10 Ways to Serve by Washing

1. Google whether or not your favorite body wash is manufactured by a company that does animal-testing, or look at this list to find companies that don’t.
2. Offer to wash some of the toys in your church’s or community center’s nursery or day care.
3. Donate $1 to Share Your Soles, enough money for them to wash 30 pairs of donated shoes, which they then send to impoverished countries where shoes are a luxury.
4. Wash out some cottage cheese containers, cut a quarter-sized hole in the lids and put them on the containers, then gather some fuzzies and a few toddlers or preschoolers, and let them have fun stuffing the fuzzies into the containers. (Idea: Pinterest)
5. Visit ProjectLaundryList.org to find out how best to cold-wash or line-dry your clothes to save energy.
6. Wash your neighbor’s car or the outside of one of their windows.
7. Put six quarters in the coin dispenser of your nearest self-serve car wash.
8. Host a reverse garage sale for your neighborhood: gather their used items, wash them, and take them to your local Salvation Army.
9. Donate $5 to Ms. Jimenez’s classroom at Validus Prep Academy in an impoverished area of New York City, so that she can buy a washing machine and dryer for her students, many of whom don’t have access to them at home.
10. Sew a pillowcase, wash, and dry. Put it in a ziploc bag and send to ConKerr Cancer.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

• Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
• Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
• Enter to win this week’s giveaway.
• Join #gno this Tuesday and this Wednesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.

What fun ways can you serve others this week?

My boys start the scouting program at the age of eight and move through the various rank advancements until they receive their Eagle Scout Award. This usually happens around the age of 15-18.

My oldest son is 17 years old. He earned his eagle when he was 15 years old. One of the last things you do to earn your Eagle is to do a 10 hour Leadership Service Project. This takes not only organization, but a lot of support from your leaders, friends, and family.

The project plan must be approved by a unit , committee, and district leader. When choosing a project the scout thinks about who will benefit from the project, how will they benefit, and how many people will it take to complete your project.

When the earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, my son decided that he wanted to collect personal hygiene kit items for the people in Haiti. He contacted a group called the “Helping Hands for Haiti Foundation” and received all the information he needed for his project. This organization has been helping Haiti for over six years. They have built schools, bought land, taught farming skills to the Haitian people, and many other projects over the years. Right now they were in need of providing the people with hygiene kits and my son was excited to help.

The kits needed to include several things; toothbrushes, tooth paste, soap bars, towels, and combs. My son’s goal was to assemble 100 hygiene kids. He distributed over 300 fliers around the neighborhood in hopes that we could collect enough items to reach his goal. The project took just over a week to complete. 

Together with his family and scout group my son collected enough items to make 200 hygiene kits. It looked like Christmas in our living room when we packaged all of the items together. The generosity of our neighbors was unbelievable.

We had left over items that we were able to take to our local homeless shelter. This was a great experience for my son and for our whole family. I am thankful for the Boy Scout Program and for the opportunity it gave our family to serve and give to others. I am also thankful for the “Hands For Haiti Foundation” and all that they do to bless the lives of other.

I have two more boys left that are working their way up the advancement ranks. As each one reaches the age to earn his eagle, I hope that they will have the same enthusiasm and spirit of giving as my older son. This was an incredible experience that will have an impact on our lives.

What charitable organizations have you worked with in the past? What are you doing to raise charitable children?

Jill Greenlaw has a banking background. She is married and has four beautiful children. Jill loved being a stay-at-home mom for many years. She is now working for Mom It Forward as the editorial/community manager. Her interests include camping, motorcycling, boating, photography, reading, cooking, and traveling. Put her in flip flops anywhere warm and she is happy. You can follow her on Twitter.

Collect

Teach kids to collect. Depending on the time of year, you can find agencies and churches collecting just about anything: school supplies, coats, shoes, glasses, blankets, and canned goods. You should be sure to jump on one of these already established drives.

Last fall, our family participated in a local food drive. We hauled out our wagon, walked around a section of our neighborhood, and asked neighbors if they wanted to contribute dry goods. The response was colossal and, in addition to all of the non-perishables, we also got to know our neighbors better.

