Author: Sandra

Going to the Dogs

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference

Donate a Car Canada donations going to the dogs one car at a time

Golden Rescue
Golden Rescue

The Canadian Golden Retriever Adoption Service (Golden Rescue) received their first-ever donation through our program in August.

One of Canada’s largest single-breed rescue groups, GR is a charity run entirely by volunteers. Since 1990, the have found homes for 3,174 surrendered, abandoned, unwanted, or displaced Retrievers.

Golden Rescue has no paid staff. They have no offices, and no high admin expenses. They do, however, have over 500 dedicated volunteers throughout Ontario and Quebec, and beyond. One hundred percent of the money they raise goes to helping the dogs. Around 80% of those funds go to vet care and behavioral training.

Curious about adopting a Golden of your own? Visit Golden Rescue's site and see who's waiting for their forever home.

Police dogs in on the donation action

Ned's Wish

Ned's Wish is "a cause for heroes with paws."

Ned’s Wish received their first-time gift in August as well.

NW supports law enforcement by providing financial support to better the quality of life for K-9 retirees. After human police officers finish serving their communities, their pension funds support them. Due to the cost of health care for retired police dogs, the potential to enjoy retirement can literally rest on a dime. A dog’s quality of life can be significantly reduced, or even cut-short if health costs are too high.

Ned's provides financial support for retired K-9 medical well-being. They preserve and enhance the quality of life for retired police dogs.

Your retired car can help

If these Golden Retrievers and retired police dogs have your attention, donate your car, truck, van, SUV, or motorcycle! It's quick, easy, and so very generous!

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Canadian Music Therapy Fund

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

Canadian Music Therapy Fund |Charity of the Month

The Canadian Music Therapy Fund (CMTF) wishes to create access to music therapy for all Canadians who need it.

They bring music therapy to rural, urban and remote communities. Their work brings music programs to people on the autism spectrum, and to those living with Alzheimer’s disease. Further, they engage those challenged by anxiety and depression. CMTF also reaches people rehabilitating speech or motor skills, as well as those needing pre- and post-natal care. And they don't stop there. Living with a brain injury? They can help!

Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund
Canadian Music Therapy Fund

CMTF does this by awarding grants, scholarships and fellowships to innovative certified music therapists. As a result, these therapist are then empowered! They use their talents and skill to make music therapy accessible close to home.

Work that matters

The Science is in: music therapy works. That said, music therapy is not a widely recognized form of therapy. Private insurance and government programs do not typically fund such care. This means that if you can't pay for it, you cannot access it.

Music therapy helps us to move and communicate. It helps us to cope, and to better understand ourselves. It can even inspire us to reach our full potential. CMTF wants to make music therapy available to anyone who needs it.

Together, they are transforming lives. With your support, access to music therapy for all Canadians is possible!

Help the CMTF hit the high notes

Donate your car through our program today and choose our charity of the month as your donation recipient!

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Choose My Charity

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Knowing the Industry, Making a Difference

New Charities Join DACC Program

"Choose my charity." That's one of our donor wishes. Did you know that each month Donate a Car Canada signs more charities up for our vehicle donation program? Canada has hundreds of registered charities. And they're hearing the word: they can earn monetary gifts through vehicle donation.

In the month of July we added 12 more charities to our list! That means Canadian donors have even more choices for giving. If you have a vehicle to donate, you can select any charity from the 800+ we have on board. Your vehicle is processed for re-sale or recycling. The net outcome of the sale is forwarded, in monetary form, to your charity.

Curious about who signed up just last month?

  • The Hunger Project
  • Canadian Golden Retriever Adoption Service Inc
  • After Breast Cancer
  • Harvest Project
  • Arthritis Research Canada
  • Ned's Wish - A Society for Retired Police Service Dogs
  • Rainbows for All Children
  • Association for Community Living - Interlake Branch
  • Pacific Animal Therapy Society (P.A.T.S)
  • The Hospice of Windor & Essex County Inc.
  • Le Havre / Our Harbour
  • The Montreal General Hospital Foundation

Choice matters!

You can see from our newest participants that your donation is all about the cause you love. We touch into health, wellbeing, animal care, community concerns, and more. Our donation dollars are precious to us; the freedom to select who will be the recipient is key to a satisfactory giving moment.

Does giving in this way sound like a good fit for you? Take a few minutes on our site, visit our Facebook or Twitter feeds, or give us a call. We can answer specific questions, or get you set up for a free tow.

We can even help you find a charity that speaks to a cause you care about (even if you don't know the name of the organization). Some folks call in to ask which charity needs their gift the most. That's a tough question for us to answer! But we can certainly work with you to determine what cause might best fit your donation dollars.

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Acts of Kindness

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference

"Acts of kindness" has lost some of its punch as a collection of words, but the acts themselves have not.

Kindness is one of Donate a Car Canada's core values. We are a locally owned and operated business. So, we have overhead costs and need to earn enough money to keep the doors open. The women that take your calls and compassionately field your donations need to feed their kiddos! And having a key value of kindness behind it all makes doing this important work rewarding.

