Gentleman of Leisure: Goods 4 Good 4 the Holidays.

Gentleman of Leisure is writer, erstwhile lecturer and notionally overeducated Martin Marks's PAPERMAG column on the things he likes and why.

With the holiday season upon us, I am reminded that by familial disposition I am both a really lousy gift-giver and in a perpetual state of geographic dislocation. During the rest of the year, I suffer from an inordinate amount of seemingly good ideas that, through their implementation, tend to spiral out of control. And so, what follows is a tale, rambling in nature (if pressed for time, I would skip down to the third paragraph from the bottom), about the Goods 4 Good holiday e-card, why they are incredible, and why you should be sending them this December.  

The New Yorker recently published a story about a South African runner, mentioning that the other young runners in her hometown trained barefoot because they couldn't afford shoes. In the holiday spirit, I thought, what better home for the row of New Balances that previously sat under my bed than the junior running team at the Rametlwana Lower Primary School? Thus, I had a mission: to get these shoes to Africa, preferably in time for Christmas. 

The only problem being that many parts of Africa tend to have mailing addresses broadly defined as mere suggestions of their actual location. Because South Africa held national elections this past year, through sheer luck and perseverance (read: several Google searches), I was able to track down a spreadsheet of the Limpopo Region's permanent voting stations, and eventually found the official street address of Rametlwana Lower Primary School: "No Street Address."

After an hour spent e-mailing a friend in the Anthropology Department at Johns Hopkins, I was told to send the package to whatever post office happened to be in the nearest town. And so, I switched over from Google Proper to Google Maps, where, after another hour, I discovered my next problem: there were two towns nearby, one significantly larger than the other, both of which had changed their names in the past five years. I e-mailed my anthropologist friend again. He told me that he knew an athlete in Johannesburg who might be able to help, save that she had just adopted a child and may take several weeks to respond. Through some complicated reasoning, and a few more e-mails, and a few more Google searches, I guesstimated which town to send the package to.  

Then, it was off to my local post office, where I spent more time standing in line, and then even more time trying to convince the clerk that I wasn't nuts. (To draw a postal parallel, it would be like addressing a letter to the Midtown Post Office, Isle of Manhattan [formerly New Amsterdam], Northeastern Region, the United States of America.) Upon getting back into my car, I wondered if there might be some easier way. As it turns out, there is. 

(You can start reading again, now.) 

For those of you who don't have a half day's worth of free time, there's Goods 4 Good, a foundation that takes excess goods from American companies and distributes them to vulnerable children in Africa. And, right in time for the holiday season, the founder of Goods 4 Good, Melissa Kushner, has sought the talents of five New York and London based artists to design Goods 4 Good e-cards, with the proceeds providing much needed supplies to the neediest.  

The Goods 4 Good e-cards come replete with reindeers and eggnog and kittens-in-sweaters -- a perennial holiday favorite -- and a $10 donation will provide soap to 450 nursery school students, while a $25 donation gives the gift of new shoes to over 30 children. And, as if these weren't good reasons enough, Goods 4 Good has teamed up with Merck in a mission to bring 20,000 new school uniforms to children in need, with all donations up to $10,000 being matched until December 31st.   No matter where in the world you may be, or how bad a gift-giver you are, sending a Goods 4 Good e-card for the holidays will truly keep you in the spirit of the season. It's paperless, postage-less, and instantaneous, meaning that you won't have to spend several hours of your valuable internet time on Google Maps.     

To send a Goods 4 Good holiday e-card, visit http://www.goods4good.org/ecard/sendcard/