Charity donation bins in Windsor and Essex County are being used as garbage dumps.

The St. Vincent de Paul society has issued a call to stop the illegal dumping at its 35 bins. It’s a problem that costs the charity more than $5,000 last year.

General manager Alexis Strahl said she often finds — and is grateful for — usable donations. But she also finds garbage in the bins.

Read the full article here.

Canadian pop singer Nelly Furtado says she is donating the $1 million she earned to perform for members of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s family to the Free the Children charity.

Furtado said in February she would donate the money from a 2007 show in Italy for members of Gadhafi’s family.

She made this latest announcement Tuesday at a youth empowerment day organized by Canadian co-founders of Free the Children.

Read the full article here.

This years Tire Take Back Event is quickly approaching and one local auto recycling yard, Standard Auto Wreckers is reving things up in preparation of this amazing charitable event!

Standard Auto Wreckers in Toronto, Ontario in partnership with OARA (Ontario Automotive Recyclers Assosciation) will be participating in the collection of used tires in the greater Toronto area.  All tire fees associated with each tire dropped off will be donated by participating members to The Sunshine Foundation of Canada.  OARA will then match the donation made from all tires collected.

Bring your old tires down to 1216 Sewells Road in Scarborough on May 27 & 28 to help those less fortunate in your community.  If you have any questions or need more details please call Standard Auto Wreckers directly at 416-286-8686 or visit their website to learn more about this charity event.

In feel good news to start off the new year, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have made a special gift to the land of one of their children’s birthplace.

The Jolie-Pitt Foundation has committed $2 million  towards the N/a’an ku sê Mission in Namibia. The Mission aims to conserve the land, cultures and wildlife of the African county and to rescue species threatened by an ever-shrinking habitat.  The charity also works  to improve the lives of the San Bushman community in Namibia through better education, employment, healthcare and improved living conditions.

According a a press release from the Mission, Pitt and Jolie have a close friendship with Rudie and Marlice van Vuuren who are the directors and Founders of N/a’an ku sê. Namibia is also where the celebrity couple chose to deliver their daughter, Shiloh.

“We have known Rudie and Marlice for many years and continue to be impressed by their hard work and dedication to the people and conservation of the land and wildlife of Namibia,” Jolie said according to the release. “The new section of the project will be under N/a’an ku sê and in Shiloh’s name.  We want her to be very involved and grow up with the understanding of her country of birth.”

The Jolie-Pitt family spent Christmas at the N/a’an ku sê where they engaged in several activities including visiting the San Bushman School on the farm and witnessing the release of a leopard back into the wild.  I love seeing rich celebs giving back to the world!

Everyone would like to believe that doing charity work is a purely unselfish state of mind but then we see news like this. The Oshawa Hospital Foundation’s chief executive officer is using his own company to run fundraising events for the foundation, including lotteries and gala concerts.

The Toronto Star uncovered this highly unusual arrangement as part of an ongoing investigation into charity in Canada.

Jim Szeman, the supercharged, quick-talking boss of the foundation, said his company Uncommon Results — registered in British Columbia but doing work in Oshawa — provides great service for the foundation he runs. No competitive process was used to hire his company.

read the full story here

Great news for all us generous Canadians,  the “World Giving Index”, the largest study ever carried out into charitable behaviour across the globe, which ranked the UK the eighth most charitable nation in the world, has found that happier people are more likely to give money to charity than those who are wealthy.

The “World Giving Index” used a Gallup survey on the charitable behaviour of people in 153 countries representing 95% of the world’s population. The survey asked people whether they had given money to charity in the last month and to rank how happy they are with life on a scale of one to ten. For all countries CAF compared the strength of the relationship between giving with both a nation’s GDP and the happiness of its population. CAF found that the link between happiness and giving is stronger than the link between wealth and giving.

The study also measured two other types of charitable behaviour alongside giving money – volunteering time and helping a stranger. The “World Giving Index” combines the levels of each charitable behaviour to produce a ranking of the most charitable nations in the world. We scored third overall and that is very amazing!!

Our founding member,  Standard Auto Wreckers (www.standardautowreckers.com) received a nice note from Sunshine Foundation, they are a great charity that is making Dreams for Kids with severe disabilities as well as life-threatening illnesses come true.   We are very proud of our association with this worthwhile charity and hope to continue donating funds that make a difference in these childrens lives.

