Gonna Volunteer on the 19th?
I don't know about you, but I'm feeling the call. The call to service, that is. And even though what we do on one single day may not make up for all the days we haven't helped out, or meant to but didn't, for some reason this single day matters to me. For so long I have wanted a President to once again ask me to do something for my country, something besides buy things. So I want to show that when called, I do my best to answer.
We've talked before on urbanMamas about how to best volunteer with kids, and now seems a perfect time to revisit that conversation. What will you do next Monday, January 19th? I quick checked Hands On Portland for some ideas, and they have a whole MLK Weekend of Service planned. So if you can't volunteer right on the 19th, which is a Monday, there are activities planned all weekend. The schedule is filling up fast (yay!), so what other places should we check? I did just join the Renew America Together group on Facebook - maybe they'll tell me what to do!
And hopefully, whatever I start on the 19th won't stop there. My aim is to find something ongoing, something to keep this feeling up, to start something new. What about you?
I just came across this site from a Dem Party of Oregon email, it's called My MLK Day: http://my.mlkday.gov/public/searchResults.aspx?st=OR&type=0.
A day on, not a day off. Not new, I know, but I like it!
Posted by: LTF | January 12, 2009 at 05:38 PM
Lisa -- the link didn't seem to work...I tried a couple of variations..any ideas?
Posted by: Kristin | January 12, 2009 at 05:42 PM
We were just talking about this at dinner last night. Not too many people want a 3 and 4 year old though. I was thinking of just going to our preschool and our well frequented parks and doing litter patrol and other maintenance we can find.
Any ideas are welcome though. I'm with the post too - I just want to do SOMETHING that when he said "do" I tried to honor the request.
Posted by: Betsy | January 12, 2009 at 06:32 PM
One idea I had is canvassing for canned goods in our neighborhood...we did that (the kiddos and I -- they were 2 and 5 at the time) a year ago and they loved it.
Posted by: Kristin | January 12, 2009 at 07:12 PM
Kristin, Here's the generic URL from the DPO, not the search results which is what I tried before: http://www.mlkday.gov/. Hope it works better! Lisa
Posted by: LTF | January 12, 2009 at 08:19 PM
The Portland Children's Museum is hosting a I Have a Dream Celebration on MLK Day.
Will feature little volunteer activities for families as well as a volunteer fair. Looks like it might be a good choice for families with small kids:
http://www.portlandcm.org/
Posted by: Scotti | January 13, 2009 at 10:21 AM
The wonderful Portland Techie Community is organizing Day On: http://dayon.org/
Posted by: christinadw | January 13, 2009 at 03:51 PM
I echo the comments about the difficulty in finding volunteer projects which accomodate little LITTLE wee ones. Like, I have a 9 month old baby. I can't tell if any of the Hands On Greater Portland projects would be baby and breastfeeding friendly? It's frustrating because I have the day off from work but want to do SOMETHING helpful, but am limited with a not-yet-mobile infant. Any ideas?
Posted by: TJ | January 14, 2009 at 09:07 PM
Just got another email from MoveOn.org with a link to a bunch of volunteer opportunities in our area: http://www.usaservice.org/page/event/search_results?country=US&event_type%5B%5D=2&zip_radius%5B1%5D=15&zip_radius%5B0%5D=97217-4011&orderby=zip_radius&radius_unit=miles&limit=100
I haven't gone through them yet, but I am finding that a lot of families near us are participating in Food/Clothing/Coat Drives. Sisters of the Road is hosting a family friendly march and talk in Monday afternoon. There are also clean up activities at parks (Laurlehurst) where there may be opportunity for the little folk to help.
Good luck. I agree that it is hard to find activities that would be appropriate for the little ones.
Posted by: olivia | January 16, 2009 at 10:47 AM
For those w/wee little ones perhaps you can make valentines cards for homeless shelters and/or senior homes, children's hospitals.
When my now 8 y/o was under about 7 months old we made valentines hearts by painting her feet w/red finger paint and then used her feet to make a heart shaped (v-shaped) foot-print.
Posted by: Lori | January 16, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Weird to me that volunteering opportunities are "full" like this. Wow. I guess that's good, but who knew it was something exclusive?!
Posted by: j.m. | January 16, 2009 at 09:01 PM
We are going to volunteer on MLK day as part of Obama Call to Service. Since my son is young we are going to drop off food for the OFB at a local church in Hollywood. I am also going to go thur the closets for old, or not wore clothes to donate to the Salvation Army.
Here is the website were we signed up.
http://www.USAservice.org/calltoservice
Posted by: cam1123 | January 17, 2009 at 01:24 PM
We're about to go pick up litter in our neighborhood woods (owned by the town but not really cared for)... and we'll be joined by some homeschooling friends. Funny, none of the other preK parents thought it was great fun. ;-)Thanks for the idea!
Posted by: Nif | January 19, 2009 at 08:41 AM