Giveaway: $50 Gift Card for Pampers Miracle Missions

I'm not usually a real lovey-dovey person - but it's kind of nice to do nice and unexpected things for unsuspecting people.  So I'm very grateful to Pampers.  They gave me a $50 American Express Gift Card to do a "random act of kindness to celebrate a little miracle within my community" as part of their Miracle Missions campaign.  The options were endless - buying diapers for a family who could use them, use the money to prepare meals for a family, or even use the money to host a larger fundraiser for a family.  And those are just 3 examples of what I could do. 

I did go back and forth about a couple different ideas I brainstormed to use to this $50 to benefit an unsuspecting family or group.  For those who do not know, my husband is in the National Guard.  He's currently in a training program and will be for the next year and a half.  However, the unit that he'll be assigned to once this long training is over, just deployed about a month ago.  They'll be in Afghanistan for about a year and will come back shortly before my husband transfers to this unit.   

Being as it's the season of Mother's Day, I called the unit to see if there are any new mothers or soon-to-be new mothers of husbands that are deployed.  Low and behold - a wife just had a baby a month ago!  I don't have all the details of whether or not her husband was still here to be with her when her son was born, but can you imagine being a first time mother and having your husband ship out for a year?  So many men in this country are blessed with paternity leave, or even a few weeks vacation after their wives have babies.  Some men, are not.  Some of us (yes, me included!) get frustrated or upset when our husbands are running late from work because our babies/children wore us out all day - but imagine not having your husband come home for an entire year?  I personally, probably would have gone nuts if my husband was gone for the entire first year of my first born's life. 

Being a prior military member myself and having a husband in the National Guard - I understand a little how frustrating military life can be for new moms.  So after much thought - I decided that I'm going to be making up a gift basket for this new mom for Mother's Day with my $50 from Pampers.  I can't think of many other mothers who deserve this as much as this lady.  Sure, it doesn't make the sadness of her husband missing her first Mother's Day as a mom go away, but maybe it will put a little smile on her face to know that a complete stranger thought of her and said "Thank you for your dedication to our country - Happy Mother's Day!".  She may not be in the Army herself, but she has to make sacrifices that a lot of us never do. 

Everyone can easily participate in a small way by logging on to Pampers Facebook page by hitting ‘like’ and then going to the Miracle Missions tab and committing to Mission 1 by clicking “I Want To Pledge.”  Once more than 2,500 people pledge, Pampers will respond by giving baby showers to expectant mothers nationwide just in time for Mother’s Day.   As a side note, anyone who pledges is automatically entered to win a year’s supply worth of Pampers diapers and wipes (and that can definitely help someone in a big way!).

***BONUS***   Pampers will give one of my lucky readers a $50 American Express gift card to do whatever you see fit to benefit your community.  Again, it can be as simple as buying $50 worth of groceries to donate to your food bank or it can be as creative as your imagination takes you.  It can benefit a single person or a group.  Again - there are no limits of how to spread your generosity. 

To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment about how you would spend your $50 to "pay-it-forward" or deliver your  random act of kindness.  This giveaway closes at Midnight EST on Thursday May 12th and I will pick a winner on Friday May 13.  I will delete any comments that appear to be spam or do not state how you would use the $50.  If your Blogger profile does not contain your email address, please leave it in the comment as well so I can contact you if you are the winner.  One entry per person.  Duplicate comments will be deleted. 

Many thanks to Pampers for this awesome Miracles Missions campaign!  For more information about this campaign, you can watch their video here below (it's only a minute - and you'll be so happy you did!):