Here is a list of all my favorite charities. Some of them I like for personal reasons. Some I chose because they’re related to something in one of my books. I encourage you to consider donating to these worthy causes.
In Once Upon a Hero, the hero was confined to a wheelchair because of a war injury. While researching this book, I discovered The Wheelchair Foundation, which strives to provide free wheelchairs to people all over the world who need them.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation wants to eradicate Parkinson’s, a disease my mother-in-law suffered from.
In Darkroom, Indi Briscoe’s goal in life was to become a surgeon so she could travel the world helping children with clefts. Smile Train is an organization that facilitates this by sending doctors and by training local professionals to perform the surgeries themselves. If you’ve never seen before and after pictures of children with clefts, it’s absolutely miraculous what they can do and how profoundly the children’s lives are improved.
In addition, Indi was born with a Port Wine Stain birthmark, a visual stigma that caused her to be the victim of bullying when she was a child. During the course of the book, she learns more than she ever thought she could about her own personal beauty. The Vascular Birthmarks Foundation strives to make sure that “every birthmark patient has an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan.” Even in this day and age, these birthmarks are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed.
