Service Ideas: 10 Ways to Cultivate Friendship and Health

by Mom It Forward on February 20th, 2012 | No Comments »

This week's Season of Service challenge is to cultivate, or to nurture, foster, or promote the growth of someone or something. It also means to "seek the acquaintance or goodwill of, or make friends with, someone, or to refine by education. There are so many easy ways to help others grow, or to support organizations that help other people or other things to grow.

10 Ways to Cultivate Friendship and Health

Design a new logo for Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen, California. They also need someone to create a Google Adwords campaign for them. This opportunity is only open for five more days on Sparked.com.
Add the All For Good widget to your blog to help your readers more easily access volunteer opportunities, both virtual and IRL, and cultivate the idea that volunteering really isn't that hard.
Help an elementary teacher in Joplin, Missouri cultivate a love of science, learning, and creativity in her classroom by donating $5 through DonorsChoose.org to help buy science supplies for her students, the majority of which lost everything last year when a tornado ripped through their town.
Buy some pea or flower seeds and a little bit of dirt, plant the seeds, and help them grow until late Spring or early Summer, then give them to a friend or two, with a note saying: "I grew these for you!"
Make a lunch for your husband, kid, or yourself, one more day this week than you normally would, or read one of our posts on healthy living, to inspire you and your family to live more healthily.
Find the phone number, website, or email address of the person or department at your husband's or your work who can tell you whether the company offers wellness incentives, or is planning on providing healthy lunch options.
Add a logo badge for the Alliance for International Women's Rights to your blog or site. The Alliance cultivates future women leaders in developing countries, with a current focus on Afghanistan.
Help cultivate an appreciation of, and an imagination about, the past in the younger generation by contributing a memory about a place that doesn't exist to the Place and Memory Project.
Cultivate a love of reading by setting aside 30 minutes tonight to read with or to one of your kids, and talking about your books together.
Decorate the door of one of your children or even a friend during the night to cultivate love and friendship.

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.