Charitable giving generally becomes a buzzword during the holiday season, nestled in between the holiday hymns that invade department stores and incessant Christmas commercials.

So when my company announced our annual giving campaign this year, I glanced at my checkbook and thought of which bills I could shuffle to make way for this annual expenditure.

But then Cindy Ducich roused me from my sleep like a kid on Christmas morning and awakened a new sense of giving.

Anyone who knows Cindy, an advertising sales consultant for the Mirror, knows she’s a go-getter. She’s one of the main reasons why the Mirror is so successful.

But sales savvy aside, she is also fun and turned a humdrum holiday routine into a fun and meaningful way to give back to our community.

Sometimes we can all use a push from people like Cindy.

As the organizer of the Mirror’s United Way campaign, she came up with the idea for Mirror staff to “Change it up” by bringing in our loose change each day for a week.

Every day, we emptied our pockets and piggybanks and she weighed our change, which garnered staff members a certain number of tickets based on the coins’ weight. Those tickets went into a drawing and she handed out prizes each day, ranging from candy bars to Mariners tickets provided by our company.

In addition to the United Way campaign, we also held a food drive for Multi-Service Center’s food bank.

So this year I stepped out of my grinch-giving mode and into the spirit of giving. And passing on that spirit, I now have a fun challenge for you, Federal Way.

We want to hear what residents and businesses are doing to help local charities this holiday season.

Whether you are a child making holiday ornaments to sell, or a business collecting cans of food, we want to share your giving with the community.

Email us a photo of yourself or your group with your giving project (for example, cans of food, coat or blanket collections — whatever your gift may be), your names and a brief description of what charity you are helping. The Mirror will publish your photo and information on our website and in print on a special giving page this month.

All entries must be received by Dec. 15 at editor@fedwaymirror.com.