A local Realtor made good on a promise to climb Grouse Mountain for charity. Sebastian Albrecht climbed the Grouse Grind 14 times in one day, beating his personal best of 13 from last year. It’s the equivalent of climbing 12,000 meters straight up.

News1130 chatted with Albrecht after his amazing journey. So how was he feeling after hours of Mother Nature’s stair-master?

Albrecht: “Legs are okay actually, feeling a bit nauseous but other than that pretty good.”What was the hardest part about getting up 14 times?Albrecht: “Pretty much everything after number six.”

His trek began at 6:30 a.m. Monday and wrapped up shortly after 11 p.m. A torrential downpour also tried to slow him down, but he says a group of 50 school kids were on hand to cheer him on. Money raised for his event went towards the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. Good job, another generous Canadian!

I was lucky enough to get a snap-shot of a really cool cheque presentation ceremony today. $13k in cash will help provide 26,000 meals to hungry people across Canada!

From left to right: David Gold – Owner of Standard Auto Wreckers, Paul Coon – VP Green Vehicle Disposal, Jay Granofsky – Search Marketing Manager Charity Car Canada and Kayley Collum – Program Co-ordintor and Heather Nelson – Manager of Development both from Food Banks Canada

Lailani Mendoza wrote a nice article about our website!

Did you know that you can dispose of your vehicle for free and help a charity of your choice?

A company called Charity Car makes this possible. By calling their 1-800 number or filling out an online form, you can arrange to have that old clunker sitting in the backyard towed for free. Charity Car will write a cheque equal to the value of your end-of-life vehicle and send it to your chosen charity.

“It was a surprise,” said Stephanie Klaus, B.C. SPCA’s manager of corporate relations, when they were told that a Kamloops lady had donated a 1984 Toyota Camry to support the organization. SPCA’s recent partnership with Charity Car makes them one of Charity Car’s 70 Canadian partners.

How it works
When you contact Charity Car, you’ll be connected with a local affiliate who’ll arrange a time of pick up for your vehicle. Your car will be towed to an authorized treatment facility that ensures your vehicle is disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.

Company vice president Paul Coon explains the process. “The things that’ll sell off of the car will get dismantled and inventoried into the warehouse. The rest of the car will be decontaminated, crushed and be processed for scrap steel.”

“We only deal with licensed auto recyclers. We want the vehicles to go to licensed auto dismantlers who have all the proper tools to process the vehicles,” he said.

Vehicles destined for the junkyard may contain fluids or chemicals that can seep into the ground or water reservoir and pollute the environment if not disposed properly.

Fluids such as antifreeze, gas and oil and other hazardous materials such as batteries and mercury switches are removed from the vehicle and either reused or discarded properly.

The operation was founded by David Gold, co-owner of Standard Auto Wreckers in Ontario. Gold comes from a family of auto wrecking business veterans and is the first Canadian recipient of the Most Influential Auto Recycler of 2009 award for setting a positive example in the auto wrecking industry.

Championing charities and the environment
The charity receives 100 per cent of the car’s value, usually between $80 and $100 per car. After the donation is received, the charity writes up a tax receipt for charitable giving and sends it back to the individual donor.

“I think it’s amazing. It gives people the option to support, in a significant way, a non-profit organization by donating things that they wouldn’t necessarily think to donate,” said Klaus. “A lot of people have used cars out there. It just gives them the opportunity for recycling first of all and then supporting a charity. It’s a very cool and innovative donation program.”

In Toronto where it’s based, Charity Car has helped support charities big and small.

“We rely solely on donations from corporations and individuals to ensure we have the funds to grant wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses,” said Linda Marco, director of the Children’s Wish Foundation. “The support from Charity Car helps us fulfill our mandate.”

Ashleigh Saith of Interval House, an organization that supports victims of abuse, said it takes little work on their part and raises awareness of their organization’s work in the community.

“Not only did they help us raise over $2,500 last year, their program presents a creative way for individuals to support Interval House,” said Saith.

“Auto recyclers pick up and buy cars every single day. That’s what we do for a living. All that we’re really doing is transferring the funds,” explained Coon. “I’m gonna either pay you $100 to $200 for your wrecked car, or I can send that to a charity.” It’s a win-win-win situation with the charity getting the most benefit, he added.

The next time you need to dispose a vehicle, consider donating it to charity instead. Visit www.charitycar.ca or phone 1-877-363-6354.