I've met lots of heroes, but none wears a Superman cape.  In fact, the majority of them look pretty much like everyone else.  When you pass them on the street, you have no idea how powerful they are.  And that's a shame, because there's something inspiring when you know you're in the presence of greatness.

To make sure some of that wonder is revealed, we've teamed up with Tom's of Maine to create the "Hero Next Door" contest.  It's an opportunity to honor everyday people who are doing extraordinary things to make a difference. 

How it works: Simply nominate an individual you see as a hero. In January, we'll review the nominations and select 10 finalists for a popular vote to determine who will win $2,500 for themselves and a matching $2,500 for the charity of their choice.

But this contest is about so much more than picking a winner. It's about giving thanks to the people around us who are making a difference in our lives and the community.  Maybe you want to thank your Mother, your neighbor, or a teacher who made a big impact in your life or the lives of others.  Maybe they didn't end world hunger, but they showed compassion and concern for others and took action to make a difference.

For example, you probably wouldn't pick my neighbor out of a crowd and know he's a hero - but he's coordinating a ballot drive to pass legislation that would provide $6 million in funding to our local schools and library - money desperately needed given state and county cuts.  He's got a job, a family, a dog and plenty of other things to keep him busy, but he's also volunteering to take on this huge project to benefit the community as a whole. That's hero material in my book.

Another more visible example, from the Care2 Community: members Bill and Victoria Strong. Their daughter was born with a terrible genetic disorder, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a situation that would paralyze with anguish most parents.  Not the Strongs. They took action to organize a grassroots effort - collecting over 80,000 petition signatures - to pass the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act, which thanks to their efforts is now with Congress.  True heroes.

We've already received over 400 hero nominations, and I encourage you to take a look at their stories for a dose of inspiration, humility and sense of gratitude.  We're all surrounded by heroes - we often just aren't aware they're out there.  The Hero Next Door contest is a great opportunity to show your appreciation and give a little something back to these wonderful Forces for Good.

We're thrilled to announce that Care2 has won the People's Choice Award for Green Business of the Year!  The award is presented each year by Green America, one of the nonprofit pioneers helping to build a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us!  I want to make it clear though, that those most deserving of kudos are all of our members and nonprofit partners who are taking action every day to make the world a better place.  Our impact is really a reflection of all the good each of you is accomplishing.  So congratulations and Thank you!!

I also want to thank Green America which is as genuine and committed to a sustainable future as any organization I know - and plays a pivotal role through its Green Festivals, Green Business Conference and Green Pages.

We are also honored to be among a such an outstanding group of finalists for the prize, including ReusableBags.com, Lunapads, Grounds for Change, and others committed to using the power of markets to make the world a better place.

When I started Care2, nearly 12 years ago, I had two primary goals: 1) Empower as many individuals as possible to make the world a better place and 2) Create a new model for business where the product is literally "goodness" - so that the more good we do, the more revenues we generate.  I'm pleased to say we're well on our way to achieving the first goal (though we have a few billion more members yet to sign on and we've actually accomplished the second goal.  Because sponsors pay us based on the number of people using our site for good, in general, the more good that happens on Care2, the more revenues we're able to generate to put back into making the site even more powerful - a virtuous cycle.
 
During the recent award ceremony, Green America noted that the reasons people said they voted for Care2 were diverse.  I love to see that, as we believe that we must take a holistic approach to change; we must change ourselves *and* we must change the world around us.  It takes a diversity of people and approaches to solving the World's toughest challenges.

A few of the comments from folks who voted for Care2:

"Care2 does so many wonderful things for people and the earth. I have become so much more informed about things and better able to make my voice heard."
-- Lora S., MO

"Care2 makes it easy for people to give to charities of all different
kinds. It doesn't take a lot of time, and this helps people to realize
how simple it truly is to help make a change in the world." 
-- Jennifer H., Sweden

"Care2 has been reaching out to the global community for over 10 years to "make a difference". A tremendous outreach for awareness, solutions starting at the personal level, and provides a network for communication among so many that care. Fun, too!"
-- Denise D., TN

"They empower individuals to live a more conscious lifestyle in order to make the world a better place and to help demonstrate that businesses and the internet can be a powerful force for the good."
-- Jo Anne F., MI

Thank you again, and Congratulations to all Care2 members and nonprofit partners. Together we are making a difference!

