![We found that creating a "half" project was an amazing tool to building deeper family connections.](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/large_lightbox/hash/35/79/35793bfa6bb6fe5f45670f424f185aa9.jpg "We found that creating a "half" project was an amazing tool to building deeper family connections.")
This family wasn't thinking about living green when they decided to sell their mansion, move into a house half its size, and donate half the proceeds to charity, but they do illustrate some green principals here. Turns out that the big house wasn't as conducive to a close family as the more intimate quarters they moved to. They realized that when they traded more stuff for a closer family, they gained as much as the charity they supported. A movement away from material acquisition is indeed green.
The family took on a project to help end poverty and hunger in Africa was inspired by daughter Hanna's ability to frame the issues when she saw both a Mercedes Benz and a begging homeless man near a roadside. The family created a video which won the Grand Prize in the 2008 "My Home: The American Dream" contest, sponsored by Coldwell Banker and Scholastic Publishing. The book about the family adventure to having more with less is The Power of Half. Release day Feb. 2010.
"It all started when 14-year old Hannah Salwen, idealistic but troubled by a growing sense of injustice in the world, had a eureka moment when a homeless man in her neighborhood was juxtaposed against a glistening Mercedes coupe. "You know, Dad," she said, pointing, "If that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal."
This glaring disparity led the Salwen family of four, caught up like so many other Americans in this age of consumption and waste, to follow Hannah's urge to do something, to finally just do something. And so they embarked on an incredible journey together from which there would be no turning back. They decided to sell their Atlanta mansion, downsize to a house half its size, and give half of their profits to a worthy charity. At first it was an outlandish scheme. "What, are you crazy? No way!" Then it was a challenge. "We are TOTALLY doing this." Each week they met over dinner to discuss their plan. It would transport them across the globe and well out of their comfort zone. Along the way they would inspire so many others wrestling with the same questions: Do I give enough? How much is enough? How can I make an impact in the world? In the end the Salwens' journey would bring them closer as a family, as they discovered, together, that half could be so much more. "
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