Blog
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Ways to Volunteer With Your Whole Family
By Katie Moosbrugger Summer is the perfect time of year to consider a volunteer project with your whole family. Not only can children learn valuable “working” skills and all about different organizations – as well as how these organizations fit within society - but kids also learn how to give back and be thankful for what they have. According to www.CompassionateKids.com, children who see their parents volunteering are much more likely to believe in the value of helping others. Plus, working alongside your kids is not only a great way to teach by example – it’s also fun. You don’t have [...]
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A Family Affair: Moms & Sons Volunteer Together
By Joan Durbin jdurbin@neighbornewspapers.com 7/20/11 Giving time and energy to a good cause is a soul-satisfying endeavor for many north Fulton residents. Susan Cowan and her son Connor, 15, are members of the Young Men’s Service League at Alpharetta High School. A national service organization for high school boys and their mothers, the local chapter was founded about five years ago. “Members make a four-year commitment to service and philanthropic work. They adhere to a code of conduct, assume leadership positions within YMSL and must work a minimum of 20 volunteer service hours each school year, although most boys work [...]
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Neighbors Helping Neighbors
10/27/2010 Volunteering at the Fairfax Fair in the summertime’s blazing heat may not sound like an ideal way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but for Andrew Levy and his 5-year old daughter Gabrielle, it’s normal. And, on top of that, they were all smiles. So, when it was time to make the choice for the annual title of Sully District’s Lord and Lady on June 2, Sully District’s Supervisor Michael Frey and his staff were convinced the pair from Centreville was perfect. “I first became aware of Gabrielle Levy and her father, Andrew, when talking to the folks at the [...]
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The Way of Volunteering
9/24/2010 Reprinted with permission from The Mommy Bloggy http://michelleferguson.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/the-way-of-volunteering/ My children and I volunteer once a month at our local food pantry. Let me be more specific…Lindsay, Logan, and I volunteer. I used to take Luke with us, but I quickly learned that he will do better in that environment when he is a little older! I spent most of my time calling him down, picking him up off the floor, managing disputes between he and his brother, and on and on. I have a wonderful friend who keeps him for me on those volunteer days. She has a son [...]
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Giving Back: Hundreds of Students Volunteer in the Community
9/9/2010 Montana State University student Kelsey Jackson has been volunteering with Bozeman community groups ever since she was a freshman. On Wednesday, Jackson welcomed other college students to the MSU Community Involvement Fair to encourage them to do the same. “I’m passionate about helping those that can’t help themselves because they don’t have the resources,” said Jackson, a junior who is an intern with Family Promise, which helps homeless families. About 30 local nonprofit groups set up tables at the 17th annual Community Involvement Fair. They were seeking students to volunteer for everything from helping teenagers at risk to befriending [...]
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Odyssey Health Care
2/27/2010 Wanda has been sharing her talents with Odyssey HealthCare, a hospice provider, for about two years. She learned to sew when she was seven-years-old (the youngest of twelve siblings). Her mother made quilts and the children’s clothing. Wanda and her seven sisters learned the craft and family history while sitting at the feet of their mother. There were tales of the girls’ grandparents, wagon rides, and church picnics. Wanda had her first diagnosis of breast cancer in 1994. She had gone through five episodes of breast cancer when she decided to get a double mastectomy in 2007. During her [...]
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Disaster in Haiti Inspires Projects in Washington Schools
2/4/2010 When the earthquake struck Haiti, students at Waples Mill Elementary School in Oakton moved into action. The student council decided to launch a pennies-for-Haiti program with plans to collect coins for the American Red Cross, and one student proposed setting up a school chapter of the international relief organization. Community service projects are nothing new for the school. They are a central part of its mission. Last school year, the Fairfax County school launched a Children’s Philanthropy Center with a service-learning program that is woven into the curriculum. “When you think of community service at schools, you think of collecting [...]
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Teens help find donations for Boys & Girls
2/2/2010 Because Gray Johnson got out of school early, dozens of kids with the Salvation Army’s Boys & Girls Club will benefit through donations of school supplies. The Aiken High School sophomore has been participating in mission projects with other youth group members of First Baptist Church in conjunction with the Aiken County School District’s early release schedule the first Wednesday of each month. The teenagers visited the Boys & Girls Club in January to serve as volunteer tutors. “I was working with the second- and third-grade classes, helping a little girl with her homework,” Johnson said. “I noticed she [...]
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Local Volunteers Give Back on MLK Day
1/19/2010 Yvette Gause took the day off from work Monday and brought her children to the Cultural Arts Center in Frederick to honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. by volunteering. For the past several years, Gause said she and her family have looked for ways to help the community, even just by donating extra clothes or items around the house. “We’re not doing it to get credit for school or anything, we’re doing it to give back,” she said. Gause joined hundreds of other volunteers, students and their parents in making lunches for the hungry, roses for military [...]