Help Those Around You

While I was sitting in my house during a snow storm yesterday, I saw the TV scrawl that Meals On Wheels in some communities were being canceled due to the weather. It made my heart ache to think while I was warm in my house with plenty, there were people in my community and the ones surrounding that weren’t going to get a meal that day. I don’t blame Meals On Wheels. They have to look out for their drivers and the roads were impassable. But this is the time to reflect on what community and volunteering mean to us.

Volunteering is not just going to the food bank one time a year and helping strangers. Volunteering is looking out for your elderly neighbors to make sure they’re doing OK during a storm. It’s snow blowing the driveway of a single mother who doesn’t own a snow blower. It’s holding the door open for someone in a wheelchair or one crutches. It’s about the small things you do everyday for those around you. So volunteer with an organization, but also look at ways you can help the people around you on a daily basis. It will make your heart feel good.

Trish

Family Volunteer Day!

November 21st, 2009 was National Family Volunteer Day. The Volunteer Center hosted an incredibly successful event - 57 volunteers decorated 186 flower pots and planted 335 tulip bulbs in them. These pots were then donated to Meals on Wheels recipients around Story County and will be donated to Bethany Manor residents. Volunteering is a great way to spend time with family, friends, and co-workers - it builds relationships and strengthens communication while having a positive impact on the local community.

I received a number of emails from families interested in participating in the event that reflected their understanding of the importance of volunteering. Parents were excited about the opportunity to volunteer with their children and make service to others the focus of a family activity. The event was a success because of the diverse group of people who attended and interacted with each other, working together to complete a project that brought happiness to others. Members of a church youth group attended together, Iowa State students participated and made new connections to the community while completing the service project, and numerous mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins dedicated part of their Saturday to service.

We look forward to increasing opportunities for families to volunteer together and focus some time on service to others and the community.

- Laura

Do Good MIXER!

I declare the first Do Good MIXER a success. Though many of you were not able to make it to Karaoke night at Riverside Manor, the few that did come had a great time. The residents sang along with Karaoke Diva, Susan Rappenwolf, who did a great job of singing to the oldies, even though her machine wasn’t working. What a trooper. We were even entertained by one of the Riverside Manor guests who played the harmonica while the rest of us sang.

Then off to Olde Main for dinner and mixing. Can’t wait to do this again.

Let the VCSC know if you are interested in joining us for upcoming Do Good MIXERs or if you have ideas for projects.

Trish

Remembering volunteering as a family

I have fond memories of volunteering as a child with my family. Every Christmas my family and I would volunteer at our church, organizing gifts from our Adopt a Family tree and delivering them to the families. I remember the looks on some of the kids when we brought them gifts - they were so excited.

My mom has worked at a nursing home my whole life, so I also would go and visit with the residents and have piano recitals there. It was so natural because it was just like going to work with my mom, but in a way it was volunteering. These values have been ingrained in me since I was a young child.

The Points of Light Institute says volunteering as a family is so important, that they created a whole National Day of Service for it. Family Volunteer Day falls the Saturday before Thanksgiving each year, and organizations around the country hold service projects for families to become engaged in their communities.

In Story County, families will have the opportunity to decorate pots and plant tulip bulbs in them. The plants will then be donated to a local nursing home and to Meals on Wheels recipients to help brighten someone's day during the holidays.

The project will take place Saturday, Nov. 21 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Click here for more information. Hope to see you there with your family, friends or co-workers!

-Amanda

Bet More than Money on the World Series

I know what you’re thinking. What do baseball and volunteering have to do with each other? Well, normally nothing, unless you’re a volunteer coach, referee, team parent…well wait baseball and volunteering have a lot in common. So why don’t you make your bet on the World Series about volunteering too?

That’s what Mayor Bloomberg of New York and Mayor Nutter from Philadelphia are doing. Each is betting his team will win, and they’re putting their money where their mouth is, or volunteering in this case. The losing mayor will go and volunteer with the winning mayor’s project while wearing the winning team’s t-shirt. For Mayor Bloomberg, that means going to Philly to work on a public mural, or Mayor Nutter going to New York to work with Publicolor and students painting open spaces. The winner will also pay for a catered lunch for volunteers.

All this stems from Major League Baseball dedicating the first four games to community service for the first time. “Going Beyond” is a new initiative sponsored by MLB that supports programs for veterans, cancer research and youth development.

Think about that when you make your next bet.

Be a Couch Potato

The talk around the water cooler this morning, or the tea pot in our case, was about iParticipate, an exciting new concept brought about by the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The group has come together; along with the big four networks, to showcase volunteering in their shows for the week and encourage a “new era of service and volunteering.”

PSA’s have already been shown on TV and focus on five causes EIF is promoting, Education & Children, Health & Well Being, Economic Development, Environmental Conservation, and Support for Military Families.

During this week, all of your favorite shows will have story lines pertaining to volunteering and being a good member of your community including The Office (Laura’s and Amanda’s favorite) The Today Show (Heather’s favorite), and Bones (my favorite). We’ll all be watching

The real question is what are you going to do about it? Once this week is over, will you let it slip your mind until next year, or will you go to www.vcstory.org to volunteer to change to world?
Trish

Support from the top, but it takes each one of us

Public service has been a priority for many of our past presidents.

FDR started the Civilian Conservation Corps, JFK created the Peace Corps, and Lyndon B. Johnson fulfilled JFK's dream of a domestic Peace Corps by creating VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America).

In his 1989 Inaugural address, George H.W. Bush said, "I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding." And it goes on. He created the Commission on National and Community Service to support his service agenda.

Then President Clinton started the AmeriCorps program, which is increasingly growing in popularity.

Most recently, President Obama signed the Kennedy Serve America act into law, boosting the budget for AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service, launching the United We Serve Campaign, and making civic engagement central to his presidency.

Thanks to support from the national level, in recent years we've seen record surges in American volunteering. Schools engage their students in service learning, businesses support employee volunteering, and industries such as the entertainment industry shine the spotlight on service.

Michelle Nunn, the CEO of the Points of Light Institute, leaves us with this thought from her blog on the Huffington Post Impact page:

"With challenges like unemployment, the drop-out crisis, prisoner reentry and environmental degradation looming across our communities, the call to citizens to step up and make a difference has never been more important.


Stage One: service through government. Stage Two: service through community. And now Stage Three: Service central to our national priorities.

Twenty years after Bush's Points of Light, Obama's call to service comes not a moment too soon."

-Amanda