00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this is 5 Days of Giving.
00:06Happy holidays, happy new year, happy happy happy.
00:09This past year has brought me so much joy.
00:12I have an entire YouTube family now, I now have over 40,000 friends on Instagram.
00:17So much love and light has been brought into my life and so now it's time for me to give
00:22back and to share that love with those around me.
00:25This week I'm challenging myself to give in a different way each day and I'm hoping that
00:29it inspires you to do the same.
00:30Today was a rainy Monday and I woke up at 6am to go to St. John's Bread and Life, an
00:35organization
00:36in New York that serves thousands of meals to hungry New Yorkers each and every day.
00:41This place is absolutely incredible.
00:44A team of about 30 people, a lot of them very young, handle everything from legal counseling
00:49to housing assistance, medical care, nutrition assistance and so much more.
00:54I worked in their soup kitchen washing dishes and also serving meals to their clients.
00:58The kitchen is the heart and soul of this place.
01:01To me, in my personal opinion, without the kitchen, this place wouldn't rock.
01:05The atmosphere downstairs is just awesome.
01:07Then I checked out the digital food choice pantry where people can order groceries entirely
01:11for free on site and then pick up their groceries after they're done eating in the soup kitchen.
01:16Everyone I met, from the clients to the people who worked there, was so welcoming, so kind
01:21to one another.
01:22It really felt like family in there and it gave me a moment to just reflect on how many
01:27people there are out there who are just in need of a community and a place to go where
01:31they can spend time with other people and get a warm meal.
01:34This organization is always looking for new volunteers and monetary donations, so please
01:39check out the link in the YouTube description box for more info.
01:42What a way to start the week!
01:45I have a lot of plans this week for 5 Days of Giving and most of them involve helping
01:50humans, but today I wanted to help out a different species.
01:54I spent the day at Animal Haven, a non-profit organization that helps find homes for abandoned
01:59dogs and cats in the Tri-State area.
02:02Hello!
02:03Hi!
02:04We've got paper towels!
02:05Hi!
02:06Hi!
02:06I cleaned a lot of puppy cages and took care of their adorable 7-week-old puppy litter.
02:13I heard you're 7 weeks.
02:17Cleaned up a lot of poop.
02:19I followed them around, constantly replenishing their wee-wee pads.
02:22You guys are peeing way too fast for me.
02:25We all have to empty our bladders occasionally.
02:28I also did a ton of cat socializing, which is really important in order to get the cats
02:33to be suitable for adoption.
02:34I know there's a lot of chatter these days about boycotting pet stores that source their
02:38animals from puppy mills.
02:40Hashtag, adopt, don't shop.
02:42And what I found to be the most amazing thing about Animal Haven is that once they take an
02:46animal in, they will never euthanize it.
02:48If they don't find a home, they're here with us for as long as it takes.
02:52So we've had dogs here, it is an average three weeks, we've had dogs here as long as
02:56a year and a half, and some cats have been here over two years.
03:00What I did today is definitely considered giving, but I'd say that I got just as much, if not
03:05more, in return, in the form of puppy love.
03:10It's mid-week and I'm feeling extremely energetic.
03:13Playing with puppies yesterday had me feeling like a kid again, so today I decided I want
03:18to go hang out with some kids.
03:19I went to the Academy of the City, a phenomenal charter school in Queens, and I visited a third
03:24grade classroom.
03:25We work hard to provide a very hands-on, experiential curriculum for the kids, so that it's not just
03:32learning out of what they're reading, but they're actually learning by doing and creating
03:36and being a part of the world around them.
03:38I went into her classroom and talked all about my role as a video producer at Refinery29,
03:43and I focused on one episode in specific, and this is five days of no sugar.
03:48I explained how I go about planning for the episode, all of the research that goes into
03:52it.
03:53I was careful to tell them that even though it seems boring, research is key.