Acts of Kindness in Canada

In her, "9 Random Acts of Kindness That Will Make You Proud to be Canadian" online Reader's Digest article, Rebecca Tucker paints an engaging picture of what it looks like to be uniquely kind in Canada.

Tucker's collection of stories championing individual and community efforts of caring invite us to tackle kindness in big and small ways. In fact, the limits to how we extend this basic human dignity are only limited by imagination.

The Reader's Digest Who's Who

Rebecca notes 9 groups and individuals who have made a difference in their own unique ways:

Stella Bowles of Upper LaHave, N.S: Eco-Hero! She took it upon her 11-year-old self (she's a teen, now) to investigate and address pollution in the LaHave River.

Staff at the York Care Centre, a Fredericton retirement facility, immediately circled in to support one of their own who had been victimized by a violent crime.

Milestone, Saskatchewan farmers banded together to pull in a community member's crops when hard times fell on the family.

Larissa Arthur, an RN heading home from a mountain hike, saved Mike Estepa's life. He'd collapsed of a heart attack on a bicycle trek, and she happened upon him just in time.

Three crab fishers from St. Lewis, N.L. pulled off a dramatic Arctic Fox rescue. Fishing the little guy in from where he was stuck on the ice, they nurtured him to health and set him free.

Rebecca Schofield (#BeccaToldMeTo) gave her dying days to spreading a message of acts of kindess in even the smallest things, like, "opening doors, buying coffee for strangers, giving out granola bars at the gym."

Frank Vieira received the Goodyear Highway Hero Award for a dramatic roadside rescue.

Andrew Harper, a 95 year-old philanthropist seeking to honor his beloved late wife, made an unprecedented financial contribution to the Chez Doris women's day shelter.

Kyle Busquine, Julio Cabrera, and Jehangir Faisal exhibited the stuff of superheros, jumping on the tracks to rescue a fallen man.

What's your next kindness contribution?

So many ways to share the best of who we are. At any time. In any place. I don't have $1 million dollars to gift to a women's shelter, but I do have $5.00. I haven't the energy in this ol' body to save a river, but I can pick up the trash I see on my daily walks. And, even on the tired and overwhelming and "What the goodness is going on in this crazy world!?" days, I can offer dignity and respect to every heart I encounter.

To all who will show me kindness today (I don't even know who you are, yet!), thank you. I will do my part to keep kindness going, too.

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Fall Clean Up | Free Town-wide Vehicle Removal

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Knowing the Industry, Making a Difference

Junk vehicles cluttering up town?

Clean yards make good neighbors. Are you and your fellow townsfolk starting to see a build-up of old cars and trucks in town? Are your town's driveways and back alleys getting cluttered with recycle-ready (donation-ready!) vehicles. It's time for a Fall clean up! We can help!

Donate a Car Canada, cooperating with area tow companies, will arrange to have your vehicle removed. For free! Your charity of choice will receive a donation in the amount of net sale proceeds. You can choose from our list of over 800 Canadian charities.

But why stop with your own car or truck? Get the town behind a Fall clean up and get a donation day or week organized on your behalf. You could see your town junk car free overnight.

Are you in charge?

Are you one of the folks in town that have taken on the care of your patch of Canada? Donate a Car Canada can make a town Fall clean up easy and cost-effective. How would this work? Simply connect with us here (1-877-250-4904) to let us know you're setting up a town-wide effort.

We'll give you a few easy directions:

  1. Promote your event.  Let residents know they have the opportunity to donate their vehicles to charity. They'll receive tax receipts for the donations, and they can choose their charities. All for free! A little aside: if you opt, as a town, to select one charity to receive all donations, your impact will be substantial for that one recipient. That's one more way to create community.
  2. Ask your residents to fill in our online donation form, indicating on the form that they are donating their vehicle for pick-up during your town event. We need one donation form for each vehicle. This ensures tax receipts are issued properly, and that vehicle ownership is appropriately logged.
  3. Leave the rest to us! Our pick-up agents will contact donors to specify pick-up times and locations. The vehicles will be removed. And we will forward each individual gift on to each donor's charity of choice.

Curious citizen ready to get things rolling?

If you're a citizen who cares about the tidiness and care of your community, we can help with that, too. As noted above, reach out to us at 1-877-250-4904. Point us in the direction of the right person for the job. We will connect with your town council or other municipal leaders to let them know that a citizen has requested a town-wide Fall clean up of donation ready cars and trucks.

Or spearhead the work yourself, getting the word out that the Donate a Car Canada service and our vast charity-of-choice options are available to you all.

Contact us today and let us help you and your town clean up and feel great!

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Kindness Matters

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference

Is kindness uncommon?

“When one reaches out to help another he touches the face of God.” – Walt Whitman 

Your kindness counts

Henri Nouwen says, "...our faithfulness to a small task is the most healing response to the illnesses of our time." Being kind matters, and your efforts in the smallest expressions of that goodness can have large effect.

Take a little minute and consider the nature of the acts of Goodness that have most put air in your own lungs. Was it a break, a smile, a compliment, a hand up, or a hard-earned treat? Whatever it was, it probably didn't cost the giver much, and it made a difference to your day. What was it like for you to be the recipient? And did you go on to be a giver of the same?

