anyone doing more volunteering in their community?

[4mickey2]

since the give a day, get a day event have you done anything more in your community as far as volunteering goes. i have always done some dog fostering and hold an event to raise money for the wisc bichon rescue.

but, with disney encouraging folks to help out more, i have started to take my dogs to a health and rehab center. we just go for pet visits. it is great to get these folks to smile and pet the dogs. you can just see their minds going back to a time that was more pleasant for them.

so, have you done anymore than just the disney requirement?

 

[BRDof3]

The kids and I tried doing the "12 Days of Service Projects" in December one year, as a way of celebrating the spirit of Christmas, but it didn't work. That's too much to attempt in 24 days, you have to average one project every other day. You'd spend all year trying to plan that out.

This year we decided to make it a 12-month project. In December we rang bells for the Salvation Army a couple of times. In January we picked up trash. In February they collected money around the neighborhood for Haiti. I think they want to have a drive for the food pantry in March. In April we are doing dinner for the Ronald McDonald House with Dad's Kiwanis group. Other than the Kiwanis project all of these have been things the kids came up with.

I think it's kind of cool to watch. They are growing up while I watch them.

 

[disney4dan]

An official, uniform wearing, assistant Cub Scout den leader at your service here!

I used to donate time and money on a regular basis to a local charity known as the Jennifer Creed Fund. When I was a teenager they were just starting the Superfund program to deal with large contaminated areas and some of us older folks probably remember all the kids affected with cancer? Jennifer was this cute little girl who grew up in the neighborhood of Woburn where all the kids were coming down with leukemia from a contaminated neighborhood. This neighborhood was the subject of "A Civil Action". Poor Jennifer was diagnosed at 1.5 years old and passed when 3. Co-workers of her parents had all chipped in to provide rides, help the older kids with homework, raised money for medical bills, etc. Her mom continues that charity in her name to this day, helping kids with childhood cancer and terminal illnesses, including kids from Chernobyl who came to Boston for treatment. I have taken a hiatus from that for a while as we help Justin with his struggle. But my career is involved in cleaning up contaminated properties (as best we can, it is not an easy or perfect thing to do).

But I do donate blood every 60 days to Boston Children's Hospital.

PS - bit of trivia here. Did you know that they tested the blood of the families in the Love Canal area in NY and found nearly 1/3 of the population had permanent chromosomal damage? Sad, all future generations from those families will carry that legacy into the future.