Our 6th annual Holiday Giving and Forgiving Initiative
Once again the Tenleytown T'ai Chi community is collaborating to send out a wave of positive influence across our world
This year's featured organization:
The Mariners' Museum and Park
Less than a 3-hours drive south from DC, the mission of the Mariners' Museum and Park is:

The Mariners’ Museum and Park connects people to the world’s waters, because through the waters—through our shared maritime heritage—we are connected to one another.

While doing T'ai Chi, we are to move as if the air is as heavy as water, and we use water and ocean metaphors often. We are also moving with awareness of our external connections to all that is around us, which has the benefit of optimizing our abilities for self-protection. Transitioning from metaphor to the very real situation of environmental threats to our waters, and by extension to our own survival, is a reasonable next move. The Mariners' Museum and Park is setting a new standard for action, outreach, community engagement and education. In an effort to increase access, the museum recently reduced its admission fee to $1, a bold and courageous step that deserves our support.

Organizations who have receives donations this season are listed below (watch this list grow over the season!):
Asherah Foundation, Avalon Theater Project, Bread for the City, Caring Bridge, Casa de Maryland, Combat Canines, the DDoc Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Equal Justice Initiative, Food and Friends, Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, Friendship Place, Georgetown Day School, Give Back Yoga Foundation, Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation, Hellen Keller International, Homeward Trails Animal Rescue, House of Ruth, Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Mary Baldwin University, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Montgomery County, National Consumer Voice for Quality Long Term Care, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Pacifica Network, Partners for Development, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Planned Parenthood, Remote Area Medical, So Others Might Eat (SOME), Table for Two, WETA, WPFW, World Central Kitchen, Wounded Warrior Project
(see list below of recipients over the years)
So many do for us in ways that we may never know, things that we can never pay back. But we can honor their gifts through giving.
The Holiday Giving and Forgiving Initiative runs from Veteran’s Day through Chinese New Year.
We organized this initiative so that we might honor: our veterans and their service, the best parts of the heritages and traditions of gratitude, celebration, goodwill and generosity that are expressed during the festivities surrounding Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Epiphany, Twelfth Night, the Winter Solstice, New Year’s Day, the peace work of Dr. Martin Luther King, and the spirit of renewal expressed by the Chinese New Year, in honor of the cultural home of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
The giving part is, registered students may take two classes for free during this time, and they agree to pass this giving along by in turn giving the equivalent value of the classes to the nonprofit(s) of their choice.
The forgiving part? Forgiving is also a gift, perhaps mostly to ourselves, and one it never hurts to have a reminder to extend.

previous initiatives:

Thanks to all who participated in
Our 5th annual Holiday Giving and Forgiving Initiative
It was inspiring to see our community collaborate to be a force for good in our world
This year we focused locally for impact globally, encouraging 1) donations to a local nonprofit, my suggestion being The Center for Teaching Peace, 2) taking the 10 Day Local Food Challenge, and 3) taking the One Nature challenge by spending 30 minutes in nature for 30 days.
The blog page has more details about this 3-part initiative.

Looking for a nonprofit to donate to? See our lists of recipients from previous years below, which I will continue to add to during this season's initiative. Each year I highlight one or two nonprofits which deserve special attention. I'll lands on a choice (or choices) for this year soon!

There are a lot of great causes and dedicated people doing positive and amazing work in the world.
In the years since we began, our group has given many thousands of dollars to over 66 organizations (see list below), and we've highlighted several other initiatives as well.
Our collective effort demonstrates the power of small groups, and is a way of celebrating the gratitude and goodwill of our community, and of promoting awareness about the many wonderful nonprofit organizations ready to receive and distribute our gifts, and the good works they extend. We maintain the list below as a cumulative list of all the organizations we've given to over the years, so we can continue, through these links, to bring attention to all the great organizations we have highlighted and donated to over the years. I'm very proud to say that the list was getting so long, I decided to group it alphabetically!

Alzheimer's Association, American Indian College Fund Amnesty International, Anacostia Watershed Society, Asherah Foundation, Avalon Theater Project

Beacon House, Bread for the City

Caring Bridge, Casa de Maryland, The Center for Teaching Peace, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Children International, City Wildlife, Combat Canines, the DDoc Foundation, Covenant House, Creative Commons

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Democracy Now, Disabled American Veterans, Doctors Without Borders

Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Working Group, Equal Justice Initiative

The Feynmen School, Food and Friends, FoodTank, For Love of Children, Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop, Friends of the Urban Forest, Friendship Place

Georgetown Day School, Give Back Yoga Foundation, Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation

Hampshire College, Hellen Keller International, Homeward Trails Animal Rescue, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, House of Ruth

International Rescue Committee (IRC), Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Iona House Senior Services, Isabella's Home, Indian Law Resource Center

Janney Elementary School, John Eaton Elementary School

Key Elementary School

Lafayette Elementary School, The Levin Biotensegrity Archive, Los Angeles Food Policy Council

MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), Martha’s Table, Mary Baldwin University, The McClendon Center, Meals on Wheels, Medecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), The Mindful Memorial Day Foundation , Montgomery Hospice, Mouth and Foot Painters Association, Murch Elementary School

N Street Village, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Montgomery County, National Consumer Voice for Quality Long Term Care, National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York Public Library

Oneness Family School, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Pacifica Network, Partners for Development Parkinson's Disease Foundation, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Planned Parenthood, ProPublica, Project Bona Fide, Project Mano Amiga, Public Citizen

Remote Area Medical

Saint Joseph's Indian School, Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital, Sea of Solidarity (SOS), Skidmore College, So Others Might Eat (SOME), The Southern Poverty Law Center, Street Sense

Table for Two, Taichi Thoughts Internet Journal, TechnoServe, Tenleytown T’ai Chi Scholarship Program

The United Nation's World Food Programme, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USO

Veterans of Foreign Wars

The Washington Animal Rescue League, Washington Performing Arts, Wikipedia’s Wikimedia Foundation, Wishes for Elliot: Advancing SCN8A Research, WAMU, WETA, WPFW, World Central Kitchen, World Food Program, World Wildlife Fund, Wounded Warrior Project

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Details for students wishing to participate:
During our Holiday Giving and Forgiving Initiative, students take two classes at no charge, and agree to donate the corresponding amount to the charity of their choice.

To indicate participation:
1) Put "HGI" and the date(s) of your free class(es) somewhere on your class card (but not on your numbered list of purchased classes).
2) Add the charity or charities you've chosen for your donation to the Charity List card we have in the class card box, so we can add to our website list. Please write clearly. In the past, a few charities have been left out due to illegibility.
3) Please take the classes and make the donation between November 11, 2018 and February 5, 2019.