You don't need to agree with the causes I support, or with my perspective of the world.
I'm not asking you to champion a great cause, or to be willing to speak publically. I'm not asking you to give away everything you have worked so hard to earn. Sometimes the best "gifts" we can give to others and to the world around us is simply making our day to day decisions with open eyes.
For example, the baby elephant to the left is named Zurura, and the baby rhino is named Shida. My husband, Joshua, and I learned about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust by watching television on the Animal Planet late one night. It turns out that it only costs $50 a year to feed, provide medicine and veternarians and specialists, provide a bed and hands on rehibilitation for these incredible animals, both which had to watch as their mothers were killed by poachers and were found starving and in need of care. So we thought, what did we spend $50 on today? We'd taken good friends out to dinner in New York's Chinatown. We'd paid cab fare all over the city. We'd bought a print of a Dr. Seuss's "Lorax". We don't regret spending our money that way. But as the trip continued, I couldn't help but think to myself after purchasing a $25 hard back James Patterson book at the airport, that the book I enjoyed reading on the plane could have paid for half the year long needs of one of those animals in the refuge I'd seen on T.V.
So, perhaps animals aren't your thing. Perhaps you're a "people first" kinda person. Well then, for $20 you can purchase a flock of chicks for a family anywhere in the world -- you decide -- and give them a gift that keeps on giving via Heiffer International. The people are taught to raise the hens, handle the eggs and even how to bargain in the nearby markets. The price of my hardback book could have brought two flocks and changed two whole families' lives.
But there is something in this world that has touched your life somehow. Perhaps its a teacher, a talent, a pet, or a sunset. Whatever it is, take a moment and acknowledge its impact on your life. Good. That's a begining. Now ask yourself how you can impact someone else's life. Perhaps it's introducing a friend to someone who can benefit their life's goals, or perhaps its refusing to join in bigoted taunts even if friends use them, or perhaps its insisting on purchasing Fair Trade products, (products harvested or manufacutered under humane conditions where the workers are paid fairly for their labor),
or perhaps its pausing long enough to help an older person cross the street. What is important to you? Because, in the words of Dr. Seuss's "Lorax:
Click the map to discover the many places and people around the world helped by Heiffer International!
Click the book cover above to find out where you can get your copy of Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax"!
My father, John Philp Thompson, Sr., used to read this book to me when I was a little girl, every night before putting me to bed. Then, every time he got to the last two pages, (shown above) he would look straight into my eyes and read the last words, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's Not!".
Later in life, Dad told me the following:
"The easiest job in the world is to be that of a critic. Anyone can point out what doesn't work within a a given system, be it a corporation, an organization, or a problem within society at large. But if you are intelligent enough to recognize something that needs fixing, then you should be responsible for fixing it. This world owes you nothing. But we owe it to each other and to ourselves to make this world a better place. Too many people stand by the sidelines and say...somebody should fix this or that...but you be different. You be the one to fix it. Make the conscious choice to improve the world in which you live. This is not always the easiest path...but it is the most rewarding one."
~John Philp Thompson Sr.~
1925 - 2003
His words still ignite the passion that drives my philanthropy and activism.
His words are in part what has moved my husband and me to create The John Philp Thompson Foundation For Non-Chemotherapy/Non-Radiation Brain Cancer Reaserch.
His legacy, as well as the legacy of my grandfather, Joe C. Thompson, Sr., have combined to continue to inspire me to work with others in order to found
The Memnosyne Foundation.
Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk has extensive experience with non-profit organizations, including but not limited to the following:
P.R. Chair for The Texas Visual Arts Association; Board Member of Friends of Fair Park; Hockaday Alumnae Board; Board of Fair Park's Women In Film Festival; Founder/Chairman of The Advisory Board For The Visual Arts Coalition Dallas; Vice-President of Sanctuary For Life; Board of Directors of Seeking New Performances; Founder of The SFL Memnosyne Speaker Series; Co-Founder & President of The John Philp Thompson Foundation For Non-Chemotherapy/Non-Radiation treatment/cure For Brain Cancer; Board of Directors of Project Pallet; Steering Committee Member of The Suzanne Ahn M.D. Speaker Endowment Fund For The Dallas Women's Foundation; Advisory Board Member of The Dallas International Development Committee, Board of Advisors for WomanMade Art Gallery; Founder and President of The Memnosyne Foundation, MC of Dallas Green Alliance Earth Day Celebration; EWomenNetwork Foundation Selection Committee; Chair of The VACD's Artist In Action Gala; Head Coordinator of DFW International's Festival's Fine Art Pavillion, Chair of DFW International's/VACD's Pablo Neruda Exhibition, Chair of VIP party featuring Luca Luca fashion show in support of Philanthropy and Volunteerism in Education's programs, regualr guest speaker for Foundation for Pluralism, Advisory Board Member for The People's Empowerment Project, and as sponsor for Thanksgiving Square, Heiffer International, The Sierra Club's John Muir Foundation, Environmental Defense, and many other worthwhile proframs all focused on the arts, the environment, human rights, and brain cancer.
Environment