I had the good fortune to spend some time with former President Jimmy Carter, yesterday, at a gathering in Menlo Park, CA.  I was impressed with his achievements, but also for his authenticity, compassion and commitment to those less fortunate. In the 28 years since he was president, Carter has arguably achieved more good than he was able to while holding the most powerful office on Earth.

After leaving office in 1981, Carter and his wife Rosalynn, founded The Carter Center whose tagline is "Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope."  He says the role of The Carter Center is to help where governments, institutions and other organizations are not.  Their achievements are too many to list here, but range from nearly eradicating Guinea worm disease (from over 3.5 million cases to less than 4,000 today), to monitoring elections in developing nations, helping to resolve conflicts in Bosnia, Haiti and elsewhere, working toward peace in the Middle East, supporting mental health programs, building homes for the poor around the world, standing up for women's equality, and much, much more.  Well deserving of his 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.  In the past two weeks alone, 85 year old Carter has been in 8 different countries, is in the middle of writing his 26th book, and sounds like he has no plans to slow down. 

He calls his gatherings like the one I attended, "conversations", as he spent the majority of his time answering questions from the roughly 150 guests.  He addressed questions about refugees (we need to do more to help, and understand that what many in the US call "illegal immigrants" are in fact, themselves, refugees), Iran (isolation and threats simply drive them toward developing nuclear weapons), and some of the controversies he's been involved in, such as the title of his 2006 book, "Palestine Not Apartheid" (his intent was to raise awareness of the terrible conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza, not label Israel as running an Apartheid state), and how he and Rosalynn severed ties with the Southern Baptist Convention (because the group, "like many of the Great Religions", puts women subservient to men, and "those kind of decisions, promulgated by religious leaders in the name of God, are picked up by men who want to abuse women in other ways, and used as an excuse" resulting in further injustices to women in society.)

I asked former President Carter how the average person could best help human rights around the world.  His response was threefold: 1) Support organizations that are working in the field to further human rights, such as Amnesty International and (he included somewhat apologetically), his own Carter Foundation.  2) Teach our children and those around us the importance of human rights and get them involved in activities where they can interact with, and help, "people who are different from us"  and 3) Recognize that the term "human rights" around the world means more than just Freedom of Speech, and the liberties that we tend to associate with the term here in the US, Japan and Europe. "Human Rights" for much of the world is about having basic needs met with clean water, food, and health care.  It's important to "help the suffering people who don't have the right to drink a clean drink of water. That is just as much help as it is to try to promote Freedom of Speech in America where you'll always have Freedom of Speech."

I walked away from the evening inspired, humbled, and with tremendous gratitude that President Carter has chosen to devote his life in the service of others. At the end of the evening I jokingly asked him if only former US Presidents were able to live such an extraordinary life, to which he laughed and replied "no, anyone can do this". And while there's no question he gets incredible opportunities the rest of us will never have, I think he's also correct that each of us, in our own way, can have an extraordinary impact on others if we live our lives filled with compassion, gratitude, and the belief that we can make a difference.

As a father of two elementary school children, I’m particularly excited about Care2’s new "America’s Favorite School" contest. We’re partnering with GreatSchools, an independent, nonprofit organization that improves education by inspiring parents to be involved, to promote this fun new way for communities to rally around their school. And when the virtual dust settles after voting ends on November 8th, the top school will win $20,000!

Parents and educators know that test scores only tell one side of the story for a school. Every day in every school across the country, committed teachers, parent volunteers, student leaders and caring communities go that extra mile to make our schools the special places our children need to learn, grow and thrive.

