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Celebrate National Volunteer Week!
April 7-13, 2019 is officially known as National Volunteer Week. National Volunteer Week is a time for organizations across the country to honor volunteers and recognize the irreplaceable impact of their time and energy all year round. It is also a time to become involved in volunteer work, as a positive contribution to your community.
There are many volunteer opportunities all over your area and many ideas for volunteer work as well. Below are just some of the many activities you can do to make a difference in your neighborhood, city, or even globally:
Volunteering Activity Ideas - Giving Back Your Time
- Walk dogs at your local animal shelter
- Help train service dogs
- Foster animals that shelters don't have the space for
- Organize a spay and neuter your pet program
- Start a volunteer pet sitting business for your family, friends and neighbors
- Feed and care for cats and dogs at your humane society
- Organize a community blood drive
- Send cards to soldiers serving overseas
- Hold a bake sale for your favorite charity
- Read books or letters to senior citizens, or to those who are visually impaired
- Participate in a charity race
- Collect unused makeup and perfume to donate to a center for women
- Organize a car wash and donate the profits to a charity
- Help deliver meals and gifts to patients at a local hospital or nursing home
- Tutor children during or after school
- Collect and donate stuffed animals and give them to children in hospitals
- Organize games and activities for children in hospitals or who are visiting hospitalized relatives
- Knit or crochet baby blankets to be donated to hospitals or homeless shelters
- Collect baby clothes and supplies to donate to new parents
- Adopt a family or sponsor a child living in a foreign county
- Donate used children's books, or adult books to a school or regular library
- Deliver groceries and meals to elderly neighbors, or relatives
- Host a meal for senior citizens
- Volunteer to cook or serve at a soup kitchen
- Make birthday cards or gifts and visit those in nursing homes who may not have any family members
- Rake leaves, shovel snow, clean, or mow the lawn for a senior citizen
- Donate clothing and shoes to Good Will or a homeless shelter
- Build a house with Habitat for Humanity
Think about your interests and what most appeals to you, then choose specific organizations pertaining to your interests to contact. Figure out how much time you can spend to volunteer, which will help you know what projects to pursue and it will also help volunteer coordinators organize. Next, do some research to see what projects you can do in your community and start volunteering!
Give Back - Donate
Whether it's your time, money, or items, donating to your local charities, animal shelters, rescue missions, churches, schools, hospitals, and other nonprofit organizations can create a world of difference in the lives of others. Donate to a charity or organization that has impacted your life. Remember to share that you gave and encourage your family and friends to join you!
Donations don't necessarily have to be monetary. Reach out to local organizations and see what items they need the most and collect them. Be creative with your ideas.
For instance: donate blankets, paper towels, or newspapers to your local humane society or veterinary clinic, donate food to your local food bank, donate blood to the Red Cross, for your next birthday or holiday, ask for charitable donations instead of gifts, create gift baskets or care packages for soldiers overseas or for single mothers.
There are many ways to donate, and many items to donate for any organization. Below are some examples of items that you could donate!
- Donate a Dog Life Saving Kit to your local police station. A K9 Naloxone Kit treats and revives police dogs from overdoses. As they do their duty of searching for substances, dogs can accidentally ingest life-threatening, harmful drugs, particularly narcotics and opioids.
- Donate an Emergency Trauma Response Kit to your local schools, businesses, hospitals, or any organization that could benefit from a kit such as this. Our Emergency Trauma kits contain FDA approved medical supplies that are used by EMS responders to slow bleeding, cover wounds, and to help revive a person, if needed.
- Donate any First Aid Kits, or any first aid supplies, to organizations such as, the Red Cross, your local Rescue Mission or homeless shelters, your local Hospitals or Nursing Homes, Schools, etc.
- Donate any personal care items, such as shampoo, socks, soap, hand sanitizers, combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc., to Women's Shelters, children who may be in foster care, homeless shelters, etc.
Volunteer Your Voice
Speak up and speak out! Search for nonprofits in your neighborhood and email them or call them to see how you can help. Become an advocate for an organization that has left an impact on your life. Consider holding a public event where you can raise awareness about the organization you are supporting. Research what the organization needs the most, write articles on those topics or give presentations highlighting those topics.
Host a community fundraiser with games, food, baked goods, or raffles and have a leader from the organization speak for a few minutes to inform the crowd a little bit about themselves. Afterward, donate any proceeds or items collected to that charity.
Give Pro Bono
If you're a professional, use your skills to help nonprofits with their campaigns. Search for pro bono opportunities or reach out to your local nonprofits to see how you can use your talents for good!
No matter what you choose to do, be sure to volunteer! Kind people are the best people, and couldn't we all use a lot more kindness, care, and compassion in this world? Yes, we sure could.
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