We've all see the "good" social media can do...people raising millions for ALS through the ice bucket challenge last summer comes to mind as an example. I have been fortunate enough to try to do something "good" while on an ordinary mass market Caribbean cruise recently and all of it happened (and is still happening) because of social media!
I'm a pretty active contributor to several social media sites, including Cruise Critic; my go to for all things cruise related. I had read about a group of folks on Allure of the Seas who made a donation of school supplies while they were in port in Haiti. They made some complicated arrangements that involved the concierge of the ship arranging transportation to a local school and I remembered thinking at the time, "I wonder how I could do that from a cruise ship?", but it seemed awfully complicated! Then I learned about Pack For A Purpose from a local newspaper article. When I looked into it, I realized that it was simple enough to make an impact even on a scheduled cruise port day because all the leg work was done by Pack For A Purpose already!
I followed the instructions online and used social media to inform my friends and family and collect donations. When I returned, I posted about our successful experience on social media, and several people responded saying they too would try it! One woman has her daughter collecting items right now for a trip they are taking this month because she read my post! Rebecca Rothney, Founder and Chairperson of Pack For a Purpose also noticed my social media postings and asked me to write a unique post for her website, which I did and it was posted today, here: Pack For A Purpose Blog post by Kathy
You can learn all the details about our experience and "GoSee" for yourself how easy and rewarding it is to help out people in the places you visit on a cruise ship!
If you'd like to read more about St Lucia, see our blog post here: Flora and People of St Lucia