Forgotten Gift Cards Can Keep Charities Alive (NAPSA)—Your forgotten gift card may be just the medicine needed to keepa charity alive. To show Americans how to donate their gift cards to charity, Mophe the Clown took a 1,000mile unicycle journey around the U.S. “I read somewhere that $90 billion in gift cards was sold last year and about 10 percent will never be used,” said Mophe. It seemslike a lot of money, but many people have more than one $5-$20 gift card sitting in a wallet, purse or junk drawer. Mophe asks everyone to send such gift cards to their favorite charity so the charities can continue to pro- vide essential services in our communities and also the jobs for the people that work there. Here are some of Mophe’s ideas to get the 1,000-mile unicycle journey to cards to the charities: Return them in the next do- teach everyone to donate their forgotten gift cards to charities. Drop them in the kettle when you hear the bell ringing them to Web sites such as Drop them in the basket at church. Do a gift card drive at school. for the charity. What’s next for Mophe now that the 1,000 miles are over? nation envelope you receive from a charity. this holiday season. Send them to food banks, shelters, museums, thezoo, etc. Collect them at your com- pany after the holidays and deliver a box of hope to a struggling charity. So the big question is, how do the charities get the money out of the gift cards? “The charities can use someof the cards, like grocery cards at the food banks and clothing or bedding store cards at the shelters,” said Mophe. “Any charity can use office supply gift cards.” He provided a few additional ideas, such as using the cards for charity silent auctions, selling www.GiftCardBuyBack.com, or having a company such as www.GiftCardDonor.com manage and resell all the donated cards “’m hoping to finish a book about my incredible journey around America by the end of the year. I'l] continue to ride in some charity events and parades, and wouldlike to visit patients at hos- pitals to cheer them up. You know what they say, ‘laughter is the best medicine.’ There are many possibilities after that—just as long as I can makea difference!” You can search for Mophe on Facebook and Twitter to find out more about his journey and what he is doing next.
