Giving Tuesday promotes and celebrates donating

This week, people from all across America will celebrate Thanksgiving, a day for us to gather with friends and family and celebrate what and who we are thankful to have in our lives.

There are always a multitude of things to give thanks for, whether it’s spending time with your family after the busy summer months, having some time off to sit back and watch some football or of course, the tremendous feasts that will be laid out for Thanksgiving lunch and dinner.

While these are all great things to be thankful for, sometimes we might overlook things we take for granted everyday.

Although many people give thanks for their family, a roof over their head and a stable job, very few give thanks for clean air, potable drinking water and outdoor areas to go hiking, fishing, hunting and more. We often take these things for granted; however, they are extremely important.

Without clean air and water, living here would be impossible. Join us here at the Maryland Coastal Bays Program as we give thanks for our wonderful coastal bays and all the hard work volunteers, individuals and organizations did this past year to help keep our coastal bays watershed happy and healthy.

This year the Maryland Coastal Bays Program is partnering with the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and other local organizations to help spread the word about Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday is a global initiative that takes place the Tuesday following Thanksgiving in the United States. This year it will be December 1st, and helps to encourage other similar events like Cyber Monday and Small-Business Saturday. However unlike Cyber Monday, Small-Business Saturday or even Black Friday, Giving Tuesday is not focused on buying gifts or toys for yourself or your family, but instead donating money, or time, to charities and non-profits and engaging with your local community.

Giving Tuesday is a relatively new initiative started by 92nd Street Y and its partners in 2012. The idea is simple – connect diverse groups of individuals, communities and organizations around the world to celebrate and encourage giving and community involvement.

Since 2012, the movement has taken off. It now has more than 30,000 partners in 68 countries, including small businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, major corporations and more. It has spawned more than 40 civic campaigns across the United States in communities ranging from large cities to small towns. It’s built to enable local and regional partners to create their own off-shoot for their specific community.

Giving Tuesday has such global appeal because it is well-suited for social media and online use. Worldwide, everyone who donates or contributes on Giving Tuesday is encouraged to use the hashtag #GivingTuesday or tag @GivingTues to help flood friends’ timelines, news feeds and more with pictures and actions taken to help a local community – and engage more people to participate.

Of course, you can also go find more information about this movement at www.givingtuesday.org, where you will find tools to help, videos and photos to share and more.

Another reason Giving Tuesday is so successful it because it allows partner organizations to create their own hashtag to encourage more people to donate in their immediate area. Some examples from around Maryland include #Shoregivesmore, which is specifically for the Eastern Shore, #MDgivesmore and #DCgivesmore. By using and sharing these hashtags, we hope to help spread our message of giving and help engage more people from our local community.

Since its start in 2012, the Giving Tuesday initiative has generated more than 32.7 million twitter impressions, 750,000 hashtag mentions and 15.4 billion global impressions in print and social media.

All of this has led to an increase of more than 470 percent in online donations related to Giving Tuesday.

Here on the Eastern Shore, we have another thing to be thankful for – the protection of the forest at Naylor Mill. This area, located at 711 Naylor Mill Road in Salisbury, is free to the public to use for recreation such as hiking, biking, running and photography. The forest serves to protect the city of Salisbury’s water supply within the Paleo Channel, protect biodiversity, and provide outdoor recreational areas for locals.

The newly protected area is a source of local pride in Salisbury. In 2014, Wicomico County asked the city of Salisbury to donate the land for construction of new softball fields at the Henry S. Parker Athletic Complex.

Not wanting to lose this forest, Salisbury citizens and university students joined together to voice their concern about the destruction of this unique property at a public hearing. Salisbury City Council members listened to citizens’ and students’ pleas, agreeing to keep the forest in its natural state and turn the property into a public-use park.

This forest and its nearly five miles of trails is open to public use year-round.

Here on Delmarva, there is so much to be thankful for, from beaches to the bay.

Please join us this Giving Tuesday by donating to your local charities and nonprofits – and do not forget to use #GivingTuesday or #Shoregivesmore!

Harrison Jackson is the education coordinator for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program.