Volunteer Opportunities

TGIFYGDF…Thank Goodness It’s Feed Your Good Dog Friday!

December 18, 2009 by Rose Caplan

TEN WAYS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE AND FEED YOUR OWN SPIRIT AT THE SAME TIME (continued from TGIFYGDF dated November 6, November 27, and December 4).

Acts of kindness and altruism can reduce stress in our lives according to a recent WebMD Feature article entitled The Science of Good Deeds, The ‘helper’s high’ could help you live a longer, healthier life., written by Jeanie Lerche Davis and reviewed by Louise Chang, MD.

Following are good deed ideas (31 through 40) that make performing acts of kindness and “feeding your good dog” easy as pie. Check out number 36…it doesn’t get much easier than that with the potential of huge positive impact on another person’s life. Source: 50 good deeds for 50 days, By Daniela Payne

31. Volunteer yourself to walk an elderly neighbour’s dog once a week. Getting out for a walk isn’t overly easy for many elderly folk, so they’d most likely appreciate this gesture.

32. Instead of dropping your head and pretending you don’t notice (like the rest of the rush-hour crowd) someone struggling to get a stroller down the stairs, take a second and offer to help.

33. Offer an elderly person, a pregnant woman, a physically disabled person – or just someone who looks tired – your seat on the bus.

34. Help keep your city clean. Pick up plastic bottles and other trash you see around your neighbourhood and deposit it in its appropriate place. Click here to read CanadianLiving.com’s Green Living blog.

35. Visit a nursing home just to chat with some of the residents, as many of them don’t get regular visitors.

36. They say that smiling is contagious. Pick a day to smile at everyone you pass on the street.

37. Pass on your books after you’ve read them for someone else to enjoy. Take them to a local shelter or give them to friends.

38. Next time you read an article about an author you know your book-loving friend would enjoy, pass it on to them. It will make them feel good that you think about them.

39. If you’ve discovered a great little restaurant or store, spread the word. The business and whoever you tell will both benefit.

40. Being angry at someone requires a lot of energy from both people involved, so go ahead and let go of an old grudge. Forgiving someone who hurt you will open the door for a friendship to be rekindled.

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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Wednesday Wide Smile

December 16, 2009 by Rose Caplan

There is a lot of good being done out there on the local level. Adopt a Family during the holidays is one way people are making a difference in the lives of other families.

Two ladies, Jennifer and Bobbie, have participated in the Adopt a Family program for the past 6 plus years. For the first six or so years they worked together to make the holidays brighter for a different family each year. This year they decided to divide their resources and efforts to help make the holidays brighter for two families.

Six weeks out from Christmas Day, they start the process by putting in their request to adopt a family with a local organization. Then they collect donations from family and friends, shop for items on the family’s list; items such as warm clothing, shoes and food. After the wish list has been satisfied, they wrap each item to be opened by the family on Christmas Day. The week before Christmas they deliver the wrapped gifts and meet the family. An emotional time for the ladies and the families; lots of smiles and happy tears for everyone involved.

Not only are Jennifer and Bobbie making a difference in the lives of families in their community but they also enrich their own lives and the lives of those who donate to their efforts.

Keep up the good work Jennifer and Bobbie! Thank you for spreading your love for life and good cheer with the rest of us!

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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Wednesday Wide Smile

December 9, 2009 by Rose Caplan

TEENS EDUCATE FELLOW NEW YORKERS ABOUT THE EFFICIENCY OF CFL BULBS TO POSITIVELY IMPACT ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY.

After viewing Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in March, 2006, Avery Hairston, a then 14 year old high school freshman, couldn’t stop thinking about the issues facing the environment. Soon after he saw the movie, he ran across a Starbucks ad in The New York Times that said if every person who received the newspaper switched one light bulb to a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb, it would be the equivalent of taking 89,000 cars off the road.*

From left to right: Avery Hairston, Peter Ginsberg, Brendan Harvey, Peter Chapin, Taiki Kasuga, Jack Schlossberg, Izzy Rattner, Will Pagano, Daniel Bernstein, Stephen Todres, Flo Koenigsberger

Inspired by the documentary, armed with the information from the Starbucks ad, and with help from parents, friends and sponsors, Avery founded RelightNY, a program that runs on the idea that together, everyone can have a big impact by doing something small.

Avery decided he wanted to make a positive impact on the environment despite how overwhelmed he felt at the concept of global warming; so, he broke it down into something as simple as changing out a lightbulb!

Earlier this year, Avery was nominated by Julie Moriarty, Director of Curriculum
Children for Children, for the 2009 Heart of Green Local Hero Award. Following is an excerpt from Ms. Moriarty’s letter of nomination:

Avery and his Relight team quickly began educating fellow New Yorkers about their energy use one apartment at a time and to ask their neighbors to switch from incandescent bulbs to CFL bulbs. Then, they figured if they donate CFL bulbs to community members, they would draw attention to the environmental issues and at the same time, help families save money on their electric bills. In the past two years, they have raised enough money to donate 30,000 bulbs to low-income housing in each of the 5 boroughs of New York City.

Recently, Avery realized that New York City schools are filled with our littlest volunteers and could be mobilized one classroom at a time. He teamed with the Children for Children Foundation to offer a K-12 curriculum to educate students on the power of switching to CFL bulbs and the impact they can have on the earth’s environment. Kids throughout the NYC area are now able to get together with their friends and form Relight teams, and search online for a building that they can volunteer to “adopt.” Armed with the right information, they can help convince all New Yorkers to make the switch.

