fear of losing corporate funding, we knew this Purple Act of Kindness was more important than ever. It seems tragic that education is such a low public funding priority in the U.S. that the NSTA has to worry about risking capital campaign contributions from the likes of Exxon Mobile for simply educating kids about global warming. But alas, that’s another story…

In the meantime, Yahoo! will continue to put the environment front and center and educate people on how they can protect it. It’ll do my heart good.

Erin Carlson
Senior Manager, Yahoo! for Good

When I got back to the office, we fired up our Yahoo! Purple Acts of Kindness engine. (A Purple Act is an unexpected act that delights the recipient and supports our local communities — more here). Yahoo! has a modest monthly budget for these types of occasions — when a small gesture puts a smile on someone’s face for at least a day. So, this past week, Yahoo! furtively picked up the parking tab for nearly 1,500 cancer patients at Stanford. After all, it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We figured it was the least we could do.

BTW: Here’s a photo of my brother, Yahoo! SVP Brad Garlinghouse, who shaved his head in solidarity. (He asked his barber to spare a few hairs, but don’t worry — the “Y” only lasted a day.)

Meg Garlinghouse
Director, Yahoo! for Good

My department started Purple Acts of Kindness this spring so we could reach Yahoo!’s local communities with unexpected, generous acts to surprise, delight and, in small ways, make the impossible possible. We’ve committed seven Purple Acts so far, including going on personalized shopping sprees for underprivileged schools in California and India, taking New York City and Los Angeles high-school students to screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth,” hosting hundreds of YMCA kids at a San Francisco Giants game, and flying a severely injured veteran to participate in his battalion’s homecoming from Iraq. When I told my mom we do these every month, she said they reaffirmed her belief in corporations… I think it’s because this is the only part of my job she actually understands.

Our latest Purple Act was for the Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology (BAYCAT), a nonprofit that teaches art and technology to underserved youth and adults (ages 13 to 24) in one of San Francisco’s toughest neighborhoods. BAYCAT’s goal is to educate, empower, and employ its students. This summer, 50 of them got free training in video production, animation, and graphic design, resulting in creative productions that examined everything from social justice to images in the media.

After learning BAYCAT was staging a graduation ceremony, our Purple Acts team descended on the center to transform the event into a mini-Oscars. We erected a white-and-purple balloon arch, poured flutes of sparkling cider, and laid out platters of elegant hors d’oeuvres. Students and families expecting a casual affair instead found themselves walking a glamorous red carpet into an evening celebrating their talents. Knowing how kids these days love the bling bling (well… me too), we gave each of them a blinking flower lei and sunglasses to up the cool factor.

And it didn’t end there. As no awards show is complete without a “schwag bag,” we handed out art supplies, cameras, and picture frames to help maintain artistic inspiration. But we saved our biggest surprise for BAYCAT itself: two professional-quality SLR digital cameras and a color photo printer! The program director actually fell to his knees in gratitude.

At show time, you could just feel the pride. I don’t think any of us expected the energy and inspiration of the students’ productions. We all laughed hysterically over “Flip the Script,” a video demonstrating what would happen if gender stereotyping was reversed. Just picture it: young men imitating hoochy mama moves while auditioning for a dance video before leering female music executives. Another personal favorite was a mock news broadcast with headlines like “White kids’ test scores are plummeting” and “Income levels of blacks continue to rise.” It really made you think.

During the presentation, BAYCAT CEO Villy Wang asked the students how the program had influenced their lives. One answer summed it all up: “No matter how small you are, you always have a voice.”

I left with my blinking lei and a reminder that perhaps Yahoo! for Good focuses on helping communities. But that day the community helped me remember why I love my job. I get to interact with real people doing really cool things in amazing organizations. And I can make a big impact. In a way, we all can, right?

Erin Carlson
Senior Manager, Yahoo! For Good