Hellobee

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and during this time of year, many people want to give back. Before I had children, I occasionally donated my time doing charity or volunteer work, but now with small children of my own, I see the need within my community to contribute where I can. My family is not operating in a financial situation where we can donate sums of money. However, we are all able to donate time and it is especially important for me to have my kids know that giving back is important, and can make you feel really good. Almost all of the suggestions below can be done anytime of the year, so this list can be used for volunteering or donating all year.

1) Homeless Kits. These are simple plastic bags that include some essentials for people who are living in shelters or are homeless. Usually the kits include toothpaste, deodorant, wet wipes, space blankets, non perishable foods, and other items. There are a ton of great examples on Pinterest like this. In my community these can be dropped off at a shelter, or you can personally deliver them, but I prefer to drop them off at a shelter. With this act, I sometimes worry that I would offend homeless people by assuming that they need supplies, so I feel better about leaving them at a shelter for people to grab if they want them.

2) Give to or coordinate a giving tree. In my town, there is a charity called Vina Moses Center, which is a clothing and toy based charity that was started by Vina Moses in the 70’s. The entire operation is volunteer run, and relies on donations by community members. I donate clothing regularly, and I also coordinate a giving tree that benefits the center. The idea is that they drop off a Christmas tree in late November at my work office. I decorate the tree and add on gift tags that have an age and gender written on them, as well as gift suggestions and sizing. People take a tag and return it with an unwrapped gift by the second week in December. The week after the donations are collected, parents come to a warehouse facility and pick out gifts for their kids. It is really easy, and it is pretty fun to coordinate and people get very excited about it.

3) Adopt a Family. This is coordinated by the local 4-H groups in my town and basically, a group gets together to sponsor a family for Christmas. Once the family has been assigned, the group who has “adopted” them gets a list of requests that from the family. Usually the list includes clothing and toy requests, but sometimes it also includes payment of a bill, or a larger item the entire family needs such as a mattress or car tires. The group who has adopted the family wraps the gifts and the coordinator delivers them to the family. The family remain anonymous for the process.

4) Volunteer at a soup kitchen, food bank, or food pantry. In my community, we have all three of these options, and in all honesty, the soup kitchen is the least likely one for me or my family to participate in. This is not because we don’t want to, but they actually have too many volunteers, so there is a waiting list. Instead, we try to volunteer at the food bank, or the food pantry on my campus. I have an added motivation as my department participates in a university wide food drive in February every year, so I have the opportunity to bring my kids to a number of volunteer events at the food bank.

5) Stuffed Animal Donation. My parents actually started this tradition with me and my siblings because we were always getting new stuffed animals for Christmas and birthdays and with four kids, there were always too many in the house. Just before Christmas every year, my parents would have us all choose some of our stuffed animals that were still in good shape to donate to the homeless shelter. This usually meant around 10-20 stuffed animals and it was a really memorable experience for me as a child. I would like to continue this tradition with my kids because I think it is important and I want them to feel good about giving the stuffed animals or toys that they have outgrown to a child that will love them.

6) Canned Food Drive Donation. This is a pretty simple idea. In my community, there are multiple food drives throughout the year, and the one closest to Christmas is run by the boy scout troops. They leave a plastic bag on each mailbox or door handle in the town, and then people fill the bag with non-perishable items. The scouts then come by each house on a designated Saturday and pick up all the bags. The food items are donated to the local food bank, who distribute them into food boxes which are then delivered to needy families throughout our county. It is really easy to donate this way, and the kids love picking out canned and boxed foods at the grocery store to donate.

7) Lay Away Angel. This is one of my most favorite things to do every year. We have two larger stores in town that do lay away for Christmas gifts. The idea is that you pick out items and pay a little over a few months and by Christmas time, you have paid off your balance. We usually go into one of these large stores and go to customer service and ask about remaining balances on layaway accounts. Because we are not rich, we usually try to find an account that has around $50.00 remaining, and we pay that off. The customer who had the items on lay away returns later to pay the balance and is notified that the balance has been paid by a lay away angel. I like doing this because to me it feels like finding a $20 bill on the ground. It brightens the day, and I like to think that the person who no longer has a balance can use the money to pay a bill or get gas in their car.

8) Spaghetti Feed. Another really easy concept. We run one of these within my department. We ask everyone to donate either pasta or a sauce, then we host a feed during lunchtime on a Friday before Christmas. People pay $5 to have a plate of spaghetti, then all the proceeds are donated to the local food bank. I take on the coordination of this event and get the food donations in, then encourage people to help serve. Last year, I brought LeLe with me to serve, and she was a big hit. I actually think that she helped us make more money because people thought it was hilarious to see her serving spaghetti.

9) Meal Bags. This is another service coordinated by the 4-H in town. Basically families pledge to donate a meal bag for a holiday dinner. The family goes shopping at a grocery store to purchase all the items on a list, then they bag it all up and deliver it to the 4-H coordinator. The coordinator and their staff delivers the bags to local families. This is super easy, and again, the kids seem to have fun shopping for the meal items.

10) Volunteer at an Animal Shelter. This really is a year-round volunteer opportunity, but in the shelter in my town, the number of adoptions around Christmastime soars, so they need any extra help they can get. We usually leave Little Bug with my parents, then take LeLe over to help clean cages, walk dogs, play with the cats, and do any other tasks that the staff asks of us. This is pretty usually really fun, and LeLe loves animals so it is a great family volunteer opportunity.

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Do you and your family donate, volunteer, or coordinate opportunities for others to donate?