Did you know as recently as the 1970s, the average American belonged to half-dozen or more civic organizations that did volunteer work in their communities? Lions Clubs, the Masons, Rotaries, Chambers of Commerce, etc. Today, we’re lucky to be involved with even one. It’s no wonder everyone joins social media sites like crazy; we miss that connection, not to mention the opportunities for doing social good.

I’m one of those people who doesn’t have much outside organizational involvement, I admit. But when choosing a church for my family, one of the conditions for me was that the church “walked the walk,” instead of just talking the talk. My church does many outreach activities, including a monthly dinner at a homeless shelter. This outreach is particularly dear to me. As a recovering alcoholic, I know that the ranks of the homeless are filled with addicts who haven’t been able to find recovery, and reaching out to them with this dinner has helped me connect with them and serve as proof that recovery is possible. Helping the homeless has actually become a family issue; my husband does outreach and photography of the homeless here in Philadelphia as well.

But I haven’t stopped there. Because of my large social media footprint, I try to use that for social good as well. I help promote a variety of women and children related non-profit organizations, particularly those that focus on women’s health. It’s not the same as being hands-on, I realize that, but sometimes it’s better than nothing.

I want to instill social responsibility in my daughter; I’ve considered taking her to the homeless dinner but, unfortunately, the facility isn’t zoned for children. But I talk with her about helping people, about how important it is to reach out a hand and help whenever you can. One of the (very small) things I’ve done is helping her pick out (gently used) clothes and toys to give to our local battered women and children’s shelter. She loves knowing that her “stuff” is going to other kids in need. I’m not sure you can teach generosity, but I’m going to give it a shot.

I wish I could do more; as is typical today, time is at a premium. I work hard, and make my family a priority, and it can be hard to remember that there are plenty of families in need out there, too. One of the ways that I’ve managed to free up my time has been to make sure I keep myself focused and organized; it’s one of the great gifts that working with a startup (that happens to focus on organization!) has given me.

What are you doing to teach your children about social responsibility?

Featured image courtesy of Flickr.

Cecily Kellogg is the mom of near six-year-old daughter, a wife, and the social media strategist for AboutOne, an online family organizer that turns your phone into a remote control for your life, working with your existing calendar and contact tools so you can automatically organize, store, and share family memories and household paperwork. Through web and mobile apps, AboutOne guides you along the path to organization, rewarding you along the way for meeting your organizational goals.

After his 93 year-old mother passed away, Dan was thrust into a new world. The world of possibilities. He moved into a wonderful Senior Living Facility and is learning a new way of life. But unfortunately, a lot of his normal routine has changed and he does not have as much to do during the day. So Dan and I began a search for opportunities to volunteer.

There are limitless volunteer opportunities for seniors at every physical level. If you have someone in your life that needs a little something more to lift their spirits, here are just a few of many ideas that are out there. I am sure this will get your brain flowing.

Volunteer Opportunities for Seniors

RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program)

This program is a nationwide volunteer program for adults age 55 and over who are looking for ways to stay active while serving their community. RSVP is part of Senior Corps of the Corporation for National and Community Services. They can help direct you to opportunities in your area.

Local Schools, Libraries, and Community Centers

These places, usually undergoing budget cuts, are always looking for people to help out with different programs. From the basics of reading and math, to music and art, there are many ways to volunteer. Contact these organization’s main offices to find out where you can best serve. You can become a pen pal to a student or read to preschoolers. So many options.

City Transportation System

Dan has found that there is a need to assist first time bus riders. Many people need help navigating the bus routes, and if you know the ropes you can help.

Food Bank

Believe it or not, food banks need help in ways that are not all lifitng and sorting. They send out mailings and do fundraisers, so they have many sit-down opportunities for seniors.

Political Headquarters and Voting Polls

From stuffing envelopes to making calls, there is always a need for volunteers at these places.

Additional Locations

The following are a few more places who are always in need of volunteers: Art Museum, Science Center, Churches, Animal Shelter, Meals on Wheels, and Boy and Girl Scouts of America.