Create

Teach kids to create. Paintings, pictures, and colorful creations made by little hands bring sunshine into homes of people who live alone. Organizations such as Color a Smile and Post Pals  encourage children to create mini-masterpieces and lovefilled letters.

Cash-In

Teach kids to cash-in. Using even the most basic supplies and a little parental help, kids can create cookie or lemonade stands, and turn quarters and dimes into tangible donations.

Two summers ago, my daughter and her friends gathered posterboard, markers, two pitchers of lemonade, and plastic cups. In under two hours, these girls turned a few supplies into $30.00. Then, with their new found riches, each girl decided to give half of her earnings to a cause.

Will dry goods, colored pictures, and $15.00 change the world? Probably not, but I’m pretty sure it’s changing my daughter.

How will you encourage your kids to give back this year?

Can one beyond blessed family move from addicted to themselves to devoted to others? The author of this post shares honestly at Amy L. Sullivan about her family’s attempt to become less me, me, me focused and more others centered. Amy writes for print and online publications and is also writing a nonfiction book about serving others.

Now, with two children of my own, I have realized that my parents taught me one of the most powerful lessons a parent could teach—a knowledge and a love of service. So, now as I “drag” my own children from project to project, I have wondered what, exactly, it was that my parents did that helped me turn my drudgery for service into a passion.

Here are 10 tips I have extrapolated from their parenting that I hope to instill in my children.

1. Serve With Your Children. Serving side by side with your children is one of the most powerful teachers of how to serve all while bringing the family closer. While kids may complain, the bonding time you share sticks in their memories as a positive experience. When they have children of their own and search for ways in which to bond with their children, they will want to repeat the positive experiences they had as a child and the cycle will continue.

• One of my most memorable service projects as a child was a family picnic where my dad did all the service. My dad was the president of our local Rotary Club and they were raising money to wipe out Polio. I was 10 years old and remember the hot Arizona day, watching my dad prepare the dutch oven luncheon for the event and him talking to me at length about Polio, explaining why the Rotary Club was focused on raising money to eradicate it, and the importance of my participation. I felt important! I didn’t do a thing but talk to my dad and eat the picnic lunch, but I felt I had made a huge difference for mankind.

2. Talk to Your Children About Giving and Sharing. When you are not able to serve side by side with your children, share in detail your experiences after the event. Specifically, help them understand the need, how you helped to meet the need, and why your giving and sharing was so important. If you can, take pictures or video and share it with them. Your excitement for your volunteering will be contagious!

Family Service Project at Assisted Living Facility

3. Choose Service Activities Your Children Are Passionate About. Service activities come in many shapes and sizes. Identify what is important to your children and choose activities and causes that fit with their interests. Some suggestions include animals, the environment, children will illnesses, an illness a family member suffers from, etc.

4. Choose a Cause That Taps In to Your Child’s Talents, Skills, & Abilities. Does your child play a musical instrument? Does she like to do arts and crafts? Is he good at weeding or picking up trash? Can she make homemade greeting cards? Can he sing in a group? Nursing homes is just one example of a place that allows kids to visit and share who they are with others. This act of sharing and giving boosts self esteem and helps children learn that their talents, skills, and abilities can be used for good.

5. Tie Everyday Tasks Into Service. Make service an everyday activity and giving a constant thought by reinforcing these concepts in simple things like sharing toys, taking turns, secretly doing a sibling’s chores, giving family members hugs and kisses, etc. You can do this by saying things like: “Johnny, great job at sharing your toys with Billy. That shows that you are a giving person.” To help kids recognize the many ways to serve, create a Giving Chart, where they identify either in written or drawing format things they can do on a daily basis to serve those around them.

Cousins Creating Treasure Boxes (Gratitude Charts)

6. Show Gratitude. Helping kids recognize and show appreciation for things they are grateful for is an important aspect of service. Involve your children in gratitude activities such as keeping a gratitude journal or art book; going on gratitude walks; keeping a Daily Gratitude Chart on the refrigerator where you, as a family, can list your blessings; and having activities such as sitting in a circle and sharing what you are grateful for about the person sitting to your right. Check out Fishful Thinking for their Grateful Sayings activity.

