Gina Rau

Growing up, helping others was part of our lives and something we did often. My husband and I have found that, as we get involved with careers and families of our own, it's hard to find the time and energy to look for others and help out. While it's sometimes more convenient to write a check or post a note of support on Facebook, with today's economy and busy lives, that's increasingly hard to do too.

Our world needs help. Change. And change happens when we do something different. Lending a hand doesn't need to be monumental, life-changing or time-consuming. I promise! Little changes in our day or way of thinking can really add up over time.

Since we've had kids, we've struggled to find ways to help other people and heard the same from many of our friends. Our goal is to share some really simple ways here to make some change happen today. I'd love to hear that, together, we helped a neighbor that lost their job, kept a homeless person warm on a cold winter night, found new ways to decrease trash at landfills or inspired a few parents with new ideas on raising healthy, happy families.

Big goals, oh yeah. But I believe that we all genuinely want to help each other, we just sometimes don't know how. Let's work together to figure it out. You in?