actual reality. act up. fight aids. {give}

anyone who knows me well knows that aids research & prevention along with the hope of a cure is incredibly important to me. i've always told people that i wasn't exactly sure why it's on my heart the way it is. often times, a person who has perhaps lost a mother to breast cancer will walk, donate, and bring awareness to breast cancer. my father battles heart disease and i'm running in the mini-heart here in cincinnati this month in his honor. when something directly affects us, we care enough about it to try to stop it.

i don't know anyone with aids.

but for some reason, i think about them all the time - those here in america & around the world who are suffering from aquired immune deficiency syndrome. my heart breaks for them. i've often called it the underdog disease. it doesn't get as much 'publicity', if you will, than say, cancer. i've never heard someone question the moral decisions of a man with brain cancer. aids is much different. the media has told us what they want us to think about aids and it's sufferers.

they're wrong.

you can learn more about aids here and i urge you to do so.

here's what i'm really writing to tell you about - the little ways we can help. regardless of the disease or cause close to our heart, not all of us have the funds to donate to research facilities, the time to serve the patients, or the abilities to walk or run or march on their behalf.

to all of my winos out there, i found a way we can help.

it's called OneHope Wine

i found them thanks to Groupon. 45 dollars for 100 dollars worth of wine sounded great to me! then i read that partial proceeds went to charity. even better. THEN i read that their merlot (my favorite) went to the fight against aids.

done and done.

now i realize that purchasing one bottle and paying for the shipping might not be as practical as going to the grocery store. but maybe around christmas time when you're giving gifts, or maybe just to stock up every once in awhile, you would consider purchasing your wine here. they have 4 reds and 2 whites and each wine benefits a different cause. the causes represented are aids, autism, the planet, breast cancer, the troops, and children's hospitals. in addition to that, a portion of the proceeds that is donated is donated to another cause of your choice.

out of my 45 dollars, 12 dollars went to the fight against aids and 8 dollars went to keep a child alive, which provides treatment for the youth in africa affected by aids.

and all i had to do was buy some wine.