Helping Others During the Holidays by Mapping Donation Centers

[SP31]

During the Holidays around the World, many may be busy with wrapping up end-of-the-year projects at work, finishing the semester at school, or even entertaining and spending quality time with many family members who may be visiting. 

There are many ways Local Guides can utilize Google Maps to help others in their communities and around the Globe - one way I wanted to highlight using Maps to help others is by mapping donation centers or boxes in your city. In a post by @RohithaF earlier this year, he highlighted the need for a category for mapping these locations. The category of "donation center" was finally an option and suitable for what I was trying to accomplish. 

Goodwill trailer that I edited details for .

While venturing about, I noticed that there were many of these donation boxes or trailers that were in my city, but not on Maps. I know a lot of people who have a ton of items they would donate, but they usually cite that they don't have the time or are too busy to travel out of their ways to drop off their items. By mapping these donation locations, we can make it easier for those who are looking for a way to donate items they no longer use - especially if it is near them.

Making edits to the Goodwill trailer.

For the Goodwill donation trailer above, it had no details that provided information on when it was open, no phone number, and didn't have a name/category that made sense or would indicate that it was a donation center.

Edit approved!

Although it took a while, it finally got approved and now is correct on Maps!

Donation center I added.

Another location that I noticed was not on Maps, so I made the trip to that box when I had a chance and took a photo and video of me placing my own item to donate. 

Donation center that I added photo and video of.

After a few moments, my addition was approved and live! 

Many of these donations either go to needy families/individuals or are resold by charitable stores that support employment of those who may be in need or may be disabled and help those in need. Donating this way also reduces the amount of waste that may end up in landfills. By adding these locations to Maps, it may encourage people who have the idea of donating to follow through and do so, especially if the donation center/box/trailer is near them, and will hopefully have trickle down effects of helping others. 

Happy Mapping!

[KashifMisidia]

Great work @SP31 , to add places which may help thousands of others is really an awesome job.

Keep doing awesome work and be inspiration for others.👏👏👍👍👌👌

[ShahnewazAhmed]

Thank you @SP31 for sharing your moment with us. Keep up the great job. Seeing a post like this gives others inspiration.

Happy Mapping!

[Shirley]

Wow thanks @SP31! What a great idea for this festive season. Not only are you giving back by donating items, you're also correcting maps along the way! Love it!! Happy holidays too~!

[MortenSI]

Hi @SP31,

This is a great initiative!

I think marking these boxes is a great idea, and many people will benefit form this. 

If you want to create even more awareness on this subject, you can host a meet-up in your area and mark these boxes with others.

This has proven to be a great way of putting focus on a certain subject, like it's been done with wheelchair accessibility around the world.

I hope to see more posts about donation boxes soon, hopefully it can get lots of attention.

[SP31]

@ShahnewazAhmed @KashifMisidia thank you both so much for your encouraging words!

@Shirley thank you! 😄 absolutely, its great when you can combine contributing to Maps with an everyday activity, especially when it benefits others. Happy holidays to you too! 🙂 

@MortenSI thank you so much - you're right, a meet-up would be a great idea in the case of identifying and finding these donation boxes and other donation centers as well. 

[IrrPavlova]

Awesome, @SP31! You certainly chose the best time of the year to organize this mapping. Make sure we see the recap, I want to know how much these boxes collected. 🙂

[MortenSI]

I think it will be a great place to start @SP31. 

Hosting meet-ups in your area will create more awareness in the community, and hopefully other Local Guides will feel inspired to do the same in their city or country.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

[TsekoV]

This is a great initiative @SP31 that you started. Such deeds should receive society's appreciation.

I hope people will learn from this and the number of people donating will continue growing.

Share is care! I hope to see this in my country too!

[SP31]

Thank you so much @IrrPavlova & @TsekoV! Definitely hoping that it creates more awareness at the ways us Guides can use Maps to do better and bring awareness 🙂 .