Our Story:
It all started at the nursing home. I was holding a toddler on my hip and had two other small children clinging to me, one on each leg… they were terrified. I smiled and nodded in the direction of an elderly resident and my kids shuffled in closer to me. We looked ridiculous huddled in the corner, me unable to move without setting off a panic attack in one of my kids. Thankfully a few of my other children and the group we were with milled about the room chatting and receiving compliments on the piano performance they had just done. Meanwhile I was suffocating. We were supposed to be here, right? Why was this so hard?
I didn’t want to give up our visits to the nursing home, but in that moment I realized that there must be other ways we could volunteer. I needed to find opportunities that would fit my kids personalities better. This set off a year long kind of experiment that I pulled together. I wanted to prove to my kids that they could enjoy serving others. I wanted to show them the many ways that people see a need and step in. I want them to be the kind of people who volunteer, who help, who see needs and fill them.
In the past I felt like volunteering with kids was a lot of “purchase these items at the store and donate them.” While we were happy to do that from time to time, it just wasn’t the type of thing we could do regularly. … um, have you been to the store with six kids? Its not an experience I want to repeat often, but mostly it just feels very disconnected for my kids. We needed to find some hands on projects to be involved with as well.
All this in mind, I started searching. It actually took quite a bit of planning and work. Some organizations just didn’t have a need my kids could fill, others were happy to have us. Some places I had never even heard of until I started keeping my eyes open for opportunities. Since August, we’ve met my goal of serving somewhere at least once a month (and we still go back to see our friends at the nursing home too!). Over time my kids got excited about this plan and they often ask “Where are we going next month? And where after that?” By God’s grace, volunteering has become regular for our family. Its not a box that we check every now and then, but an exciting part of my kids’ lives.
Q and A:
How do you do it?
I just email places and ask if we can volunteer. I tell them I have a group of 16 kids, ages 14 down to 3. I say we’re learning about volunteering and going to lots of different places and ask if we can help them somehow. (The 16 kids? We take 4 other families with us! As long as I’m setting something up, I might as well invite friends too!) I usually start looking for our next volunteer place a month or two ahead because it can take some time to coordinate schedules and set everything up.
Where have you gone?
Love INC – a thrift store/ food bank. This was one of my kids all time favorite places to go and the lady there was fabulous with the kids.
Kids Food Basket – packages up lunches and snacks for kids in need
Rescue Mission – helped with the Thanksgiving banquet
Nestlings Diaper Bank – packaged up diapers to be distributed around the county
Salvation Army – helped sort toys for low income families at Christmas
Hope Packages – collected items and made backpacks for kids entering foster care
Family Hope Center (Rescue Mission’s women and children center) – sewed bright fun pillowcases to be given to residents, had a tour of the center
Days For Girls – helped sew cloth kits for girls in Africa
Medilodge nursing home – the kids play their instruments, sing, and sometimes sit and color with the residents. We also like to make cards and deliver them to bedridden people here.
What do you have lined up for the future?
Oh I have a whole list! We are going back to Love Inc and Medilodge. We’re taking a tour of Mobility Worldwide, a place that makes carts for disabled kids in other countries (and this summer we plan to raise the money to sponsor a cart). The Salvation Army has a food drive in the spring. We are signed up to go help sort food on a Saturday. My kids love going to the monastery so I’m hoping to attend the spring clean up day (May 30). I’m interested in meeting with a therapy dog/owner team and hearing about what they do. As I think of ideas or come across opportunities I make note of it. Sometimes they pan out, sometimes they lead me to something else. I’m not sure if we’ll keep trying everything we come across, or if we’ll eventually settle in to some favorite places we return regularly. We’ll see what happens.
Do you specifically “teach” your kids anything as you take these trips?
For the most part I’ve tried to let the experiences speak for themselves, but we have had some good talks about the power of teamwork. (“12 of us worked for an hour packing up food, if Miss Lisa had done that all by herself how long would that have taken her? 12 hours, a whole day! Wow, we got a lot done just by working with our friends for an hour and that was really helpful for them!”) I also like to point out to my kids that there are so many different ways to serve and that every personality can find something they enjoy and are good at. I love learning about the various organizations and how they started and so on. I’m learning just as much as my kids.
What changes have you seen or do you hope to see in your kids?
Well for one thing, we’ve volunteered so much that my kids just expect it. Its not a big deal to take time out of our week to go somewhere, even though it didn’t start out feeling that way. I’m thankful for that. As we’ve gone to the nursing home over time the kids have learned some of the elderly people’s names and look forward to seeing them. I’ve even started volunteering on my own at a place called Love Sews. They sew quilts for people who’ve had life changing circumstances. Its a really nice mama evening out when I can get away and sew for a few hours and Love Sews is a fabulous organization. We all look forward to our various volunteer trips and I’m excited to see what happens next! We’ll definitely keep volunteering!
Anything else you want to share?
Yes! Please don’t take this as me bragging about what we’ve done! It was a friend of mine who got my family started going to the nursing home in the first place. 🙂 I’ve just become really passionate about volunteering and wanted to share our experience. Of course that experience isn’t going to be exactly the same for everyone and you’ll find what works best for you. I just want to encourage people to get out there and try something. Even with a large family, even with really shy kids, even if you don’t know what you’re doing!
If this inspires you to try volunteering somewhere new, I’d love to hear about it. And if you hear of new volunteer opportunities my kids and I could do, please let me know!
Humbled by the Honor 