03:58Think about it, if you are going to a YouTube channel because you really want to learn about
04:02what it would be like to not have any sugar for a week, one of the big things you probably
04:07want to learn about is the backstory of sugar.
04:10What are the different types of sugar?
04:12What does sugar actually do to our bodies?
04:14And then we handed out a worksheet, and I let them come up with their own five-day challenges,
04:19and had them plan it out on the sheet just the way I do.
04:22I had students who were planning to give up video games for five days, students who wanted
04:25to eat more fruits and vegetables, exercise more.
04:28The students wrote me thank you cards that I'm sitting here almost crying over.
04:33Thank you for coming, Lucy.
04:35Look, they even put a pizza on it.
04:38I love them.
04:43I want to make sure this week that I'm giving to a wide variety of people.
04:47People of all ages, both young and old.
04:50Visiting Neighbors is an organization that gives senior citizens a few hours of company
04:55each week.
04:55Many of these people live on their own, or they don't have any family, or really they just
05:00want someone to talk to and spend some time with.
05:02I met up with Chloe, a Visiting Neighbors volunteer, and we went to one of the senior homes that she
05:07visits frequently.
05:08The home of Yvonne Sherwell.
05:11I think I'm older than God at this point, and I've had so many different careers that I'm writing a
05:16memoir, as of course you know, Chloe.
05:19And it gets longer and longer.
05:22You're writing a memoir.
05:24Yes, it's longer than the Holy Bible at this point.
05:27Yvonne has had such a rich and colorful life filled with theater and art and Spanish dancing.
05:33But she's three times a widow, and she lives alone in New York City now with some worsening health problems.
05:39I feel like this is a very special thing for me to come do during this week because I actually
05:45don't have any grandparents.
05:47Yeah.
05:49I'm...you.
05:49You'll be my grandma.
05:52She was loving the camera.
05:54She was loving having young people in her apartment.
05:57She told us her entire life story, and then she shared photographs of herself when she was our age.
06:02And we even shared with her some digital media tips and showed her Snapchat and YouTube.
06:07Can I call you back in about a half hour?
06:10That's you on Snapchat.
06:11Okay.
06:11Can I call you back?
06:12Okay.
06:13I could just see in her eyes how much it meant to her to have a room full of young
06:17people.
06:18It just added so much life and laughter and such a burst of happiness to her day, if only for
06:23a few hours.
06:24I think there's a lot of value to connecting with someone from a different generation.
06:27The whole thing was very touching, very moving, and I really hope to go back to Yvonne's apartment sometime soon.
06:36Happy Friday!
06:38This week has been filled with so much emotion and such positive energy all around.
06:43I've been giving to a lot of different communities, but so far everyone I've given to this week and everyone
06:47I've touched in some way has been a stranger.
06:49Today I wanted to bring it all home and give back to my own parents.
06:53When you think about giving a gift to your parents, you might first start thinking of some material items.
06:58But I wanted to give them something that goes beyond the tangible, something that has a lot of meaning attached
07:03to it.
07:03I took all of our old childhood videotapes and I had them digitized and put on DVD so that I
07:09could give my parents the gift of everlasting memories.
07:12Let's go surprise my parents!
07:15I surprised my parents at my childhood home.
07:18Surprise!
07:19What are you doing here?
07:20Surprise!
07:22And showed them the new DVD case.
07:25I love this!
07:27I love what it is!
07:28Just watch them!
07:29And then we spent the rest of our Friday afternoon watching old home videos together.
07:33Get!
07:34Oh!
07:35Goddamn!
07:39There have been endless studies done about the psychology behind gift giving and generosity.
07:44A good person is usually a happy person.
07:47What are your favorite ways of volunteering and giving in your local communities?
07:50Comment below letting me know.
07:52And as always, let me know what you want to see me try next time on Try Living with Lucy.
08:06Hey YouTube!
08:07Thanks so much for watching my video.
08:09Click here to watch another video on our channel and right here to subscribe to Refinery29 on YouTube.
08:15See ya!
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