Volunteerism: Sign Up for Service

giving back • my world • Mom It Forward Mondays • tips for giving back

by Mom It Forward on May 9th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

This week's Season of Service challenge is to find ways to serve that involve the word "sign" in one way or another. Having a happy and engaged family and being involved in your community is one "sign" that you are living a good, fulfilling life. This is also one sure way to get your mind off of any negative thoughts, emotions, or events that you may be experiencing. Try any one of these 10 bite-size ideas:

10 Ideas for "Sign" Service

Make a peace sign, poster, or mural and ask if you can display it at your local school, library, or scouting center.
Ask your local grocer if you can borrow 30 or so brown paper grocery bags, or enough for your child's class, scout, or church group. Have them decorate the bags with a sign, picture, or message about Earth Day or the environment, then return the bags to the grocery to distribute to some lucky customers! If you want, report your activity at EarthDayBags.org.
Sign up to become a member of CoopAmerica.org, a nonprofit whose mission is to grow a greener and more economically-sustainable future, in part by providing shoppers with the information necessary to make better buying decisions.
Learn how people in other cultures signify "yes" or "hello." For example, to some people from Greece, Turkey and various Middle Eastern regions, nodding means "no." The way many Westerners wave good-bye is the same way people in some Middle Eastern cultures indicate “come here.” For a fun activity, have your kids make up some entirely new gestures, such as puffing their cheeks to indicate impatience.
Make a video of a friend or family member holding a sign and/or voicing a testimonial about the difficulties of being a teen parent or the effects of drunk driving, then post the video on YouTube.
Sign up or register to share comments about teaching preschool-age children or fundraising for a school in the Education group of Nabuur.com. This site is an online volunteering platform that links neighbours (i.e., online volunteers) with villages so that they can learn about each other, share ideas, and find solutions to common issues.
Sign up to donate an artistic or craft creation of yours to a local nonprofit to be auctioned off in their fundraising efforts.
Designate one tweet a day to share a message of kindness with a stranger.
Sign up to designate your computer's "sleeping" energy to SETI@home, a program which lends computing power to the search for extra-terrestrials.
Sign up to receive e-mail missing child Amber alerts or to have the Amber alert ticker run on your blog.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

What other ideas do you have for serving others involving the word "sign"?
How has serving others made a meaningful difference for you this week?
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?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here's how you can participate:

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 each week's giveaway. Check out this week's prizes from Kodak here, Together Counts here, Allison Fishman here, and Aunt Jemima/Aaron McCargo here.
Join #gno this Tuesday (Together Counts) and Wednesday (Allison Fishman) on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.