The Actionable Literacy Project is a 12 interview DVD compilation, containing candid and unedited conversations with Best-Selling, business book authors. The conversations focus on employee success principles for the 21st century; explaining how “doing your job” isn’t enough any more… and what to do instead. The authors in this series donated their time to the project, allowing 100% of profits from the sales of these DVDs to support Room to Read; an organization dedicated to increasing global literacy.

The participants in the DVD:

• Seth Godin
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Roger Martin
• Simon Sinek
• Gina Mollicone-Long
• Max Lenderman
• Sally Hogshead
• Andy Nulman
• Dan Pink
• Dan Heath
• Steve Farber
• Sir Ken Robinson

You can follow their activity on twitter via the #ALProject hashtag, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Actionable-Books/120024331391272

For more information, or to purchase the DVD, visit www.actionableliteracy.com

In Africa, a bicycle can change a person’s life and a community’s future.  A bicycle can mean access to essential services such as clean water, medical care and education.  It’s an invaluable vehicle that opens up a world of possibilities.

For the second year, The Bicycle Factory™ is in operation and is close to its goal of virtually building 5,000 bicycles for school children in Africa.  There are only 1,000 bicycles to go, and we need your help!

The Bicycle Factory™ is open 24 hours a day at www.thebicyclefactory.ca.  To help, simply enter the UPC code of any Cadbury product including Caramilk*, Dairy Milk*¸ Maynards*, Dentyne*, Stride*, Trident* and Halls* and watch it magically transform into a virtual bicycle part that will help build a new bicycle for a child in Africa.  Each UPC code is equal to one bicycle part, and 100 UPC codes equal a bicycle. With your help, Cadbury will send 5,000 bicycles to Ghana, Africa.  Hurry, the factory closes on November 14, 2010.

Look at your gum, three o’clock snack and your after-dinner treat in a whole new way.

You have the power to make a difference!

As we’ve mentioned before, Starry Nights is the 8th annual gala recognizing deserving humanitarians in Toronto, organized by non-profit charity Ve’ahavta. You can learn more about how you can get involved on their site at www.veahavta.org or by checking them out on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/VeahavtaStarryNights.

To win 2 tickets to this gala all you have to do is to:
1. Follow them on Twitter @StarryNightsTO
2. Tweet why you want to go

You can then DM us on Twitter @DoOneGood to let us know

Good Luck!

The fundraiser runs from October 27th to November 6th, 2010. For every 10 net new followers the Twitter account, @StarryNightsTO, Ve’ahavata – the charity that organizes the Starry Nights gala every year - will donate 1 School Supply Kit to a deserving child in Haiti. These children cannot afford basic school supplies for their education. The School Supply Kits help relieve a family’s financial obstacle of providing their children with the education needed to battle poverty.  For more information on the fundraiser, you can find details on the Starry Night’s Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/aRhJ8E

So what can you do to help?
1. Make sure you follow @StarryNightsTO on Twitter
2. Tell your friends to follow the account as well!

More about the 8Th annual Starry Nights gala:
On November 7, Ve’ahavata will honour deserving humanitarians who have demonstrated extraordinary efforts to repair the world at Starry Nights: the Tikun Olam Awards. This year’s event features keynote speaker is internationally acclaimed humanitarian activist Sir Bob Geldof and Master of Ceremonies David Shore - creator, writer and executive producer for the award winning television series HOUSE M.D.

Starry Nights: Ve’ahaveta’s Tikun Olam Awards
Date: November 7, 2010
Time: 7PM-12AM
Location: Toronto Centre For The Performing Arts-Recital Hall
Street: 5040 Yonge Street (click for map)
City/Town: Toronto, ON
Event Facebook Page URL: http://www.facebook.com/VeahavtaStarryNights
Ticket Price: $125
Link to buy Tickets: http://bit.ly/StarryNightsTickets

More about the School Supply Kits (referred to as the Kinder Kit Project below) and Ve’ahavta:
Ve’ahavta’s launched the Kinder Kit Project in 2009 to provide educational supplies to 1,500 children in the pilot year. These kits contain the supplies necessary for a child’s academic year. Without the proper tools to learn, a child’s chance at success is dramatically decreased

In 2010, Ve’ahavta distributed over 10,000 Kinder Kits internationally through our international distribution partners in Israel, Haiti, Poland, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. Another 5,000 Kinder Kits will be distributed in Canada to enhance the ability of local organizations to improve the lives of the children they serve.

In 2011 Ve’ahavta is planning to distribute 30,000 kits worldwide in order to maintain our commitment to children of impoverished households.

Starry Nights is all about showing that there are people helping others around the world, and that every action is important. Your ticket to Starry Night does just that: Your contribution helps Ve’ahavta make the world a better place.