With our country's ongoing economic problems, schools across the nation face deep budget cuts this fall, and parents are understandably concerned. A recent GreatSchools poll found more than three in five parents (61%) believe the quality of education in their school will suffer because of cutbacks.

Now is a perfect time to support America’s schools. At the heart of every great school are passionate individuals giving it their all to help educate and inspire our children.  Our mission at Care2.com is to help people make the world a better place, so we’re excited to be able to reward the teachers, parents, students and communities that are making an extraordinary difference.

Care2 will be awarding $36,000 to schools across the United States through this contest. We are committed to ensuring that all schools, regardless of demographics and average community income, have the opportunity to win; so, we'll be awarding a cash prize every week to a randomly selected school. And, in addition to the grand prize awarded to the school with the most votes, Care2 will award a total of $11,000 to the four schools in second through fifth place.

We're off to a great start, with schools in NYC and CA leading the pack.  That said, the leading schools got most of their votes over a few days of concerted efforts - so the race is still wide open for schools that can get the word out in their communities.  The winning school isn't necessarily going to be the biggest - it's going to be the school that best rallies its supporters and gets creative to spread the word online.

Whether you’re a mom to a first grader, the grandfather of four, or a young person with fond memories of your elementary school, you can vote today and spread the word to help your favorite school win.

• Faster page loads (yeah!)
• Better navigation that highlights pages you’ve completed (yeah!)
• A framework that will allow us to do more frequent updates (we'll keep you up to date as to how your donations are making an impact).
• A fresh look and feel.
• A Top Clickers page to honor all of you fantastic clickers.
• A new Click To Donate to help wolves.
• Susan G. Komen fund is our new Click for a Cure partner!

Today, a local high school was shaken when a former student detonated a pipe bomb in the school. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported.  Friday night, another local student committed suicide on the train tracks, near where two others ended their lives weeks apart last spring, and where another suicide was narrowly averted.

These kind of tragedies seem to becoming more common all around the country.  It scares me as a parent, and saddens me as someone who feels everyday is good and we all have so much to look forward to.  As a society, we are failing miserably to protect and nourish our most precious assets:  our children.

We see fingers pointed in all directions.  There’s too much pressure on kids these days.  The family unit has broken down.  There’s less community support.  Parents are working too much to spend quality time with their children.  Mass media is bad influence, etc.     And I’m sure there are many other contributing factors.  But you know what?  The pressures and challenges on our children are only going to get worse.  The world is getting flatter, change is happening faster, and children are going to continue to be exposed to more challenges earlier and earlier.

So what are we going to do about it?  I believe a big part of the answer is something we don’t hear much talk about:  Make “emotional state management” a mandatory part of the K-12 curriculum.  Huh? Our schools are understaffed and overburdened, and I’m talking about some new mind control program? Here’s what I mean:

Have you ever noticed the diversity of responses to a situation?  To take an extreme example, imagine a bomb goes off.   One person’s response may be to want to hunt down and punish the person responsible.  Someone else may just sit and cry or want to hide from society.  Another person sees the fragility of life, and is thankful for their friends and family.  Yet another may organize a non-violent peaceful response to prevent future tragedies.   It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about a bomb blast, a rainy day, a bad grade or a lost job  - individuals react differently to the same event -  yet some responses are far better for the individual and society than others. 

What determines the response?  State of mind – which is a result of our beliefs, values, focus, and physiology.  As the range of reactions shows, our response is not a reflection of the event, our response is a reflection of ourselves.  And while reptiles have no control over their response, higher minds like humans do.   Most people just don’t realize they have this power.  For the vast majority of us, someone needs to teach us.  I’m not talking about positive thinking or self-discipline –  I’m talking about understanding what makes us happy and learning the simple skills to empower ourselves.  Problem is, most of our parents didn’t exactly know how to make themselves happy or know how to weather storms with grace… and fewer still teach such skills to their children. 