7. Add an Aspect of Giving to Holidays & Events. The Christmas and Hanukkah season is a terrific and natural time to give to others, but you can add a touch of service during many other events as well. For example, many people are now donating their birthday gifts to charity.

• When I was 11 years old, my parents enlisted our help in doing the 12 Days of Christmas for a family whose mom was dying of breast cancer. Together, we picked out all of the gifts, items that would help the family feel joy during the holiday season. We created a strategy for how we would anonymously deliver the gifts. Then, we created a schedule of which family member would take responsibility for various tasks: wrapping the gifts, delivering them, etc. Each day, we huddled together after it got dark to work on our tasks and carry out the project. I will always remember that as one of the best Christmases. Not surprisingly, I don’t recall what I received for my gifts that year.

Kids Bowling to Help Fight Poverty in Africa

8. Serve even when you’re away from home. What a better way to get to know and bond with a destination location than to serve it or its community? If you’ll be away on a long trip, you can arrange a project through an organization. Nearly every major city has a homeless shelter or rescue mission, for example. For shorter stays, simple tasks like picking up garbage at a park and smiling at strangers on the street can make a big difference. Before going on a trip, plan as a family by answering the question: What can we do to give back to the towns and people we’ll be visiting?

• When I was 12 years old, my parents gave me the wonderful opportunity of visiting their friends in Costa Rica for the summer and encouraged me to do a service project before I left. I planned and ran a bake sale with the help of some of my church friends. I raised a whopping $30, which felt like a million bucks! Once I arrived, Silvia, the mom of the family I was staying with, took me all by myself to the grocery store where we purchases items for three families—food that would help them survive for 6 months. The most memorable part of my summer was delivering the food to the three families, crying with them as they humbly accepted it, and gaining a stark realization at the age of 12 of how other people suffer and that I had the power to make a huge difference. I count that as one of the most fortunate experiences I’ve ever had and thank my parents for ensuring it happened.

Decorating Tree at Center for Abused Children

9. Do Unto Others as They Need You to Do Unto Them. What’s valuable to teach your kids about service is that everyone needs to be loved in different ways and that finding out and meeting their needs is most important. While some people need your undivided attention, others need a quick smile or hug. Still others may need a meal brought in (and yes, kids can and should help with that!) or their houses cleaned. When you look at a person and ask yourself and your child: What need does that person have and how can we meet it, you are getting at the heart of selfless service.

10. Emphasize the Role of Money in Charity. Giving includes all sorts of things, many of which do not cost a cent. A child can donate old toys, clothes, or art supplies to organizations that need them. But, since charities also require money to operate, volunteer opportunities and causes that require money offer a wonderful way to teach children about its value. For example, just as you can teach kids to save by reserving a percentage of their allowances for a savings account, you can also have them put aside a specific amount for a giving account. Turn this into a craft activity where they get to decorate three cans or envelopes, labeling them: “Spending,” “Saving,” and “Giving”.

For some great child-oriented service projects, read http://www.parents.com/family-life/work-money-politics/volunteering-philanthropy/10-kid-oriented-causes/.

(Top photo used with permission from Flickr.)

Photos courtesy of Marie From makeandtakes.com.

Utah families participated in a service project Saturday, March 28 complete with kids crafts, yummy treats, and Christmas joy! Christmas joy? What? Aren’t we in the wrong month? Nope! Not at the Christmas Box House.

In 1997, The Christmas Box Foundation, with support from the community, agreed to fund and build a new shelter intake/assessment and residential facility. This facility has greatly enhanced services to abused and neglected children and reflects a statewide model for delivery of best practice assessment and treatment services to victims of child abuse.

When children enter the Christmas Box House, the first thing they see is a large Christmas tree surrounded by teddy bears and all kinds of stuff animals. Decorated each month by a different organization and based on a theme fitting the month, the Christmas tree is a welcome surprise for these children. The gift for them? A safe place to live and a brand new stuffed animal to keep them company during their stay!

