Summer is winding down: I’ve got less time to spend in the garden after dinner as the sun sets a bit earlier each night, the newspaper is heavy with back-to-school ads, and already the Global Traveler editorial team is working on your October issue! I start to think of those projects I’d planned to tackle and haven’t got to yet, and I begin to look forward to the trips and projects coming up this fall. This week, I also took the time to reflect on my blessings and gave back a little bit in thanks for all the good things in my life. As GT‘s editor in chief, Lisa Matte, wrote in her blog yesterday, I accepted her challenge and that of distribution specialist and online contributor John Wroblewski to take part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge . . . and threw down the gauntlet to my two daughters and two sisters to do the same. We watched a close family friend struggle with this debilitating and ultimately fatal disease, so I was happy to contribute in a small way to supporting the ALS Association and heightening awareness of the work it does. I took for granted the ability to move with ease until two years ago, when the onset of severe joint pain led to a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. It is now well-controlled with medication, and I am grateful every day to be able to enjoy walking, gardening — living — without that constant pain. I am thankful for the brilliant minds who tackle medical research and the patients who have allowed themselves to be human guinea pigs for new medications and treatments so that others might live with less pain and more hope. And I’m thankful that so many good people support those efforts with their dollars and with lighthearted but effective movements like the Ice Bucket Challenge. This week I also spent several hours filling backpacks with free school supplies at our local St. Vincent de Paul Society. Last year it distributed 4,100 backpacks, and this year the goal is 4,500, distributed to needy local students in grades K through 12. I was always one of those kids who loved school, and I especially loved the anticipation of the beginning of a new school year. I loved strolling the aisles of the store, picking out pencil cases, crayons, notebooks and Pee-Chees and then taking it all home and organizing and labeling everything. As a parent, I enjoyed watching my girls experience that same excitement as they dithered over which backpack to get and how many markers they would need. I also remember cringing at what all those school supplies would do to my monthly budget, but we always managed to provide everything our daughters needed (and most of what they wanted, too). This week I watched youngsters arrive with their parents, stepping up to the counter to first choose which color of backpack they would get (some dithering for several minutes, as my daughters used to do) and then receiving a heavy bag with paper, notebooks, glue sticks, crayons and pencils. I enjoyed their big grins as they toted off their new stuff, but I  could also see the relief on the faces of parents who find the expense of the start of a new school year a strain for their budgets. It made me thankful for my happy childhood memories of back to school and the opportunities my children and I have had through a good education. I was grateful, too, for organizations like St. Vincent de Paul, who, with lots of volunteers and generous donations, provide for individuals and families in their communities and therefore make them a better place to live. — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor