This morning, Pumpkin brought me one of her old toys, a Fisher Price zoo that makes animal sounds, and informed me that it was making funny noises. I removed the drained batteries from it and asked if she wanted me to put some fresh ones in. She shook her head, and said she didn’t want it any more.

I took that as a sign that I need to go through her toys again and get rid of things she doesn’t play with. I couldn’t do it today, but I hope to get to it in a couple of weeks. I’m sure I’ll find lots of things in good condition that she has barely played with, and if so I’ll try to find someplace to donate them.

Donating stuff is a good thing. It lets us get rid of things we don’t need and gets them into the hands of those who need them but can’t afford them. But there are other ways that donations can help as well.

Take car and boat donations, for example. You can give them to Car Angel and Boat Angel, respectively. But this non-profit does something a little different: They sell the donated vehicles and boats and use the proceeds to make videos geared toward kids and teens. Like D.O.P.E., a documentary about the rise and fall of four skateboarders who got mixed up with drugs. Here’s the trailer:

Car Angel/Boat Angel has given away over 2.4 million videos, and it’s all made possible by donations. That’s nothing to sneeze at.