Marie from Make and Takes partnered with Mom It Forward to decorate the April tree. First came making the crafts (donated by Provo Craft):

Leslie Mingo of www.dylbug.com helps her little one make spring decorations for the April tree.

Next came the finished product. Which was in greater abundance—the smiles on the kid’s faces or the decorations? They did a terrific job!

Then came the treats. Cupcake Chic generously donated mini cupcakes for the event. Who said we have to wait til heaven to get our reward? LOL! They were divine. And I won’t lie, they were a bigger hit with the moms than with the children .

And last but not least… the tree! Decorated for kids, by kids.

Happy spring! What will you do this month to Mom It Forward?

Want to teach your children the value of service and giving? We have just the opportunity for you! Take advantage of this amazing service project, hosted by Mom It Forward and sponsored by Make and Takes and Provo Craft, where you can serve side by side with your children all for a great cause.

• What: We’ll be making spring crafts and ornaments to decorate the “April Tree” for the Christmas Box House.

• When: Saturday, March 28 from 10 a.m to 12 p.m.
• Where: The Christmas Box House—3660 S. West Temple
• RSVP: Please click here to RSVP by 3/26 so we can purchase the right amount of materials and food. In your RSVP, be sure to mention how many people will be coming in your party.
• For More Information: Please contact marie [at] makeandtakes [dot] com or momitforward [at] gmail [dot] with “Christmas Box House” in the subject line.

(Photo used with permission from Flickr.com)

What Is the Christmas Box House?

In 1997, The Christmas Box Foundation, with support from the community, agreed to fund and build a new shelter intake/ assessment and residential facility. This facility has greatly enhanced services to abused and neglected children and reflects a statewide model for delivery of best practice assessment and treatment services to victims of child abuse.

The Christmas Box House provides:

• Emergency residential services, 24 hours a day, 7 days-a-week, to children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, or a foster care placement failure.
• Emergency intake and assessment services, based on a multi-disciplinary treatment approach, are available around-the-clock for youth to address their emotional, physical, educational and placement needs.
• The Residential Unit provides specialized care for a maximum of 34 children, ages 0-11. It provides state-of-the-art comprehensive services, which reflect best practice and innovative breakthroughs in childcare.
• Over 45 licensed Resource Homes within the community provide nurturing care to children for up to 28 days. Last year Resource families provided care within their homes for 619 children.
• For current volunteer and donation needs, please contact Tammy Champo at 801-269-7506, tchampo@slco.org, or Elisbeth Williams at 284-3301, elisabeth@thechristmasboxhouse.org.

(Information and picture taken directly from http://www.cbh.slco.org/.)

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Thanks to all those that participated and in your own way, helped change the world one mom at a time. Drum roll please as we announce the winners! Be sure to click on their links, check out their entries, and be inspired (you’ll want to break out the tissue for this first video)!

Giveaway 1
HP Mini 1535NR Laptop Specs
Winner: Jenna Hatfield from Stop, Drop, and Blog

Giveaway 3
Muvee Reveal Movie Editing Software Package
Winners: Kia Brandy, Holly, Military Moms, Gwynne, Therese, Amy, and Barb.

Thanks to Sugar Jones from Sugar Jones in the Raw for awarding Mom It Forward winners of the HP Magic Giveaway. These prizes are part of that package and this giveaway is an effort to spread the HP Magic and the spirit of service and giving even further.

For our next giveaway, we are partnering with the Park City Mountain Resort. Check out the amazing prize and rules for entry here or here. This time the tables are turned and you get to do the giving. Simply nominate a person that has made a big difference in your life or who, you feel, is the definition of a Mom It Forward mom, and she could win a family vacation in Park City, UT!

You can see our summary posts here and here where we recap the valuable information we gained, the tremendous contacts we made, and the fabulous friendships we built and/or strengthened.

The most amazing part of the Blissdom experience for me was seeing the old addage “all’s well that ends well” taken to new heights with “all’s extraordinary that ends extraordinarily.” I am referring to the Mom It Forward service project at the Nashville Rescue Mission sponsored by Scanpan (who donated 5 sets of high-end cookware to the Mission, nearly making me wish that was my kitchen—the pots and pans were AMAZING).

