Volunteering Without Leaving Home
August 8, 2010 by Barbara Jacoby
Filed under Creating Happiness, Recent Posts
I am very fortunate to work for a company that supports volunteering in the community as a way to give back. Included in the various programs where we can help is a group who knits or crochets or quilts or purchases blankets for children in crisis. This was of particular interest to me as a domestic abuse survivor because I do believe that the greatest victims of abuse are the children. As a thank you to the blanket makers, our company recently held a luncheon for us and included in the guests were representatives from the organization, My Stuff Bags Foundation, who are one of the recipients of the blankets that we create. I was so moved by their work that I felt compelled to share it with you.
I have learned that each year more than 300,000 children all across America must be rescued from terrible situations of abuse and neglect. Often they are taken with no more than the clothes on their backs (and not even that for children taken from homes with meth labs). Can you imagine the fear that children would experience being removed from their homes or sometimes from their schools, put into police cars and taken away to overcrowded strange places where they know no one and have little or nothing of their own belongings? That is why the My Stuff Bags Foundation was created. For each child that is rescued from dangerous home environments, they are given a blue duffel bag that contains at least a plastic bag with personal toiletries, a stuffed animal and a security blanket of their very own. To think that a blanket that I made may end up as the most important possession to some child tonight just brings tears to my eyes.
That is why I am sending this message out to all of you who might be able to make or purchase a blanket to give to this organization. I remember times like when I was recovering from breast cancer surgery where it was probably as important to me to have something to do like making a blanket rather than focusing on the cancer. Just to be doing something that was so very important and appreciated had its own healing effects on me. So if you are interested in volunteering in this way, go online for more information at www.mystuffbags.org for more information. What a great way to help without having to leave home!
For others who would like to volunteer without leaving home, I would suggest that you contact your favorite organization or charity and find out what you may be able to contribute through the use of your computer, as an example. Your organization may need help in sending out fund raising letters or notes and emails to people in crisis that will let them know that someone cares. You might be able to solicit volunteers to help out at the organization’s location or come up with a variety of other ideas. It is so rewarding and fulfilling to help others and to give back to your community and even if you can’t leave home for any number of reasons, that doesn’t mean that you are not a valuable resource for others. Give it a try! I promise that you won’t be sorry.
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