The greatest success, Hairston said, has been the simplest one — enabling people to make big changes in their lives through the quick changing of a light bulb.

RelightNY is a great example of individual responsibility, and collective action. It gives groups the power to self organize and achieve seemingly unachievable tasks.

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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*Source: Blog post entitled Teens Inspiring Action, dated March 19, 2007, written by Bob Jeffrey, Chairman and CEO, JWT Worldwide

TGIFYGDF…Thank Goodness It’s Feed Your Good Dog Friday!

December 4, 2009 by Rose Caplan

TEN WAYS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE AND FEED YOUR OWN SPIRIT AT THE SAME TIME (continued from TGIFYGDF dated November 6 and November 27)

Following are good deed ideas (21 through 30) that make performing acts of kindness and “feeding your good dog” easy as pie. Check out number 29…it doesn’t get much easier than that with the potential of huge positive impact on another person’s life. Source: 50 good deeds for 50 days, By Daniela Payne

21. Help someone who looks lost with directions. Most people are intimidated and feel vulnerable when they’re lost, offering to help them find their destination will relieve them.

22. Donate blood. One single donation can help up to 4 people – that should be inspiring enough. Check out the Canadian Blood Services website for more information.

23. Donate your used clothes and housewares to charity. By doing so, you can help people meet basic human needs. Your old sweaters will keep someone warm during the winter and your old housewares can help someone furnish their new apartment.

24. Around Christmas time, find a holiday angel program in your community. You can donate basic things like toothpaste, towels, sheets and pyjamas for a family in need to open on Christmas morning.

25. Take a CPR class. You never know when you might be in a position to put those life-saving skills into practice.

26. Help an elderly person off the bus or cross the road by offering to take their arm or carry their packages.

27. By joining a bone marrow registry such as One Match stem cell and marrow network (in Canada), you could be giving someone a lifesaving gift.

28. Offer to babysit a friend’s kids one night so she and her partner can enjoy a romantic evening out. You friend will certainly be grateful for the night off.

29. Bring your old magazines to a hospital waiting room to make patients’ waits a little less nerve racking.

30. Write a letter or e-mail to a good friend or family member to let them know how much you value them. Can you imagine opening a letter of that sort? Go on, start the trend.

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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Wednesday Wide Smile

December 2, 2009 by Rose Caplan

THE VOLUNTEERS OF STORY COUNTY, AMES IOWA ARE AT IT AGAIN…DOING GOOD WORK!

On October 31, November 9, and November 21 Story County volunteers made their neighbors’ homes warmer, their neighborhoods cleaner, and the Thanksgiving holiday brighter for others, and had fun doing it all!

OCTOBER 31, 2009 Volunteers line tape around windows before applying plastic, blow dry the plastic to tighten it across windows and make draft dodgers to keep the cold out of homes, among other things, during the 2009 Story County Winter Weatherization Challenge. More than 150 volunteers weatherized 53 homes.

Winter Weatherization Challenge volunteer_story

NOVEMBER 9, 2009 AmeZone volunteers pick up trash after an ISU football game. Members of AmeZone ride in the trailer to the tailgating fields after the game and show it can be great fun to be part of any volunteer effort.

AmeZone Trash Pickup volunteer_story

NOVEMBER 21, 2009 Volunteers gather at the Volunteer Center of Story County to participate in Story County’s Family Volunteer Day project Volunteers planted tulip bulbs in the pots and then donated them to Meals on Wheels recipients and residents of a local nursing home

Family Volunteer Day 2009 volunteer_story

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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TGIFYGDF…Thank Goodness It’s Feed Your Good Dog Friday!

November 27, 2009 by Rose Caplan

WAYS TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL GOOD THIS WEEKEND (continued from TGIFYGDF dated November 6 )

These good deed ideas (11 through 20) make “feeding your good dog” as easy as taking a walk in the park. Source: 50 good deeds for 50 days, By Daniela Payne

11. Put together a basket of treats for a friend who had a death in the family. Deliver it after the funeral has taken place, when most friends have gone back to their day-to-day lives.

12. Drive your grandparents, elderly parents and their friends to church, doctor’s appointments or the movies. They (and their aging bodies) will value the gesture.

13. Volunteer for a charity. Pick a cause that’s near and dear to your heart and donate your time to them.

14. Sit down with your family and estimate what you’d spend on each other for gifts. Instead of buying each other gifts for birthdays or holidays, donate the estimated amount to a charity.

15. If you head out of town, drop off your monthly public transit pass at a youth or job centre. They’ll pass on the pass to someone who is in need of it to job hunt or attend school.

16. Take your neighbors trash to the curb while you’re taking yours. Imagine their surprise when they see that the chore is already done.

17. If you’re in line at the grocery store with a full cart, let the person behind you who only has 5-10 items go in front of you.

18. Offer to take care of a neighbour’s pet when they go away on a small vacation. They’ll be comfortable knowing their pet is in good hands.

19. Make dinner for friends with a newborn baby (or, if they’re far away, send a gift card for the grocery store or a favourite restaurant so they can pick something up).

20. Pay for the person behind you at the drive thru. It will make someone’s day!

And, remember…Feed Your Good Dog, so your good dog always wins!
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