Five Fabulous Things About Momming It Forward Nashville Style

What was so extraordinary about this experience you may be asking yourself? Let me touch on five highlights:

1. Influence and reach is more important than numbers! We learned at the conference that blogging traffic is not as important as reach and influence. We experienced the same concept in a different way at the Nashville Rescue Mission. Our team was small in numbers—7 to be exact (Carissa, Kim, Josh and Rebecca, Ghennipher, Marie, and moi). But we helped prepare lunch for upwards of 1500 people.

   (Photo courtesy of Ghennipher Weeks, featuring Josh and Rebecca Unfried of MomFaves.)

   Now that is reach! Here is a quick note we just received from the volunteer director at the Nashville Rescue Mission:

   Dear Carissa and Jyl,
   My name is Billy Eldridge and I am the Director of Operations at The Nashville Rescue Mission. I want to thank you and your group, Mom It Forward, for Scanpan’s donation and the time you spent volunteering here this past Sunday. Clay (the Kitchen Manager) said you were a big help. Several of the men were in awe of the fact that members of your group were in town for only a few days and you decided to spend your Sunday with us. The pot and pans that you donated are great. One of our recent graduates of the recovery program is getting married later this month and she received a set and is very grateful. We appreciate all that you have done and would enjoy having you back any time. Thank you again for your giving spirit.

   Billy Eldridge, Nashville Rescue Mission

2. Shared meaninful experiences builds community. As we Mommed It Forward, our team experienced one of the most vital parts of building community: shared meaningful experiences. We may have been chopping vegetables or mixing in dressing on salads—ordinary tasks done daily for a mommy. But these ordinary tasks became extraordinary when we performed them while working together for a common goal and great cause—to help those who truly were not able to help themselves. It was an amazingly humble experience!
3. Stepping forward and out of your comfort zone is key to Momming It Forward. We got out of our comfort zones. Not only did we Mom It Forward in terms of serving, but we took a step forward from an area in which we may not have been entirely comfortable—from our comfort zones, helping us all to embrace a very important step to Mom It Forward—taking action!
4. Partnering makes Mom It Forward possible. This entire experience would not have been possible without a lot of creative connections. Specifically… the wonderful people behind the Blissdom Conference, who brought all of us together; the amazing Nashville Rescue Mission organization; our small, but influential team of Mom It Forward moms and dad who sacrificed sleep or fought headaches/sickness to participate; Nancy Martira, the lovely and brilliant PR professional and now friend, who introduced us to Scanpan; Scanpan for their generous donation and sponsorship (you’ve got to check out their cookware… as Alli says, “It’s Lickable!”; Jessica Smith for introducing us to Nancy Martira; Abdul (I wish he had a blog I could link you to) for being our amazing taxi cab driver (no! he’s no relation to Paula. I asked! LOL!); and most importantly, the people at the Nashville Rescue Mission—for their strength and goodness, however limited or ill understood.
5. The Mom It Forward mission is alive and kickin’. We have heard a few times that the Mom It Forward mission to “change the world one mom at a time” is lofty. What the Nashville Rescue Mission experience taught me is that it is possible. Mom It Forward can accomplish this mission one day at a time, one person at a time, one location at a time. We already are, including the partner that sponsored the opportunity, the organization that made it possible, the team members that provided the service, and the amazing people who received it.(Photo of Ghennipher and Marie of Make and Takes.)
   

   If you’d like to learn more about Mom It Forward, please visit our Mom It Forward blog. If you have questions or partnering ideas, please e-mail us at momitforward [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Vlogging Giveaway 1
HP Mini 1535NR Laptop Specs
Click Here to Enter
Deadline: Saturday, February 14

Photogging Giveaway 3
Muvee Reveal Movie Editing Software Package Specs
Click Here to Enter
Deadline: Monday, February 2

Thanks to Sugar Jones from Living In Theory for awarding us winners of the HP Magic Giveaway. Giveaways 1 and 2 include prizes from that contest and these giveaways are an effort to spread the HP Magic even further.