This has been a rewarding experience for me to help Dan see potential in his new life. The best part is that I have realized that you can be involved at any age!

If you are feeling a little down and lonely, look out your own front door and voluteer! It will boost your spirits, give you purpose, and help others! There is nothing better than that!

What volunteer opportunities have you or a loved one been involved in within your community?

Photos courtesy of Flickr.

Susan lives in Boise, Idaho, and is a self-taught artist and a jack of many artsy trades. She is married to professional artist and has two great teenagers. She has her hand in a lot of pots. She in very involved in her community and church. She loves friends, family, movies, eating out, laughing, and  vacationing to warm destinations! She just started her own blog! Visit susansspinningplates.wordpress.com.

This past week, I had the chance to work with homeless moms and dads whose kids go to school at the Vogel Alcove in Dallas. I worked in the holiday store where we were able to give free Christmas gifts to the parents for the kids.

At this school, smiling toddlers run around and laugh, making crafts and painting beautiful cards in the classroom. Only the crafts they make in school are for a cause, sold to help families get back on their feet.

Watching people on the street is always heart wrenching, but at Christmas it seems to be magnified. A young homeless mother shopping for her five year-old is no different than you or I. She loves her kids, and knows exactly what they like or dislike. She passed over the robot for the football and chose the toy truck over the puzzle. She picked out two black knit hats, opting to buy the same thing for both kids, instead of choosing from a variety of different colors. “That way,” she said, “they won’t fight over it.”

A staff member had instructed me to take no more than 15 minutes to let the parent shop. I led her around the store and we filled a giant bag with toys. I waited patiently as the mother tried to decide on several pairs of socks. It was her child, after all, and one of the few things she felt she had control over.

I try to remember that it’s the human connection that matters. Getting a homeless person off the street isn’t about things. It’s about words, inspiration, and letting them know their life has purpose.

The statistics are alarming. In Oklahoma, the average age of a homeless person is nine. Positive Tomorrows is a school for homeless children that also provides help for the parents, in the form of adult life skills classes for the parents.

In Chicago, thousands of homeless kids are enrolled in public schools. They don’t have a place to shower, sleep, or eat after school. For many, lunch in the school cafeteria is their only meal of the day.

In Romania, I saw the street kids first hand. The civilians call them gypsies.

The homeless world has their own culture. Restoration requires teamwork and baby steps. When I teach writers workshops through The Homeless Project program in Dallas I ask them to journal about their life and any negative past events, misted of acting out in rage, anger, or other destructive habits. Be pulled forward by your dreams, instead of pulled back by your past. Civilians think that homelessness is about economics, and most want to try to solve financial problems.

I tried to explain this to a girl who insisted to me that homelessness was about the job market. Jobs might be hard to find in some areas, but homelessness is definitely more emotional than financial. There are limiting beliefs, emotional events, tragedies, and personal issues that keep people from succeeding.

And it’s the same way for those of us with homes. When we can look forward to our dreams, instead of dwelling on the past, there’s freedom.

This year, if you feel led to help, you can reach out by giving your time, love, and inspiration. For more information on volunteering at a homeless school, visit: Positive Tomorrows Oklahoma, Open Air Ministries, or The Vogel Alcove on the web.

How do you help the homeless? What will you do this year to help those in need?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Tammy Kling is a life coach, advocate for the homeless, and international author of books including The Compass. Tammy is also the founder of Write it Out, an organization that helps the homeless transform by journaling goals, hopes & dreams via writers workshops, free journals and books. Tammy loves being a mom to two awesome boys, and is also an avid trail and mountain runner, and corporate writer.

One perfect example in teaching a child to be responsible is by taking care of a family pet. And what better way to support the local community than by adopting the newest family member from an animal shelter or humane society.

Although they are often ignored, animals in local shelters can make perfect pets. Many are already trained and/or housebroken, and have been left by owners who can no longer afford them or don’t have time for them.

