Day 160: Sweet Charity

I'm out of my funk. I'll be running the 2010 NYC Marathon regardless of the darn lottery. All I have to do now is narrow down which charity I'd like to affiliate with and fund raise for.

I'd like to pick one that has personal significance; but the problem is, I'm passionate about so many causes. I do nothing to support them in my day to day life though, so really, whatever I choose to do will be better than what I'm doing now... But still, I find myself wishing for one singular charity that could take my donation and work it! I hope I'm not asking for too much but the results I'd like to see from my $2,500 include:

1. End Homelessness in New York City. Everybody deserves a safe, clean bed to sleep in and a hook to hang their hat on.
2. Fund a breakthrough campaign and tactical activation that forever ends ritualized smoking among adults and teens. We can make anything cool. Why don't we use our power for good?
3. Feed healthy, wholesome food to hungry adults and children, and give them an ongoing resource to do the same for themselves. We are what we eat. We are a rotting nation.
4. Provide emotional and logistical support for victims of domestic violence (abuse by others) - a ball of string that can be unraveled if handled carefully. Victims are salvageable.
5. Find a cure for chemical depression, the most misunderstood, underfunded disability that is a blight not only on our social system, but also a threat to the future of our nation's advancement.
6. Improve the adoption system in the U.S. so that couples and individuals who want to adopt can connect more easily with pregnant women who need a plan.
7. Encourage local and global cross cultural and political student exchanges. My semester in Italy forever changed my capacity to empathize; and that wasn't just because of the $3 bottles of wine.
8. Clean up the animal rescue system in the US and make it humane. Right now, despite strong efforts, it's still an over-run horror.
9. Equalize the arts element of public education across the socioeconomic continuum through enrichment programs, mentoring, tutoring and scholarships.
10. Give girls and boys who haven't been encouraged to exercise regularly a safe, social club to go to and learn about the benefits of running and then support them with coaching that brings the lessons of running into other parts of their lives.

So if anyone out there knows of a single charity I can sign up to run with that has those particular values in mind, please advise. Otherwise, I'm really in a bit of a quandary.