Paddling Charities - They make our boating world a better place.

Just win the lottery and don't know where to spend it? Just feeling generous? Here are some great places to spread your dough on paddling related causes.

Paddle for Your Life is a grassroots effort by Seattle-area kayakers to bring together volunteers from the kayaking community to teach high-school students who would otherwise never have this opportunity how to paddle. www.paddleforyourlife.org.

Roanoke River Partners is a nonprofit created to help promote conservation of a little-known wilderness treasure, the Roanoke River in northeastern North Carolina. The Partners' canoe trail offers miles of paddling through bottomland forests and camping on wooden platforms nestled in remote swamps and perched on soaring bluffs. Visitors to the trail are also helping further another part of the Partners' mission, creating an eco-tourism industry to help boost this economically depressed area. Learn more or plan a trip at www.roanokeriverpartners.org.

Shake-A-Leg Foundationis organizing a kayak trip - March 28th thru April 1st. An adventure down Florida's Intracoastal Waterway that will start at Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach and will end up at the end of Indian Creek in South Beach. This is a five-day trip with four overnight stops. Riders will be financially sponsored by friends, associates, and sponsors for each stop that they make on the trip. There will be a celebration party at the last leg of the trip in Miami. Funds will be dedicated to the - Shake-A-Leg Foundation . They will use the proceeds to fund their ongoing operations working with handicapped and ‘at risk’ children at their current facility and to develop their programs in surrounding counties. This will benefit up to 300 needy children and young adults per year in each county they expand to.

Pediatric Brain Tumor FoundationKids should be paddling and having fun, but sometimes they can't.

John L. Schnoering, owner of a small kayak business on the lower Chesapeake Bay, Traditional Outfitters, has been involved in raising money for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. For the second year in a row, he is holding a raffle to benefit the the foundation.
This year he is raffling off a fully equipped Seda sea kayak with a value over $3,000.
If you would like to help, and maybe win a kayak, go to his Web site www.traditionalyachtsales.com.

Team River Runner helps members of the U.S. Armed Forces find health and healing through whitewater boating. All OIF/OEF veterans recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda are invited to participate in the Team River Runner kayaking program. www.teamriverrunner.org

Soft Power Health is a nonprofit created by kayaking M.D. Jessie Stone. It has two major areas of work: teaching kayaking to inner city youth in New York City, and fighting malaria in Uganda. www.softpowerhealth.org.

American Whitewater is working every day to ensure that we have access to rivers to play in. www.americanwhitewater.org.

There are a host of other organizations that are also worthy of your attention - support what you are passionate about.