living gifts...

one of my favorite things to do is to visit Overlook Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts.  They are a Heifer International farm.  Every December they have a weekend of living gifts.  I have made this a regular event for my cub scouts.  The boys bring in money from September to December to our den meetings for this cause.  We add it up and I match what they have collected.  I also have great parents who help out as well.  The boys really enjoy looking over the catalogue and deciding which gift would be the best...which could do the most.  This year they had enough money to purchase a hive of bees and a flock of chicks.  I love the idea of the sustainable living gifts and my scouts really seem to be understanding that donating food to a food bank is great, but also great is giving a family the opportunity to have animals that will sustain them long after a can of food is eaten and gone.

Who doesn't love barnyard animals with cute gift bows on them?

How could this chick resist a photo op with cute barnyard chickens?

 Part of what they do is set up small homes in a global village to show

how the people benefiting from the living

gifts live.

We went to Thibet where the gift of a water buffalo will help a family farm.

 While there the kids could make prayer flags.  There was also

an unexpected escape of one of their bison...

He didn't hurt anyone.  He just wanted to be in his pen with his other bison peeps.

We also visited Poland where rabbits

help families raise sustainable protein and fertilize their gardens.

It was a great afternoon with some of my favorite boys.

Everyone has there own thing they believe in and give to.

What about you?