In case you haven’t heard about Ve’ahavta, here’s a bit about them: Motivated by the Jewish value of tzedakah – the obligation to do justice – Ve’ahavta assists the needy locally and abroad through volunteerism, education, and acts of kindness. Here’s some of the great work they’ve done recently:

• Saved over 200 orphans in Haiti by providing clean water and sustainable farming.
• Distributed over 10,000 ‘Kinder Kits’ internationally in Israel, Haiti, Poland, Zimbabwe & Kenya
• Developed a response to the crisis in Pakistan through a Pakistan Flood Relief Fund
• Distributed pharmaceuticals in Indonesia following a recent earthquake

On November 7, Ve’ahavata will honour deserving humanitarians who have demonstrated extraordinary efforts to repair the world at Starry Nights: the Tikun Olam Awards. This year’s event features keynote speaker is internationally acclaimed humanitarian activist Sir Bob Geldof and Master of Ceremonies David Shore - creator, writer and executive producer for the award winning television series HOUSE M.D.

So come out on November 7 to support Starry NIghts and meet people who are looking to make a difference just like you.

And follow Starry Nights on twitter @StarryNightsTO to stay for fun facts, giveaways and other great ways to support Starry Nights!

Starry Nights: Ve’ahaveta’s Tikun Olam Awards
Date: November 7, 2010
Time: 7PM-12AM
Location: Toronto Centre For The Performing Arts-Recital Hall
Street: 5040 Yonge Street (click for map)
City/Town: Toronto, ON
Event Facebook Page URL: http://www.facebook.com/VeahavtaStarryNights
Ticket Price: $125
Link to buy Tickets: http://bit.ly/StarryNightsTickets

Toronto, ON - Over 200 Torontonians came together at heARTS for Pakistan this Monday, October 18, 2010 at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, where over $15,000 was raised, with approximately $5000 matched by CIDA and the Canadian government, for survivors of the Pakistani floods which devastated the country back in August.

Partnered with the Humanitarian Coalition, heARTS for Pakistan, a silent art auction and fundraiser, successfully engaged the Toronto community and provided an opportunity for the arts community across Canada to collaboratively support international efforts to bring relief to victims of the floods in Pakistan.

The worst humanitarian tragedy of the decade according to the United Nations, the Pakistani floods have affected one-fifth of Pakistan and have left over 20 million people displaced. As governments around the world struggle to assist survivors of the floods, the UN has requested international donors to come together to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars now required in aid. The most vulnerable now face twin perils of hunger and disease as food supplies have been devastated and sources of clean water severely contaminated.

Among others, speakers at the event included Scarborough MP Jim Karygiannis, who has accompanied doctors to Pakistan since the floods and spoke about the heartfelt plea of the Pakistani people. He encouraged people to open their hearts and their wallets and in an impromptu on-stage bidding, collected $780 in donations in under five minutes, for the cause.

The silent art auction sold 75 of the generously donated art pieces sold, while providing the Toronto community a chance to bid on beautiful art work, serving as lasting reminders of an effort to help flood survivors re-build their lives in Pakistan, well beyond the event.

The night came together with special guest appearances by strong supporters of the arts including Toronto’s Deputy Mayor, Joe Pantalone; MP for Scarborough, Jim Karygiannis; Mrs Pakistan World, Tehmena Bokhari; Miss India Canada, Anchal Sharma, singer from popular pop/rock band JoSH, Q, along with community dignitaries, business leaders, and of course Canadian artists.

“A crisis can build a community and show us at our best. This is definitely the case for heARTS for Pakistan, who brought together volunteers, artists, sponsors and supporters to raise critically-needed funds for Humanitarian Coalition members’ Pakistan flood-relief efforts” said Humanitarian Coalition spokesperson, Denise Koulis. “The money raised by heARTS for Pakistan will save lives and help rebuild communities.”

About H4PK: Building on the success of heARTS for Haiti in Vancouver,  heARTS for Pakistanwas a silent art auction and fundraiser held on Monday, October 18 at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, to raise money and awareness for the victims of the floods in Pakistan back in August. 100% of the proceeds went to support the Humanitarian Coalition’s flood relief efforts in Pakistan. For more information, please visit: www.hearts4pakistan.com

About Humanitarian Coalition:  Four of Canada’s leading aid organizations have founded the Humanitarian Coalition: CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec and Save the Children Canada. The members of the Humanitarian Coalition work together to increase the impact of Canadian humanitarian responses and reduce administrative costs. For more information, please visit: www.thehumanitariancoalition.ca

For more pictures from the event please visit:
www.picasaweb.google.com/hearts4pakistan/HeARTSForPakistan#

First off, Happy Holidays! Whether you are celebrating this time with your family, friends, do gooders or whoever, we would like to wish you a Super Fantastic holiday!

This time of year is usually when a lot of us reflect on the previous year. Well, this was an amazing exercise for us because as you know a ton of great things happened here at Daily Challenge and we have you amazing people to thank for all the awesomeness of the past year.