If you have decided that a dog would be the best pet for your family, you can certainly find this loyal companion at the local humane society. Start with your child’s involvement at the very beginning by letting them be a part of the selection process.

Meeting Your Dog

Before adopting from the humane society, let each member of your family meet the dog. This can build an instant bond within the family, and contribute to the excitement of taking care of this new family member. Be sure to interact with the animal at the shelter, to ensure the dog is a good fit for all of the people in your family. The workers at the shelter can guide you in selecting the best breed for your family.

Bringing Your Dog Home

Dogs who live in shelters are accustomed to loud, busy environments in which they seldom get either exercise or time alone. Consequently, the transition to a new home can prove challenging. Many dog owners find that placing their dogs in crates when they aren’t home can help ease anxiety. Place a puppy training pad in the crate in case your dog has an accident during the day. The crate shouldn’t be used as punishment but rather as a safe place for your your dog while no one is home.

Let your child be responsible for establishing a routine for your dog. Dogs are creatures of habit and shelter dogs are accustomed to routines. Your children can be responsible for walking, feeding, and playing with your dog at the same times every day. Provide your dog with plenty of exercise, which can help burn off nervous energy — this can even be great exercise for the kids!

Although rescuing a dog takes some work and advanced planning, you can pat yourself on the back knowing that you’ve saved a life and brought more love into your family’s home.

“Saving one animal won’t change the world, but the world will change for that one animal.”- Author Unknown

Have you ever adopted an animal from the shelter? How do you help support your local animal shelters?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Jane Warren is an animal lover. She has rescued so many that she’s convinced the animal community knows where she lives! Her website, PamperThePets.com, provides guidance and recommendations for popular pet supplies, like greenies dog treats.

How to Make Reindeer Candy Canes

Below is a list of supplies and step-by-step instructions for how to make the perfect reindeer candy canes to pass out to people this holiday season.

Supplies

To complete this project, you’ll need the following:

• Brown pipe cleaners
• Small red pom poms
• Small googly eyes
• Small bells
• Glue and glue gun or double sided tape (hot glue works best)
• Tag
• Cardstock
• Printer

Instructions

To make reindeer candy canes, follow these simple steps:

1. Wrap one brown pipe cleaner around the top of the curved part of the candy cane. Get creative and shape the antlers however you’d like!

2. Using a glue gun and hot glue or double sided tape, place the googly eyes below the antlers side by side and the red pom pom beneath them for the nose.

3. Thread the small bells onto the tips of the antlers.

4. Create a tag using a piece of cardstock and your printer with a phrase such as: “Happy Holidays! Thanks for Your Service!” Or, “Thanks for brightening up my day. Happy Holidays!” Or, “I appreciate your kindness. Merry Christmas!”

5. Once you have converted all of your candy canes into reindeer, divvy them up in the bags, giving an equal amount to each child. Then store them in the car and encourage everyone to hand them out to people who are kind to them during the holidays as a way of thanking them.

Tip! My boys are shy and when they were little, they had such a hard time. My suggestion, if this is the case for you, is to go with them and encourage them until they can do it themselves. The first time someone gets a surprised smile on their face and says thank you, they will want to find more and more people to pass them out to. It is contagious!

What do you and your family do to reward people for their kindness during the holiday season? How do you spread the Christmas spirit?

As I was looking through my board, I questioned why I always wait until December to give out neighbor gifts. Wouldn’t Thanksgiving be the perfect time to start?

So this year, we are making a few neighbor gifts in November to get into the giving spirit a bit earlier.

We identified a few families who really mean a lot to us and that we want to thank for being a part of our lives. We found this fun recipe in Family Fun Magazine and spent the afternoon baking, talking all the while about who we would deliver the treats to, why they were important to us, and why we were grateful to have them in our lives.

Making them was a whole family affair. The kids cut them out, using an awesome Wilton leaf cookie cutter I found on sale at Michael’s.

Next, they buttered the edges.

Then, they added a variety of fillings, including cut up Reese’s peanut butter cups, Nutella, and strawberry jam with cream cheese.

