<p>As we near the end of the year it is a good time to reflect on what we have done to give back or pay it forward. Big or small, what have you done that makes you feel you have done something worthwhile? We help host a holiday party every year at a veterans nursing home about 2 hrs from here, where we assemble and give 250 bags of donated items (clothes, toiletries, soft foods, etc) to the residents, and visit those in their rooms who are unable to attend the party. </p>
<p>Today I was in a store and was greeted with a big bearhug from the young dau in law of a friend. This darling young lady was back in town for the holiday (her husband, a friend of my son’s is now stationed in Texas so they moved a few months ago). Her husband had been in Korea for the past year, and while he was away, I’d meet her and her adorable baby daughter for lunch throughout the year. I’ve missed that since they moved and was so glad to see her. Anyway, she is a big fan of couponing and I gave her my $20 in Kohls cash that I had. She was sooo appreciative. It meant so much to her, and was such a small gesture to me. I miss spending time with her and her adorable daughter. She had only her inlaws in town when her husband was gone, and I became like a second “mother-in-law”/friend. I don’t have girls. This was llike having a daughter.</p>
<p>These have been memorable events this year. Please share your memorable experiences of giving back or paying it forward.</p>
<p>I purchase and prepare breakfast once a month for the local homeless shelter. </p>
<p>I’ve got several clients through my home care moonlighting job that are quite destitute, so whenever I am scheduled with them I bring them a meal or two (one was celebrating her 90th birthday and has a very limited budget/diet, and she was thrilled when I brought her stuffed flounder). </p>
<p>I guess the oddest play it forward was helping out a young man who had just moved to our area to start a new job, but couldn’t because his work boots were in the repair shop and he didn’t have the money to pick them up. He came to the church that I pastor looking for help, so I drove to the shop and picked them up for him. With the last $25 I had until pay day a week later. I really couldn’t afford to do it, but it’s usually those truly sacrificial gifts that feel the best to give.</p>
<p>I signed up for my city’s volunteer organization this year because I had more time on my hand. They have hundreds of volunteer work you could sign up for, from reading to young children to filing taxes for immigrants. </p>
<p>I decided to do mock interviews for some organizations. One organization helped young people with criminal history to get a fresh start. They do on the job training and they also teach them how to interview for jobs. Another organization work with displaced adults. It was a humbling experience for me because I met so many people who had it so hard in life, but they still kept on trying. One guy told me he made a mistake when he was younger (robbery), now with a kid he wanted to provide for his son. I met a young woman who lost her job because she got sick and was having a hard time getting another job. I started doing it at a low point of my life. I was giving back, but I probably got more in return. I am not going to be able to do it much longer because of my new job/new town. </p>
<p>I’m following this thread to help get ideas for ways to give back. Since my kids left in August I’ve been visiting a very sick friend often, and now he is staying with us. But once he is well enough to be on his own I would like to find volunteer opportunites. </p>
<p>I work in a church in a low-income area, 1214mom. The needs that we see on a regular basis are families that need help with food (food bank), help finding affordable housing (various agencies that take volunteers to walk people through the paperwork), immigrant families needing help navigating the roadblocks to getting housing, services and citizenship. The hoops they have to jump through, on limited English is mind boggling. Mental health-again, hoops upon hoops upon hoops. If you have ANY skills at all in working with any health care/mental health services, consider volunteering with an agency that helps immigrants or indigent people with getting the care they need. The amount of paper work just to get approved to get on a list for services is staggering. But one regular unmet need is in the schools-they desperately need volunteer tutors, listeners (to beginning readers) and classroom helpers. </p>
<p>My job includes helping our immigrant and low-income families with some of these needs, but I am only one person and we are not experts. However, we see families struggle, sometimes for years, just to get to a low level of normal. On the personal side, I mentor a young lady who faces, every single day, more stress and struggle than most people face in a lifetime. Often just being an ear for her is what she needs, but I’ve scared up some goods and recommended services for her. I helped coordinate a magical Christmas for her and the 4 boys she is raising (3 brothers and a son) and even people who I barely knew got involved. Her astonishment was worth every minute and every penny. I will be screaming from the sidelines when she graduates community college this spring.</p>
<p>Many of the things I did are things I have been doing for years: opening our homes to young people we know who don’t have a stable home for a holiday meal, I had a revolving door for lost people and animals, etc. </p>
<p>A friend of the family started working at an extremely poor school in a Detroit community. She quickly realized that some of the kids had no boots or coats so I helped her collect for that. </p>
<p>Very early in the year, a close friend of ours who was a pillar of the community passed away. He had no family and my dad and I were the ones who took on memorial and funeral preparations because no one stepped up despite touching literally thousands of lives. The church and memorial were both packed beyond capacity once all was said and done. </p>
<p>This year I also became a volunteer HIV test counselor. That has been extremely rewarding and I volunteer my time in mobile HIV testing clinics now around various high-prevalence communities in Michigan. </p>
