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Building Community Featured

9 Digital Community Maps You Can Add To

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Well, you’re about to spend more than a few minutes browsing some pretty interesting maps. Have fun exploring your neighborhood …

Environmentalism Healthy Living

15 Food Items You Can Feel Good About Donating

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‘Tis the season for a food drive! Although we urge you to gift items to your local food bank or …

Building Community Healthy Living Lifelong Learning

180+ Special Days That Aren’t On Your Calendar (yet)

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Dear Fellow Americans, We’ve noticed that only a handful of holidays make it onto typical calendars, so we would like …

We will never forget this amazing woman on the boardwalk who collected used t-shirts and then cut and tied them into no-sew tote bags to hand out for free. Why? So that tourists could pick out designs they love and use fewer plastic bags near our beloved ocean. 🌊

This neighborhood in Chesapeake, VA is helping the ducks and geese request some healthy food instead of bread.

What if every city had an organization that not only lends tools but uses them to build picnic tables for schools and parks? The city is lucky to have you Richmond ToolBank! Thank you for your table in the shade at Mary Munford Elementary.

Yes! Peas on the grocery store shelf in compostable packaging! Can we please see this ASAP for all produce? If your favorite fresh foods are still coming in plastic, please consider taking a moment to email the distributor to ask them why. So far we have received some hopeful responses that indicate the industry is changing...

Chances are a farm sanctuary near you has an event in November to celebrate Thanksgiving WITH the turkeys! Don't miss it! We are grateful for each opportunity we have had to visit everyone at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Poolesville, MD.

You really just never know what you'll find when you pop in to a local bookstore. Thank you Givens Books & Little Dickens in Lynchburg, VA for the poster out front full of practical suggestions! 😊

Art making for free in a public park. Take a paint kit. Take a clipboard. Paint! Great idea Charlottesville, VA!

Does your town have a Creative Reuse shop yet? Donated craft supplies sold at affordable prices and classes offered to the community because art is for everyone! We found just the cord and stars we needed for our Inspiration in Print tent at this amazing place in Staunton, VA yesterday. Thank you Art Hive!

Leave a heads-up penny on the sidewalk to check off one thing from The Kindness Challenge.

Never have to buy toilet paper again! Choose a bidet with washable cotton cloth wipes over shredded virgin forest wrapped in plastic to take another step toward zero waste.

Very cute Lynchburg, VA! Great advice!

Our latest game, Go Snorkel!, is now available to download for free on our website. This is a recreation of the classic fishy card game. With a kind twist, instead of fishing for or "having" animals, the players become snorkelers peering through their goggles to discover some of the amazingly diverse creatures who live in our world's coral reefs. "Have you seen a unicornfish?"..."Nope, go snorkel!" CountingOnYouNow.net/fishes Features underwater photographs of 39 coral reef animals including 22 different fishes. For more info on these incredible beings, please check out Fish Feel (fishfeel.org)! ♥️🐠🦈🐟🐡

Easy way to connect and get a lovely conversation started: check out a Caregiver Kit from the Henrico Public Library. The books, DVDs, and discussion cards in the bags are organized around themes like 1940's/1950's, Holidays, Pets, and Automobiles.

If you're buying your books anywhere other than your local bookstore, you're missing out on the full experience. Thank you to Turn the Page Bookshop in Williamsburg, VA for making us smile with this display and all the jokes posted around the store!

Love all the homemade holiday decorations we spotted around Richmond like this plastic water jug that came back to life as a skeleton!

To the person who crafted this amazing gift for a stranger: Wow! We have never seen anything so special in a Little Free Library. A surprise book with a tea bag and a new bookmark and beautiful wrapping--this is going to make someone's day!

Wouldn't it be great if every neighborhood had fresh food growing for anyone and everyone? Love this Community Solidarity Garden Plot in Fredericksburg, VA! "Need a veggie? Take a veggie!" Thank you Downtown Greens. 🌱👍

This one is for all the book store, thrift store, and toy store owners out there and anyone having a yard sale. Please make people smile by copying this adorable idea spotted in the window of Staunton Books! Sign under stuffed animals reads: "Adopt us! Our owners outgrew us but we still want a home. $10 Adoption Fee Includes free kids book to read to me at bedtime! You can pick the book for me."

Check out the newest free printable on our website! Booklets full of thank you cards for children to cut, color, write, and deliver to the people they interact with at school and in the community. Let’s encourage kids to share their appreciation in the moment! Back cover also includes a chance for young people to show gratitude toward themselves. How many of the specific people can they thank by the end of the year?

This "Rest Swap" along a neighborhood walking trail invites everyone to sit while they look through items others have left for free on the share table. Great idea seen in Virginia Beach!

How much fun would it be to swap out the art in your home every six months? Thank you for this very exciting library check out idea Staunton Public Library!