The end result was both delicious and an awesome way to help my kids learn about gratitude while having fun in the kitchen.

How do you help your kids get in the giving spirit? What do you do during the month of Thanksgiving to help them have an attitude of gratitude?

I couldn’t wait to tell my kids when they got home from school that we had received 25 loads of precious dirt. I decided to text a few of them instead. “Guess what surprise came to our house today?” Now you might be asking, why is this family so happy about something as simple as dirt? What you need to know about us is that we love dirt biking. Our kids have built a mini race track in our back yard and spend hours building ramps, turns, and jumps. They are on the quest to build the perfect track. The day our dirt came the kids played for hours in the mounds of rich, dark soil. Who knew that free dirt could bring so much happiness?

I have thought a lot about this day, especially with the holidays right around the corner. I am already starting to wonder what I should buy the kids this year. Then I stop and ask myself if they really need anything? In an effort to scale back on Christmas, a few years ago we started a new tradition. Each child could have four presents.

• Something You Want
• Something You Need
• Something You Wear
• Something You Read

What are some of your favorites gifts that don’t cost money? What does your family do to focus on giving instead of receiving?

Involving the Family

When teaching children to give graciously, it’s important to involve the entire family. If the whole family is learning how to give, a support system can develop and everyone will feel part of the process. Plus, it will make giving even more fun as family members pitch in and help.

The following are a few ways to involve the entire family in the gift-giving process:

1. At the dinner table, chat with your family about upcoming gifts or friends that might deserve a random act of kindness. Approach the process with the desire to help and teach and engage. Teaching children to really think about “who” we are giving to more than “what” we are giving is so important. When we focus on the “who” the “what” is so much easier to figure out!
2. Take your children on an outing or two. Before entering the store, remind them that this trip is about those we love and our attention shouldn’t be on what we want but on what will make others feel loved and appreciated. (Yes, this means that even if you are tempted by a beautiful hand-knit scarf that complements your favorite sweater perfectly, you go back later or not at all.) Self-control is a good habit for all of us to learn. Once you select a gift, let your child carry it to the register. When you get home, let your children help you wrap the gift or tie the ribbon. This helps them feel part of the process.

Giving the Gift of Gratitude

Although the holidays or special occasions present excellent opportunities for children to engage in the gift-giving process, we must take time to sit down with our children before the holiday or birthday to teach them how to be gracious—before they approach their pile of gifts like a vulture ravaging its lunch. Take it from me: it’s an unattractive sight!

The following are tips on how to engage children in the gift-giving process:

1. Talk with your children often about ways they can acknowledge gifts.
2. Stage a dress rehearsal. Have them find their favorite toy and wrap it up, then have them practice giving you a gift. Show them how to graciously open it, then have them follow your example. Gifts they love and gifts they don’t.  After all it’s easy to be excited, it’s not as easy to mask disappointment.
3. Don’t postpone writing a thank-you: the evening or the day after the gift is received is the best time. Although these times tend to be the busiest and our children are tired, it is very important to set the standard from the top. We make time for what is important and our children know this. Thank-yous, although daunting, are very important. Make it fun. Pour a cup of tea or juice, sit down together, and put the finishing touches on the goodness of giving and the importance of a gracious spirit.

How do you teach your children to be more giving? How do you involve them in the gift-giving process?

Founder of Mindy Lockard’s Gracious Living which includes a daily blog. TheGraciousGirl.net, and trainings for colleges/universities, government agencies, and private companies. Mindy is a freelance contributor for FOX 12 Oregon, Crane & Co’s The Crane Insider, Stationery Trends magazine’s column “What’s Write” and many other web and print publications. Contact Mindy: www.MindyLockard.com twitter: TheGraciousGirl facebook: TheGraciousGirl.

Is there a special friend in your life who has been there for you through thick and thin?  Do you want to find a way to let her know how much her friendship means?  When a simple “thank you” doesn’t quite seem big enough, here are some gracious ways to show your friend how much she means:

1.    Put It in Writing

You might not think that saying “thank you” is enough, but putting your words in writing may be quite meaningful, indeed.  I’m not talking about a Facebook post or e-mail (though those never hurt), but rather a good, old-fashioned, pen-to-paper handwritten note.  Why not include a box of lovely stationery as a small gift to accompany your heartfelt expression of gratitude for your friend?

