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tell me about your volunteer work

SunAndRainSunAndRain member
in Working Moms

What sort of organization or type of volunteer work do you do?  How many hours per week or month?  How do you (or how do you plan to) get your children involved in volunteer work?

I've done various types of volunteer work, intermittently, throughout my life. As a child I volunteered in our local library and I remember doing odd things like wrapping gifts for the elderly that they were gifting to others.  I remember volunteering with my mom feeding the homeless but only a couple times. Most recently I've focused on education and I think that'll suit me for a while. Now that DD in is school I joined the PTO, and while meetings don't technically count, I do log my hours that I spend volunteering on the various events.  My employer offers volunteer opportunities as well and matches donations to our volunteer hours which is a good motivator as well as beneficial for the non-profits.  I feel like I don't do as much as I should but trying to move past the guilt.

Any stories to share that might inspire?

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Re: tell me about your volunteer work

  • caladpi02caladpi02 member
    I do junior league but I am mostly on committees that organize our major fundraising event. I also volunteer with the local women's league for my town. I plan on doing national charity league when DD gets older. Not sure what I will do with her volunteer -wise before. I do it for the social and charitable aspects. :)
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  • IdigDirtIdigDirt member
    I volunteer with an organization that helps get dogs and cats adopted and helps people who would otherwise surrender their animals, keep them. I work FT and am in school FT and have 2 kids so I can only volunteer about 10 hours a month. Sometimes a little more. I usually take one of the kids. My foster son is 1 so I just wear him and go about doing stuff but if I have to bring my 3 YO I give him snacks and pray he will behave.
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  • WBMomWBMom member
    I am co-President of PTO and also on the board of DD1's figure skating club.  Both of these are 501(c)3 organizations.  When I do things for PTO and depending on the activity for the figure skating club,  I involve DD1.  She has learned a ton about the "work behind the scenes."  My time commitment really depends on the activity I am involved in and the time of the year for those organizations.
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  • cecilyandgautamcecilyandgautam member
    At this age, I think the idea of service with kids can be best instilled by serving others - clearly there are ways to do that around the house and we do help DD find ways to be a "helper," an identity she's really taken on, as well as at community functions. Then there are one-off opportunities that you can plan or just seize at they come up - if you're at a park and there's trash, you can go around picking it up or if you're at a community gathering, help clean up spills or help serve the food. I think making it a way of life really sticks with the young kids and they get in the habit. 

    In my area there are organized opportunities for families with kids about 5 & up, like packing grocery bags of food to delivery to hungry families. Individually though, I'm on a few committees for my religious community - sometimes that feels like your normal volunteer, service work and other times, it feels like administrative bureacratic stuff, but event that has to get done by some one. 
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  • DiveFrogDiveFrog member
    I have volunteered for a Women's and Children's Shelter, Food Banks, Blight Busters, and Habitat for Humanity. 

    Usually, my work is sporadic although I try to do at least one volunteer event a quarter. My job has also recently started arranging volunteer days with different organizations and our whole department will volunteer for an organization during a work day. 

    DH volunteers every year with our city's 4th of July fireworks and with the organization that runs the Thanksgiving day parade. This year he also volunteered at one of the local Boyscout camps doing maintenance/repairs and building a new pavilion. 

    We've discussed getting DD and any future children involved with volunteering once they are old enough and have agreed that we would have a list of local organizations and let the kids pick one per quarter or every other month and we would all volunteer as a family. As they get older (teens)and can participate on their own we may ask that they pick some type of volunteer work at least once/month. It could be always for the same organization if they feel a strong interest for one, or they could switch it up. 

    DH & I would both love to do an out of town/out of country Habitat build once the kids are tweens/teens. 
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  • tonystark1tonystark1 member
    It's nice to hear that you have done all volunteer work successfully. Volunteer work is a great way to remove all your worries by joining social programs for those who don't have enough resources to meet their basic needs.
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