Looking for a productive, helpful way to spend the rest of your summertime with your children? Volunteering is a great solution to summertime boredom as well as a great way of life. It’s a wonderful way to involve the entire family in giving back to others. There are volunteer opportunities all across our nation and even in other countries, if you so desire, for families to volunteer their time to help out people. Many places a person can volunteer individually, as a family or as a group. If it is not feasible for you to physically volunteer somewhere, you could choose to conduct fundraisers or give financially to an organization you feel passionate about.
Jennifer Long knows all about fundraising to give back. She raises money to give to Nothing But Nets, an organization who provides mosquito nets to countries with malaria problems. Jennifer began doing this when after a mission trip, she found herself sick with malaria. She was also pregnant at the time. When she became well and gave birth to a healthy baby boy; as she sat holding her baby, she knew that this joy of her baby’s healthy new life was not intended for her to just hold onto for herself, but to be shared and given back. She immediately knew that she wanted to make a difference and give back so that no one else would suffer the pain and losses associated with malaria. She chose Nothing But Nets Under the name of Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob is the name of her healthy baby growing inside of her while she suffered malaria. She is at approximately 48% of her fundraising goal. She raises money by word of mouth and by events such as selling flowers at her daughter’s dance recitals. She even approached Mark Roach, a local Christian musician, who agreed to allow the proceeds from a benefit concert to go towards her charity.
When I heard her story, after experiencing 3 miscarriages and then receiving the miracle of a healthy baby, I knew that her story was to become my story as well. Though, not touched with malaria, I suffered through losses of pregnancies and then held the joy of life in my arms after much prayer and hope. During my pregnancy, I discovered a verse that read:
Isa: 41:18-20 – I will give them fountains of water in the valleys. In the deserts they will find pools of water. Rivers fed by springs will flow across the dry, parched ground. I will plant trees – cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, cypress, fur, and pine – on barren land. Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, who did it.
I knew that God had provided me with living waters of refreshing, in a spiritual sense, by answering my prayer for a healthy newborn. I also knew I had to give that refreshing water to others in both a physical and a spiritual sense. I chose Samritan’s Purse Clean Water Project to give half of my Ebay proceeds to in the name of my healthy daughter I am allowed to hold in my arms.
Another way to give back was demonstrated by a family who experienced their mother in the ICU during Christmas time, they noticed that there was no where to get healthy food or even a drink of water in the ICU waiting room. They didn’t want to leave to walk down to the cafeteria which was not even always open when they needed to eat. So, after their mother had recovered and returned home; the next year on Christmas Eve, they packed up a box full of fresh fruits & bottled water and delivered it to the ICU waiting room for those stuck up there on Christmas Eve as they had been the prior year.
There’s also ways to volunteer as a group. The Sunrise Methodist MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group of O’Fallon, Missoui, once became involved in a program where they would bring their own children along to provide a craft class for children of a local Salvation Army shelter. The MOPS children then played with the children in the shelter as the mothers talked with the women to find out what their needs were. Later, they would fulfill those needs as best they could such as providing clothing, bedding, babysitting while the parent went on job interviews, etc.
There are so many creative ways to volunteer with your family. These suggestions barely touch the surface of ways to give. Still, here’s some other examples of giving back:
Volunteer at a food bank - some allow children as young as age 2 to help stock food shelves with their family or group
New Life Evangelistic Centers need sandwiches daily to give to homeless among other opportunities
Do Something is a program set up for teens and young adults ages 13-25 to get out and volunteer
Visit a nursing home. There are many all around the area.
Depending on the ages of your children, you could help someone build a home with Habitat for Humanity
Give blood (ther’s a minimum age for this, so your children will probably not be able to give blood unless they are older) or learn CPR to help save a life someday at the Red Cross
Check out suggestions from United Way and choose a way you and your family can volunteer that fits your family’s makeup.
Check with your church to see who they are helping and get involved
Check with local hospitals to see what their needs are. Especially Childrens hospitals is a great way for your children to get involved. One young boy once packed up a wagon full of toys he had collected from people who donated them & he delivered them to the patients.
Go next door and mow your neighbor’s lawn or put their garbage cans away after pickup.
Get involved with Operation Christmas Child. Take the kids with you to pick out small toys to fill their shoebox or collect extra fast food meal toys throughout the year, keep them wrapped, and include them in a shoebox .
Get involved with your company. Vestal Laboratories (now owned by Merck), each year used to have a contest where employees dressed a doll and/or painted and decorated a wooden truck. The winner’s truck and doll would be auctioned off and all of the dolls and trucks were donated to a local children’s shelter such as Annie Malone’s Children’s Center or Baptist Children’s Home. There are also crisis nurseries who would probably welcome a hand-made or hand-dressed doll or decorated truck.
There are countless ways our families can give back. The best part is that all it will cost you is your time and energy. But, you will receive such a great reward for your efforts. It’s often said by volunteers that they started out wanting to help others, but found they received so much in return in the way of being fulfilled and learning to be grateful for what they have. Find one that means something to you and fits your family’s makeup and go volunteer!
