“If you haven’t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.”-Bob Hope

These days it seems sports and charities go hand-in-hand. Most every athlete, superstar or not, aligns themselves with at least one charity upon turning pro…many times more than one. In some instances, athletes will start-up their own charity. And all of this is great! What better way to pass a good message across than through the popularity of sports?! With so many different charitable organizations contributing to so many different causes, there should only be two questions to ask yourself – What can I do? And too which charity/charities should I contribute?

Notice one of the questions is not whether or not you should contribute. It is my own personal opinion that this question should never enter your mind. Contributing something to charity should be a given.

So what can you do? Giving something to a charity does not necessarily mean donating large sums of money. Most of us do not have the means to do so. But nearly everyone can spare a bit. And just as important, everyone can spend a little time helping out. Everyone has heard the phrase “every little bit helps.” That phrase is 100% on the money. If more people were of this mindset, then donating just a few dollars here and there would make the world a better place. Don’t have the few extra dollars to spare? Volunteering your time to a charitable cause can be just as important.

But which charities do you help out? The real answer to this should be that it doesn’t matter. Just help in any way you can. But to help narrow it down, I try to find charities that are more personal to me. My father passed away from complications due to cancer. So, in turn, I will donate money to charities related to cancer cures, research and treatment. I’m also an animal lover, so I like to give something to organizations such as the ASPCA. In the past, I have also donated my time as a volunteer to the Special Olympics. I have no personal stake in the Special Olympics. Some members of my family were volunteering and I just felt it was a good thing to do. I had the time to help out, so why shouldn’t I?

Recently, we here at Golfstinks have come across another charitable campaign with some personal meaning to us – Drivehard.

Drivehard is a campaign created by Eat Sleep Golf to raise awareness and funds for the fight against Alzheimer’s. Since a couple of us here at Golfstinks have had family members affected by Alzheimer’s (as well as other forms of dementia) and we are obviously all fans of golf, it seems like a perfect match. Being that Alzheimer’s affects more than two million Americans and over a half-million Canadians, and indirectly affects countless others, chances are you have a family member, or know someone who does, that is affected by this disease. If this is the case, then you know how helpless it can make a person feel. So why not do something to assist in the path to a cure?

Charitable donations are of vital importance in the fight against the most deadly and debilitating diseases in the world today. Without the help and assistance of generous participants in campaigns such as Drivehard, progress in these fights would slow to a crawl. If just a few more people would do just a little bit, these battles could not only continue to be fought, but they could be won.

For more information on the Drivehard campaign against Alzheimer’s, please visit http://www.drivehard.org/.