Stuff to Blog About and More: Make A Difference Day

Make A Difference Day is a national day of helping others . Created by USA WEEKEND Magazine, Make A Difference Day is an annual event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October.

The next event is Saturday, October 25, 2008.

Guide to the Day, creating and launching a project: Download a PDF brochure

Millions have participated. In 2007, 3 million people cared enough about their communities to volunteer on that day, accomplishing thousands of projects in hundreds of towns. Your project can be as large or as small as you wish! Look around your community and see what needs to be done.

Or let the Idea Generator help you find a project idea to help your community. After participating Oct. 25, please send in an entry form so you will be counted among the millions of volunteers and be considered for an award. Each year in April, hundreds of good deeds done on Make A Difference Day are selected for honors, headlines and charitable donations. $10,000 to 10 projects

Newman's Own provide $10,000 donations to the charities of each of 10 national honorees. These 10 honorees will be spotlighted in an April 2009 issue, coinciding with National Volunteer week, and here on this Web site.

What are the rules? If you want to participate, just help someone else on the next Make A Difference Day, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008. If you cannot participate on Saturday for religious reasons, you may do your project on Sunday. If you volunteer regularly, great! On Make A Difference Day, give an extra push to your ongoing volunteer activity. For example, expand your regular tutoring by creating a special event for the students, such as a trip to the library where they volunteer, or the recruitment of new students.

If you don't volunteer now, here's an occasion to get started. You could clean up an elderly neighbor's house, or organize your block to replant and repair a local park. You could visit lonely, institutionalized kids or the elderly. You can join in on someone else's project listed on this Web site. If you need more than one day for your project, still plan to do a good part of your volunteering on Make A Difference Day. For example, if you are rebuilding a community soup kitchen, you may have to do some wiring the week before or some painting the week after, but a significant part of the construction needs to take place on that Saturday.

If your volunteers are together only Monday-Friday (such as schools and workplaces), still plan to do a good part of your volunteering on Make A Difference Day. For example, if students collect food for the homeless during the school week, get a special group of students and teachers together on Saturday to hand-deliver the food to homeless people or a shelter. If it rains or snows, Make A Difference Day goes on. If your project is outdoors, have a contingency plan, or forge ahead. If you are an employee of Gannett, Hands On Network or USA WEEKEND carrier newspapers, you are invited to participate in Make A Difference Day, but you are ineligible for awards. If you are selected to receive an award, you must sign releases. The top-10 honorees participate in an awards ceremony.

FTC: Your Rights: Credit Reporting

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, has prepared a brochure, Your Access to Free Credit Reports, explaining your rights under the FCRA and how to order a free annual credit report.

A credit report includes information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you've been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. Nationwide consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses that use it to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, or renting a home.

How do I order my free report?

You can order your free annual credit report online at annualcreditreport.com, by calling 1-877-322-8228, or by completing the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mailing it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

When you order, you need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. To verify your identity, you may need to provide some information that only you would know, like the amount of your monthly mortgage payment.

A Warning About "Imposter" Sites

The FTC advises consumers who order their free annual credit reports online to be sure to correctly spell annualcreditreport.com, or link to it from the FTC's website to avoid being misdirected to other websites that offer supposedly free reports,but only with the purchase of other products. While consumers may be offered additional products or services while on the authorized website, they are not required to make a purchase to receive their free annual credit reports.

For more information on free annual credit reports, read Your Access to Free Credit Reports.