<p>I give enormously to animal shelters. I’m too much of a wimp to volunteer at one because I’d bring home too many and cry all the time seeing any come in that have been mistreated. I know it’s cowardly just to write checks, but I just can’t actually work at one and not drive my H crazy by bringing too many home. We already have 4 pets (down from five) and he thinks that’s at least 2 too many. </p>
<p>Also… on a monthly basis, I bring Costco-sized bags of dog and cat food kibble to a lady who does fostering and captures strays to clean/feed/neuter and find homes. I admire her efforts. H is happy that I bring her pet food because I’m not bringing more pets home. I do keep containers of easy-open wet pet food in my car at all times and when I come across a stray I open up some containers. Who can bare to see a hungry stray?</p>
<p>My actual volunteer efforts are mostly with my elderly neighbors (I’m surrounded by elderly ladies). They are sweet widows who live alone and don’t seem to have much family nearby. They just need help with some odd chores that are difficult for them at this point in their lives. </p>
<p>I belong to a church which reaches out to serve the less fortunate in our community. I regularly (weekly) buy food for the backpack program for the local schools, support the food drives and free community dinners, etc.</p>
<p>Reading this thread has me thinking of stepping up my efforts and doing more.</p>
<p>On our anniversary, we buy often buy gifts for the women’s crisis center from their wishlist. I work in a school and during the holidays there are always children who are being provided essentials – I bought 4 pairs of boots and three winter coats this year plus a bunch of clothing. We are solidly middle-middle class, but I am not going to fill up my house with stuff while some kid within my reach has no shoes. On top of that, we have a target amount of money to give each year, so that goes to various charities but that seems pretty ordinary. My rule is if a kid is selling something at my door, I buy some!</p>
<p>Sometimes we buy grocery store gift cards at the checkout and then hand them to college students in line behind us! Our faith community also has a garden that grows produce for the local homeless shelter, and we help with that. I feel like 20-30 somethings are more likely to want to give money but hoard their time and effort; we’ve tried to model a different path.</p>
<p>My son’16 and H do the annual stair climb for the American Lung Association. They climb the 4 tallest buildings in Des Moines for a total of 1801 stairs climbed. There is a minimum fundraising requirement and I am in charge of supervising S in his fundraising efforts. We do this because of D’s health issues related to her lungs (a lot more than just asthma, I am willing to tell the story in a pm if anyone is interested).</p>
<p>I also am a participant in the Friends of Pine Ridge yahoo group (google it if you want to know more). I send a 48 pack of TP to the homeless veteran’s home at Pine Ridge every two months. I also send box tops and Campbell’s soup labels to one of the schools there. I send more when I can.</p>
<p>I volunteer at a charity thrift store to benefit developmentally disabled young adults and adults. It’s a local organization, and our profits remain in local programs. </p>
<p>Helped out with some revived and some new holiday celebrations in our town. Also worked/am working with a grassroots group that gives Christmas presents to needy kids. I am lucky enough to work in various aspects of this endeavor: sorting, wrapping, checking, delivering, then cleaning up. Toward the end of the holiday, we are volunteering at a veterans event. </p>
<p>I do lots of stuff. I feel very fortunate to have the time, physical strength/health and financial security to be able to do the things I do. In fact made a conscious decision to cut back a bit in the second half of this year because I was spreading myself too thin. Anyway, one of the things I still do is deliver meals on wheels once a week. I only see these folks one day each week while other drivers deliver the meals the rest of the week, so I was truly touched that one lady left out a Christmas card for me last week. And one man on my route actually mailed a card to me. Really made my week! </p>
<p>I run a nonprofit I started to help people with difficulty breathing. Running this org has become both a major job and hobby. It has connected me with a large part of the public health community in our state, as well as policymakers, healthcare providers, insurers, and more. It has also connected me with national organizations who serve these similar people and orgs.</p>
<p>We cook for a women’s shelter several times a year and just made a bunch of fod for Christmas brunch at a nearby men’s shelter. Making quilts for the women’s shelter, too. Clothes go to a local interfaith group that does not sell them/ship them elsewhere. $$ to various nonprofits, too. Am now on the board at our synagogue doing outreach to folks dealing with illnesses and other crises. Glad I have the time and some energy to do so.</p>
<p>I’m reminded of a very wealthy man I knew when I lived in Calif. He went to India to see Mother Teresa to present her with a large donation. As she took him around and he saw all that she and the sisters did for the poor, he felt inadequate and mentioned that to her. Mother Teresa took his hand, covered it with her own, and said, “we can’t do what we do, unless you do what you do.”</p>
<p>Most organizations prefer checks. Just look at how they treat their donors compared to how they treat their volunteers.</p>
<p>I’ve always done pro bono legal work – at least a couple of hundred hours a year, both for individual clients and on high impact litigation. And I’ve spent much more time supervising less experienced lawyers on pro bono cases. I just got a new job where this will be more challenging, though.</p>
<p>I also serve on a statewide access to justice commission charged with making our state courts more accessible to low income litigants. And on various local bar organizations with the same mission.</p>
<p>I volunteer as a temporary judge in small claims court from time to time.</p>
<p>And I serve on the boards of two nonprofits.</p>