At the beginning of this year, I had one mission: To help more people. While the happenings of 2020 have prevented me from doing it on a level that I envisioned, there are always other ways to do it. Today one of those ways is relaying info to you on how you can also help others. It's the holiday season! What better time to be able to give back than 2020's holiday season?! [If you have the time, energy, and money, of course.]
FOR THANKSGIVING:
- Medium Rare is frying anyone's turkeys "for free" on Thanksgiving... but they accept donations for "Feed the Fridge." Give some, get some... and they help seniors get free meals on the regular
- Food and Friends needs help in the kitchen and prepping/delivering items for hopefully 700+ families
FOR THE HOLIDAYS:
- Some schools are setting up gift giving options via Amazon for families who have lost jobs or are unable to give gifts. Here's one!
- JCC has a week's worth of activities/needs for volunteers
- The local Angel Tree program with the Salvation Army
- Sponsor a family or donate gifts to A Wider Circle
- Help play "Santa" by writing back to kids' letters to Santa
- So Others Might Eat is good to go with Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, but they need volunteers on the surrounding days. They also have recommendations for other places you can help.
ANY TIME:
- Friendship Place looks for volunteers to pick up donations, help people move, job placement, clean up crews, mentoring, and more. [The Obamas have helped out!]
- Children's National Hospital needs happy people, money, gifts, and more
- Here is a really good list of a ton of places that regularly need volunteers/allow people to help out and learn a little
There are more places on Thrillist if you click here! You can also check Eventbrite for more specific ideas and events!
If you know of any other ways to volunteer locally, please let me know so I can add to and keep this list updated!