To quickly review - the 11 highlights of 2009:

1. On November 4th 2008 we launched our blog and started to share our story with you (yes I know this was not in 2009, but I think its important to remember the beginnings
2. We had Verne Ho do his thing (click here) isn’t he awesome?
3. Deepak Chopra was a guest challenger and he challenged us to join him in his movement (click here)
4. We joined #TwestivalTO and partied hard with you to raise $ for Charity Water (click here)
5. We proved that Toronto has still got Do Gooders - and trust me it was freezing (click here)
6. In March we launched Daily Challenge’s new design - lots of sleepless nights for @dariusBashar @verneho and Luciano
7. We joined Improv Toronto in the random subway dance party (click here)
8. We had our First Pay It Backward Day and broke a world record (click here)
9. We added Robin Sharma  to our list of celebrity Do Gooders (click here)
10. We partied again (much harder) at Twestival. This time for the Meal Exchange (click here)
11. We launched our 2nd Pay It Backward Day #pibDay, had over 20,000 people participate across Ontario and raised $15,000 for SickKids Foundation (click here)

Like I said earlier, none of this would have happened without you all. So thank you for all of your support and encouragement.

In 2010 we hope to do the following:

1. Take Pay It Backward Day across Canada - So mark September 30th, 2010 in your calendars! And boy oh boy do we have some surprises up our sleeves.
2. Bring you other events and initiatives that with your collaboration will change our world for the better.
3. Develop DailyChallene.org and establish it as a tool that helps and empowers you to launch your own good initiative. (DC 3.0)

We always love to hear from you. So please send your comments, tweets, emails and let us know what you’re thinking.
Wishing you a super duper new year!

The Daily Challenge Team

After all of the hooplah and excitement of Pay It Backward Day settled down, we randomly drew the winning names from our marvelous list of Do Gooders - and we are now prepared to reward a few of you (5 to be exact!) for being so awesome. So, without further adeiu, I’d like to announce our five lucky, lovely, glorious, amazing, totally cool winners of their very own brand new iPod Nanos! (Oh and by the way, they come in really pretty colors, too). Drum roll por favor?

And the winners aaaaare: Ms. Joann Lim, Mr. David Feldt, Mr. Jamie Franks, Ms. Carolyn Johnstone, aaaanddd….Mr. Eric Floresca!

Wahooooooo, congratulations guys! And thank you again for doing your part to help make Pay It Backward Day such an amazing event! Please consider this as a small token of appreciation, courtesy of the Daily Challenge team Go PIB Go!

As most of you know, this past September 30th, Daily Challenge embarked on one of its most exciting adventures yet. Because our last Pay It Backward Day - all the way back in April (wow, time flies) - was so successful, we paired up with The Second Cup Ltd, Silk Soy Beverage Canada and our Donation Partner Ivanhoe Cambridge to put on a second (and extremely awesome) Pay It Backward Day event!  The difference? WELL this time around, we took it across the entire province. Do Gooders were invited to visit any one of the Ontario’s 170+ participating Second Cup cafes and buy the order for the person behind them in line.  The even cooler added bonus? Every time somebody Paid It Backward on September 30th, our sponsors agreed to donate $5* to SickKids Foundation!

As you can see, we were amped up to make this event a tremendous success! We had a goal of inspiring 3,000 acts of “coffee kindness” on this glorious day – and frankly, you guys blew it out of the water. The official count of generous Do Gooders who came out to Pay It Backward for SickKids totaled at a whopping 22,287! And what’s better – those 22,287 small acts of kindness benefited SickKids in a BIG way – raising $15,000 for SickKids Foundation in a single day!

A SUPER HUGE thank you goes to our amazing event sponsors, media partners, and donation sponsors for all of their generosity in helping bring Pay It Backward Day to life! And of course, a big shout out to our dedicated Pay It Backward Day committee members and incredible team of helpers on the big day. Finally, thanks to all who came out to make the Head Quraters location the massive celebration that it was, specifically: Team FLOW from FLOW 93.5, Julie Crochetiere, Leo Stakos from FishTV, Talia Russo, Freestyle Soccer, and Canadian Beat Boxer Champion Scott Jackson. Without any of you guys, this event would not have been what it was!

If you weren’t able to stop on by yourself, do not fret! Our fantabulous videographers Kenway and Jon Lim were at the event ALL day capturing the magic. Check out the excitement of Pay It Backward Day below:

GO PIB GO!

* Pay It Backward Day is brought to you by Daily Challenge. Second Cup and Silk Soy Beverage Canada are proud sponsors of Pay It Backward Day. These sponsors as well as our donation partner Ivanhoe Cambridge will be contributing a total of $5 every time a customer buys the person behind them their order for a maximum of $5000.00 Canadian per organization. All dollar contributions go to SickKids Foundation. This offer is available on September 30th, 2009 in participating Second Cup locations in Ontario. © 2009 WhiteWave Foods.