We’re all looking for ways to give back and do more right now. Even people without jobs are volunteering more.

And we here in the news world deal with a lot of bereaved families who lost a loved one from an accident, illness and even crime.

One way to get involved and give a little back: Comfort Zone Camp, a national, non-profit bereavement camp for kids ages 7-17 who’ve lost a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. Every year, Comfort Zone holds weekend getaways for children, where they’re matched up with a big buddy for a weekend of bonding and smiles.

This year, Comfort Zone is hosting two camps — free for kids to attend — at Cape Cod’s Camp Burgess in Sandwich.

To volunteer to be a big buddy at one of these weekend camps (either April 23-25 or August 27-29), those interested first attend a day-long training session where Comfort Zone will show you the ins and outs of being a mentor to a kid in need. Since these training sessions are just around the corner — February 20 and March 6 in Waltham — you should register as soon as you can!

Just think: The power to have one less child look up to Hannah Montana is in your hands. That right there is a miracle simply waiting to happen.

For more information, please email mass@comfortzonecamp.org or visit
Comfort Zone Camp online.

Blast is proud to announce it has signed on as a media sponsor for the upcoming charity fundraiser for Friendship Home, a non-profit organization dedicated to adults with developmental disabilities and their families.

The Massachusetts-based Friendship Home, a non-profit organization working to enrich the lives of adults with developmental disabilities and their families through quality respite care and creative programs, is pleased to announce the Fashions with Our Friends fundraising fashion show at The Lantana in Randolph, on May 13. A truly unique and heart-warming event, this years fashion show will feature Friendship Club members from Duxbury, Norwell, and Quincy walking the runway modeling fashions from local merchants.

Thanks to the support of local businesses and community members, Friendship Home is planning to break ground on their state-of-the-art respite care and activity center in Norwell for adults with developmental disabilities. The home will provide a place for life skills education, overnight stays, and fun activities for special friends while offering much needed respite for their families who often care for them 24 hours per day without relief. Currently, there are over 2,500 individuals who could benefit from such a facility, with currently only one bed available for their use on weekends. Friendship Home will provide opportunities for education and socialization as well as support for families that are often overwhelmed and isolated. These services are currently offered for four hour periods twice per month in each of three Friendship Club locations.

The Fashion with Our Friends show includes dinner, a raffle and entertainment along with the club member’s fashion show and grand finale performance! Tickets are available on our website for $50 each or through our office — www.friendshiphome.net or call 781-740-9507 for more information.

About Friendship Home

At Friendship Home, we are parents, friends, business people, and volunteers from many walks of life, committed to creating a safe, warm, and nurturing home for our sons, daughters, and friends. Our mission is to enrich the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families through quality respite care and creative learning experiences. Friendship Home provides an opportunity for community members to help families build a stronger community. Once completed, Friendship Home will be a respite and activity center where people with developmental disabilities can stay for periods of up to two weeks, giving them a safe and stimulating environment, while offering needed respite for their caregivers. For more information visit www.friendshiphome.net or call 781-740-9507.

It was October 2005, and professional photographer Karen Sparacio was in Uganda. She was there to photograph a relief organization. Ayaa Grace, an Alhcoli woman, invited her to visit the Acholi Quarter.  What the Sparacio saw changed her life and, soon, the lives of hundreds of Ugandans as well.

Sparacio took in the creative and colorful jewelry that these women were making out of what little they had.  She brought some of the jewelry back with her to the states to see if she could sell some of these beaded works of art to help raise money for the women.  The few she brought with her sold quickly, and she returned to Uganda in January 2006, to initiate the beginnings of Project Have Hope.

The Acholi Quarter was a rundown civilization, a slum, outside of Kampla.  The state people live in was unparalleled to the sincere and pure souls that the photographer saw there.  Sparacio spent two and a half weeks photographing the Alcholi women and capturing the illuminating spirits of the women in this slum.

Project Have Hope is based in Malden, Mass. Sparacio learned the unique craft of the Alcholi women and took back these skills with her to the United States.  Like the Acholi women, she and other volunteers make colorful beads out of recycled paper.  She then sells the jewelry at local craft fairs and online at www.projecthavehope.org.

Project Have Hope has helped hundreds of women since its inception in 2006. With the money earned from jewelry sales and donations, Project Have Hope has created programs that provide women with the skills to work and become educated; the organization also rekindles the hope that may have faded from these women along the way.  With the money raised, Project Have Hope started a literacy program for 22 women who had never before even stepped inside a classroom.  Karen Sparacio’s organization also began a vocational training program.  Currently, 18 women are enrolled, and when the training is complete, they will receive a loan that will enable them to immediately start their lives in the working world.

What began as a small loans program for 30 women to start small businesses, has grown to a “high risk jumbo loan,” for women with strong and viable business ideas.  The high risk loan will take these women two years to repay.

“[The main goal of Project Have Hope] was to help women create something that is sustainable once I’m gone,” Sparacio said. “Realistically, I know I can’t do this work forever. So my goal is to help provide the women with the education, skills and finances needed to help them support themselves without the need of outside, foreign assistance.”

Sparacio has spent thousands of hours working on Project Have Hope. When asked what she has gained through this journey, she simply says, “Friends.” Many of the women she meets in Uganda have been raped and assaulted, their children have been abducted and husbands have been beaten or killed.

“But they smile widely and often, laugh gregariously, and move forward with each passing day,” she said. “I am honored to consider many of them as friends. They are the people who remind me, even when I do not see them everyday of what is important in life.”

It must be true that life’s greatest gifts are not seen, but felt.

Sparacio remembers one boy who had been abducted at the young age of 8. He was forced to become a child soldier, but escaped nine months later. Sparacio took the boy to live with his Aunt in the Acholi Quarter. Through Project Have Hope, he has been sponsored in school for the past two years.  Whenever he sees Sparacio, he walks with her and holds her hand.

In January, the boy saw her sitting alone and asked if he could sing her a song. He began to sing the children’s song “Head and Shoulders…Knees and Toes,” while simultaneously touching each body part.

“He grinned happily and proudly as he sung. No matter how bad of a day I am having, I think of him and smile. What a sweet, kind child!” Sparacio said. “To at least some small degree, I was able to give him back his childhood and give him hope for the future.”

For more information on Project Have Hope, visit ProjectHaveHope.org.