The Cars 4 Causes Blog.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee provides 2,700 acres of land, care and feeding for elderly, sick, needy or troubled elephants rescued from zoos and circuses. The sanctuary allows elephants to live out their lives in a natural habitat under strict monitoring and loving care of veterinarians, staff caregivers, and volunteers.

They have also opened an educational center in Lewis County, Tennessee to educate people about the work they do at the Elephant Sanctuary and about the plight of elephants in zoos and circuses. They also allow visitors to view live video feeds of the elephants at the Sanctuary.  The Sanctuary protects the elephants’ routines and habitat while still allowing visitors to view them in real time.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has an outreach program that travels nationwide, and a popular non-profit YouTube channel (ranked #61 all-time most viewed) to track the elephants in the sanctuary. I viewed their Summer 2008 newsletter online, and found it very informative with great pictures of the elephant residents making use of all features provided by the dedicated staff. They also had 2 moving tributes to grand elephants that have peacefully passed on.

Obviously, with these huge pachyderms, there is also a huge price tag. I was curious to find out about their fund-raising on the website and what it costs to foot the bill for 15-20 elephants. Granted, the elephants have a wealth of hardwood forest and vegetation to eat from at the Sanctuary’s natural habitat, but it is not able to sustain the 17 elephants currently residing there. Residents are fed a “breakfast basket” of hay and fruit daily to supplement the available wild vegetation. They have pretty well browsed the available vegetation in the habitat, but with the rich “fertilizer” they leave behind (literally), there has been a positive impact on the foliage on the grounds overall.

If you decide to donate your car to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, will it help the elephants? You bet it will! Your vehicle donation could feed an elephant for almost a whole month. Of course, this time frame could vary depending on the vehicle being donated, but anyway you look at it, that’s a lot of peanuts!

Keep giving everybody.

America’s Day of Action is this Saturday, September 27. Across America, you will find people taking action in the form of service, marches, rallies and events. People are gathering to effectuate change in their local communities and thereby collectively enriching our country as a whole. Thousands of events will be held across America. These service organizations have a great impact on the communities they provide for. Joining in on one of these volunteer projects on this Day of Action is a great opportunity for people to connect with their local service organizations. Be careful when you volunteer because you just might get hooked!

So far, bethechangeinc.org has recorded 2652 events planned in 50 states across America. click here to enter your zip code to see what is happening in and around your community. Where can your time, talent and energy contribute the most?

Cars 4 Causes® Car Give-Away Program has made a huge difference in Linda’s family life.  Linda is caring for her six grandchildren and needed a way to transport all of them together.

The request for help came from Kaiser Permanente explaining that taking over the care of these children was a surprise and Linda didn’t have much time to prepare or make arrangements. She simply knew that her grandchildren needed her, so she accepted the task.

Cars 4 Causes® responded to this need with a 1998 Dodge Caravan which can accommodate everyone.

Linda picked up the mini van at Cars 4 Causes® on Tuesday accompanied by some of her grandchildren, who were happy and excited about the new car. Executive Director Pat Jessup revealed that she had a previous recipient lined up for the van, but it wasn’t the right match to meet her needs, “I got the call about Linda right after hanging up the phone with the other person, and thought, this van must be for her.”

We are so pleased to have been instrumental in making a difference to Linda and her family with this car donation.

Today is September 11, 2008. A solemn anniversary of a date that forever changed the face of  New York City, America, and the entire world. A black eye on the face of America, some say; certainly one of the saddest events in recent history.

The good news is that the National 911 Memorial and Museum has approved and is building what will be a beautiful place of reverence, reflection and remembrance on the site of the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

The Memorial Museum will house artifacts and recorded oral histories related to the terrorist attacks. The National 9-11 Memorial design contest selected “Reflecting Absence”, which built two reflecting pools in the footprints of the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center. These pools have the largest continuous man-made waterfalls in the country going endlessly down the outer walls into the center of the pools. The names of the fallen from that day and also the names of the first responders to the tragedy will be listed around the edges of each pool.

More than three hundred trees have also been planted to renew the site of the World Trade Center. There will be numerous related places for visitors to stop and contemplate at this site made sacred by the extreme and tragic loss of life that day. All of this will be located near the new Freedom Tower, and three other commercial buildings which have been built during the renewal of what was, until recently, the wreckage of Ground Zero.

The Mayor of NYC has stated that the design of the National 9-11 Memorial has taken into account all feedback from the families of the fallen, as well as the suggestions received during the quest for the most appropriate design. While he knows that not everyone will be satisfied with the final result, every effort was made to respect the wishes of the families and loved ones of those who were lost. They have created a Memorial with peaceful places to go to contemplate the tragedy and pay tribute to those who lost their lives.

Family members will have a private entrance, as well as private spaces for contemplation on the grounds of the new National 9-11 Memorial.

This Memorial has been funded by donations from all over the world. Cars 4 Causes® is proud to be a contributor, along with those people who have poured out their hearts and given generously to this important project. We want to honor those emergency workers and ordinary citizens who gave on September 11, 2001. They made the ultimate sacrifice, and gave their very lives. Let us remember them today. Learn how to donate car today!

I met Sister Mary when she came to Cars 4 Causes® corporate offices to make a donation of two vehicles that were at the St. Barbara Monastery. In addition to the vehicle donations she was making, Sister Mary was also discussing the need for additional housing for the Sisters at St. Barbara. The monastery, which is strictly for women, was founded in 1992, and was then located in Santa Barbara.

The community of twelve Sisters moved to their current location in Santa Paula in 2005, and once there, ran into some snags with their housing plans. The Sisters needed places to stay until their building issues could be resolved. In the meantime, they are living in various trailers situated on the grounds of St. Barbara’s Monastery.

Cars 4 Causes® had a trailer that was perfect for their needs. We delivered the 27 foot 1986 Century Travel Trailer to St. Barbara’s last week, to the delight of Sister Mary. You can view the video of the trailer donation and Sister Mary’s sincere thank you to Cars 4 Causes®.