So we spend our time in school learning history, math and theory, but no one teaches us how to stay positive, energized and fulfilled through life.  Thus, the smartest kid in class is seldom the most successful in life – and it’s often that popular kid who wasn’t so good in school who ends up seemingly having everything go their way in life.  After all, math and science can help you get a job, but if you’re not prepared to weather the inevitable rough patches in life, all that education doesn’t matter.

As you can garner from my little rant, this is one of my pet peeves. I’ve been privileged to have attended some of the “best” schools in the country, and I can tell you they did almost nothing to help me deal with adversity, be happy, and feel passionate about life.  I’m grateful for what they taught me, but they left a gaping hole in educating their students – which makes all the difference between success and failure.  In my 20s, I learned personal emotional management techniques through reading and attending seminars (Tony Robbins is the best teacher I ever had) which allowed me to overcome my fears of failure and start Care2. 

My point being, let’s teach our kids what’s most important.  Tough times are a guarantee.  So let’s arm our kids with the skills and knowhow to live happy, productive, fulfilling lives.   The tragedies we’ve seen here in recent days are preventable, but only if kids are taught how to channel their frustrations to produce good outcomes.  And in so doing, we’ll have created the most empowered and optimistic generation we’ve ever seen.

If anyone knows of any school systems that are teaching students how to manage their emotional state, I’d love to hear about them!

Care2 had a staff outing last weekend to see The Cove, a new documentary that sheds light on the atrocious dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. It's an issue that Care2 members have taken action on before; just this year, Care2's partner Blue Voice hand-delivered more than 5,000 letters from Care2 members, demanding that the slaughter be stopped, to the Japanese delegate to the International Whaling Commission at their meeting in Portugal. And we've collected more than 150,000 signatures on other petitions against Japan's dolphin killing.

The Cove shows how Ric O'Barry and Louis Psihoyos secretly document Japanese fishermen corralling unsuspecting dolphins into a small cove in Taiji that's hidden from public view. The fishermen separate out the best specimens to be sold to dolphinariums -- and cruelly slaughter the other 23,000 for meat, which is then sold across fish markets in Japan, often labeled as “whale meat.”  And few people in Japan know it's happening -- or that the meat they're eating contains toxic levels of mercury.

The Cove is a documentary with the suspense and thrill of an Oceans 11 style “Special Ops” team. The New York Times has described it as, “unfolds like a spy thriller...one of the most audacious and perilous operations in the history of the conservation movement."  O'Barry was once the dolphin trainer for the 1960s TV series Flipper .  After spending years with dolphins, he realized how terrible human captivity is for these intelligent creatures, and became one of the world's leading dolphin activists. Psihoyos is a top nature photographer and founder of the Oceanic Preservation Society. The rest of the team is made up of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and  world-class free divers. Utilizing state-of-the art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in  fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide.

Watching the team in action is enough to make anyone want to be a dolphin activist -- and that's where Care2 comes in. We partnered with the production company, Take Part, to develop a petition targeting President Obama, Vice President Biden and Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki, asking them to address the dolphin slaughter in Japan. The petition is also available in Japanese for Japanese citizens to sign and send letters to the Prime Minister and Minister of Health. At the end of The Cove, there's a message urging people to take action, either on their web-enabled mobile phones with the mobile version of the PetitionSite or by visiting a URL with a link to the action. And it's been a success so far -- already, more than 20,000 people have signed the petition.

We also created widgets in both English and Japanese that contain all of the signers to the action and more information on The Cove. You can paste the widget on your Facebook or MySpace profiles or your blog and encourage your friends to take action, too. You'll get the opportunity to grab the widget code after you've signed the petition.

If you haven't seen The Cove yet, I urge you to do so -- and bring friends with you so they feel the same drive to become an activist for our planet that you do. The film is a provocative mix of investigative  journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope. 

This is a movie that will make a difference and shut down the dolphin slaughter – but only if we all take action, sign the petition, and make our voices heard.