Around the Web: Shopping Local, a Harsh Reality, Read to Feed

Every Sunday we highlight some of the people who are funding our work creatively or helping us spread the word of our mission online. If you spot Heifer International while you’re surfing the web or know of a fun or creative fundraising effort, please share it with us here in the comments.

Photo credit: DNRonline

Wayland Elementary School in Virginia is a very environmentally conscious school, inspired to act by a flood in the local park that destroyed many habitats. In addition to local environmental activities such as recycling, Earth Day gardening and picking up trash, and building a buffer at the park to prevent erosion, the school participates in Heifer's Read to Feed program, raising $3,500 for projects around the world.

Photo credit: Lily Darragh, inarkansas.com

26-year-old Sam Hedges, who once worked at Heifer's Learning Center at Overlook Farm in Massachusetts and is now the director of the nonprofit Arkansas Local Food Network, talks about the network and shopping local.

Check out these two stories submitted to When Cows Fly: These godparents had the unique (and generous) idea of buying their godson a part of a water buffalo every year on his birthday, starting this year, the year of his birth! And the Joyful Noise Gospel Choir prepares for a musical presentation that will benefit Heifer.

Photo credit: Amarillo Globe-News

Seventh graders from St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Amarillo, Texas, got a glimpse of the harsh reality people around the world face every day during their annual service trip to Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas. One student Milah Someham, said, “I didn’t realize how many people lived like that until now. I kept worrying all night about what I was going to eat for dinner the next day.”

Thanks to Viva La Feminista for featuring our Mother's Day offerings on their post, Feminist Mother's Day Gift Guide.

Students at Morgan Twp. elementary school in Indiana have been taking part in the Read to Feed program. And, by the end of this month, school officials say they will have donated an amazing total of $12,000 to Heifer.