Last updated 5/4/03

Return Mother's Day to its original intention as a day to promote peace in the world

The METROWEST DAILY NEWS
Sunday, May 12, 2002

Mother's Day gifts to charity

The rivers of the world flow with blood shed in constant conflict over religion and politics and policy. Peace seems elusive.

But it is the dream of most mothers that there will someday be peace in this world, a dream given a voice by Julia Ward Howe in t872 who, after the loss of her son to the violence of the Civil War, suggested a Mother's Peace Day.

It has since been shortened to Mother's Day, and it's significance diminished by commercialization.

A group of mothers in Sherborn - members of the "Every Mother's Day" project - hope to bring peace back into the day and guide those of us compelled to buy cards and useless trinkets for our mothers and grandmothers to instead spend our money on something that will make this world a better place.

They suggest donations to one of four charities: Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee, Halo USA Inc., or the American Friends Service Committee. The group provides, at its web site www.everymothersdav.org, the address of each organization and a beautiful gift card that can be presented to the person being honored by the donation.

But you don't have to be a peace activist to make Mother's Day more than a Hallmark moment. There is in this country and around the world a tremendous number of families who live in poverty, despair and violence. Gifts to organizations like food pantries, homes for battered women, homeless shelters, and advocates against domestic violence can both celebrate motherhood and help bring peace to troubled families.

You can also honor your mother - or the memory of a mother who has passed - with a gift to her favorite charity. Motherhood, after all, is about giving, and while mothers cherish even the most humble gift from their children, they also take pride in seeing the generosity they've taught shared with others in need.