Benefits to bein' nice

Psychology Today notes, "A recent study, Kindness Counts, conducted by researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of California, Riverside, broke new ground by showing the benefits derived by tweens when they were taught happiness-increasing strategies.

For a month, several hundred 9-11 year-olds performed and recorded three acts of kindness each week for anyone they wished. Another several hundred kept track of three pleasant places they visited during the week.

Not surprisingly, the results were consistent with adult studies. When kids performed acts of kindness or took notice of the pleasant places they visited during the week, they significantly increased feelings of happiness and satisfaction.

But those who performed acts of kindness received an additional benefit.  Measuring how well children were liked or accepted by their peers, the study showed those who performed acts of kindness gained an average of 1.5 friends during the four-week period – good support for the idea that 'nice guys finish first.'" (Acts of Kindness: Key to Happiness for Children & Teens)

Three acts of kindness each week? 'Sounds do-able! Let's take up that challenge and make a difference.

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Speeding Tickets

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, You and Your Health

Speeding tickets don't land in our mail box very often. But when they do, they hurt.

Notice of offence

Given the number of vehicles rolling out of our driveway on a given day, we do okay around here. Four of the adults living in our home drive for work and school and leisure. Our little Scion XB just flipped the odometer to a visually satisfying, 111,111 kms. So, we're on the road a lot. And some days our pedal pushers can get a little heavy. But we don't pull a lot of tickets.

I'm just about to online pay the $233.00 I owe our beautiful city for my most recent traffic violation. I was driving over 80 kms/hr in a 60 km zone. I deserve a strong consequence. Of course, I want to defend myself just a little. My son looked at the ticket, noted the location, and was immediately sympathetic, "Oh, Mom. That's such a bad spot! The speed drops like crazy from one side of the intersection to the other!"

A little empathy and validation are nice. But I still deserve the ticket. I've driven that patch of road before, and I should have remembered it was a steep slow down.

Playing it safe

I love driving fast. But speed limits are posted for good reason. Safety matters. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and Transport Canada’s website include the following statistics from the CCMTA: Speed and Intersection Safety Management, Annual Monitoring Report 2009:

1. 27% of fatalities and 19% of serious injuries involve speeding

2. 40% of speeding drivers involved in fatal crashes were 16 to 24 years of age

3. Most drivers killed in speed-related crashes were the ones speeding

4. 80% of young adult passengers who were killed in a speeding crash were in the vehicle with a speeding driver of similar age

5. Single-vehicle crashes accounted for more than 50% of speeding deaths and serious injuries

6. 1 in 3 speeding drivers involved in a fatal crash had been drinking

7. Research indicates that a 1% reduction in speed results in reducing the likelihood of a fatal collision by 5%. (OECD, 2008)

Takin' it easy

So, it's time for me to pay better attention to speed markers. And it's helpful to consider that we're all traffic. Everybody is trying to get where they're going. Everybody has important things to do. And me? I'm as much traffic as everyone around me is.

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The Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Making a Difference, You and Your Health

We're excited to announce that the Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation has received their first donation through Donate a Car. Moreover, they are all set with our program and ready to receive your vehicle donation, too.

Continue reading "The Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation" →

Farming Smarter

Posted by Sandra on in Blog, Knowing the Industry, Making a Difference, You and Your Health
Farming Smarter

Farming Smarter here to
sustain our land, water, and soil. They are here for farmers -- for the benefit of everyone.

Farming Smarter is growing stewardship

Farming Smarter fosters sustainable farming practices. For example, wherever they can, they will partner, research, and inform. They support cost effective projects that are good for the land, air, water and crops.

Currently working in Southern Alberta, their Innovative projects include:

  • High value specialty crops
  • Precision planting canola
  • Cover crops across Prairie Canada
  • Alternative flee beetle management without neonicotinoids. What is a flee beetle? And why do they matter? Here's what the FS site has to say:
    Flea beetles are one of the major canola pests in Alberta. Currently neonicotinoid-based seed treatments are used to protect canola seedlings from flea beetle damage. PMRA's direction to phase out the use of neonicotinoids has caused concern for growers. Without these seed treatments different controls must be considered by growers. These may be alternate seed treatment, increased seeding rates, or foliar insecticides. These activities may have negative environmental consequences. Furthermore, they may be less helpful than current strategies and they will incur higher costs.

Curious? Check out their summer events:

Farming Smarter invites you to a summer of field school and "plot hops." You may also want to explore their farm days and learning options.

Interested in other projects they have researched? Visit their site and explore:

Why donate to this charity?

Many people don’t realize that F.S. is a registered Canadian charity. They are a non-profit funded by grants, sponsorship, and donations.  Above all, money given to them stays in southern Alberta and funds locally directed farm focused research.
Your donation to this work could help them do your most critical agricultural research.

In short, if this resonates with your own values and concerns, we can help! Donate your car, truck, SUV, van, or motorcycle. The net proceeds will go to the cause you love. And you will clear the driveway, too!

It is quick, easy, and friendly! You are one click away...

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