2.    Create IOU’s

If there is one thing most Mama-friends have in common, it is a scarcity of time!  Rather than pick out a pricey gift that might just duplicate something she already has, why not consider a gift that speaks to what she really needs: a few extra moments.  Give her an IOU for free babysitting while she enjoys time with her spouse, bring her a few meals that she can pull out of the freezer at any time, or offer to run her errands for a week.

3.     Spend Time Together

If not saving her time, how about the gift of spending time together?  If your friend loves the outdoors, why not scope out a spot for a good hike or bicycle ride?  If she’s a girly girlfriend, how about planning for a mani/pedi Mom’s Night Out?  Spending time together doing enjoyable things is one of the best ways to show someone how much they mean to you.

4.     Help Others Spend Time Alone

Moms always talk about the value of spending time with loved ones, but what so many of us really want is a few precious moments alone.  To show your friend how grateful you are, consider picking out a special book that she has been dying to read (then hanging out with her kids while she reads it!).  A movie buff might love the gift of a Netflix subscription.  On demand, she can pick out her very own movie and spend some time in her own world, enjoying it.  You pop the popcorn (extra butter!) and take the kids to your house while she indulges in the flick.

Psychologists have studied Happiness and discovered that GIVING is one of the key principles that makes people happy and drives out stress, anxiety, and depression.

So, how can we raise GIVING kids in a ME generation? I believe it starts out with us as parents. I thought about how my parents raised my siblings and me to think of others and to feel what others go through during tough times. We grew up with very little yet my parents gave of whatever time, money, or resources that they had to help others.

When my family came to America as refugees from Vietnam, we arrived in a small town of Beloit, Wisconsin with a cardboard box with belongings that we managed to collect during the journey.

My parents were so grateful for the opportunity to live in America that they wanted to help other refugees just like us. With broken English and the little amount of money they earned weekly at their factory jobs, they started taking in Vietnamese refugees who arrived in our town without a place to live.

The new refugees were clothed, fed and taught how to drive, and find employment where they worked to saved up enough to be on their own. I watched people come and go during these years. This continued for most of the years I lived at home.

I watched my father serve and give. He was honored in 1984 as Volunteer of the Year by the community with an awards dinner. He was truly an example to my siblings and me.

I wanted to raise my children to be givers and not takers in life. I wanted to carry on the legacy that my father instilled in my siblings and me. “Life is to give and not to take.” My father would also say, “These are seeds for your future.” He believed in the principles of giving will be reaped in the next generation.

He was right. I watched, observed, and I followed. If there’s anything that I resemble of my father-it’s compassion for others and I’m proud to have that trait.

When my husband and I had our first child, we taught her early on to be a giver. Starting with simple lessons; instead of fighting over the same toy, give it to the other child. This taught her to put others first.

As she got older, it got to the point where she would want to give EVERYTHING she owned to all of her friends; presents that she received from relatives were cheerfully given away without parental approval. She learned the art of being a cheerful giver at a young age. We eventually explained that it’s a beautiful thing to GIVE but balance is good too.

When our sons were born and the kids were older, we got involved in the Angel Tree program at Christmas. The Angel Tree program connects parents in prison with their children through the delivery of Christmas gifts.

We picked out the gifts, wrapped them with the child name and signed them from their parents who were in prison and personally delivered the gifts to their homes.

I always looked forward to hearing how they felt after delivering the gifts to these children and often times they expressed how sad they felt seeing the living conditions. But how blessed they felt to be able to give and put a smile on another child’s face who was less fortunate.

Participating giving opportunity allowed our kids to see what others go through and made them more compassionate people. I believe this principle will be passed from one generation to the next as long as we make GIVING a lifestyle.

What tips do you have for raising giving children?