Week Four - The Homeless Shelter

I can't really remember where I got this idea, but I came across it somewhere in all my searching and reading and when I contacted The Road Home, they gladly welcomed the project. 

What it was:  Bedtime snack bags for children at the homeless shelter (my kids always get hungry before bed, so I figure everyone elses do too.)

How we did it: 

We gathered lots of different art supplies - stickers, glue, glitter, foam, markers, paint, etc., and then I let the kids go at it.  We used white lunch bags, but you can use whatever you want.  We decorated the day before we planned to fill them, so they would have time to dry (the boy's favorite part was the glitter, of course, and it tends to get a bit messy).

We put in juice drinks, applesauce (with a plastic spoon) and granola bars.  The boys were very excited to learn how an "assembly line" worked and really liked doing their part to put the bags together.

We also stuck in glow sticks, just for fun.  My original plan was to put in little books, like those two inch ones that come in packs of 8 or 10 with different nursery rhymes or something, but I didn't have time to go get them, so maybe next time.  When everything was in, we put two staples in top to keep it closed.

We completed 30 bags and the boys were very proud of their accomplishment.

Delivering the bags: 

As we were doing this project and before we arrived at the shelter, we discussed the reasons why children would be living there, how they were being helped and why there was such a need.  Corbin had several questions that even I didn't know the answer too.  This was a great learning experience for all of us. 

We delivered our bags to the administration to be distributed at their discretion.  When we did so, we were able to take a short tour of their family facilities and to learn a little bit more about the services rendered there.  The part of the Road Home that we were led through is similar to an apartment building where each family has there own separate living area (kind of like a large hotel room).  Although there are shared bathrooms and one large kitchen/dining area where they prepare all their own food.  The Road Home has several programs to help families get back on their feet by obtaining employment, learning to budget, and getting into more permanent housing.  My kids were glad to see that they had a playgournd and a sport court as well as a large activity room where they hold storytime, art & crafts night, and other activites for the kids.  This part of the facility can house 31 families and it was completely full.  They also have another area which is more of a crisis shelter.  They NEVER turn away families with children.  I was very impressed in the short time that we were there with all of the things that they were doing.

Cost of project: 

Juice drinks: $5

Granola bars:  $6

Applesauce:  $9

Plastic Spoons: $1.50

Glow Sticks: $3

Lunch bags: $1.79

TOTAL: Just over $25

Tips, Pointers and Lessons Learned:

• 
  
  Maybe skip the glitter and paint and just go for stickers when decorating bags. ;)
• 
  
  Watch for the things you want to put in your bag to go on sale so you can maximize your resources (or do what I did, and just pick things that are on sale.)
• 
  
  You could adapt this project to be "after-school snacks" or "birthday bags" for kids in the shelter on their birthday.
• 
  
  I set up an appt nearly a month in advance to visit the shelter and deliver the goods.  When I didn't get a reply to my confirmation email the day before, I should have called, but we went ahead anyway.  When we got there, I called to see where we should park and where to go in and the gal I had talked to was no where to be found.  Luckily it turned out fine, but apparently when we came wasn't that important and my son did miss another activity that afternoon, so that was a bummer.
• 
  
  For some reason, when I originally talked to the shelter, I thought they had said they had around 30 kids.  When we got there, we found out they had 100 kids, 31 families.  I must have miss-head. So that was unfortunate, but I don't know that we would have been able to make 100 bags anyway.  My thought for next time will be to invite other families to participate with us to split the cost of goodies and the task of making the bags, plus I think it would be a fun and easy project for kids to do with their friends.
• 
  
  There were many, many other ways to get involved and volunteer at this homeless shelter, so be creative and open-minded and think of how you can use your time, talents and resources.  If you have older children, you can spend more time actually doing things AT the shelter.  The Road Home lists some ideas here that I'm sure could easily be transferred to homeless shelters elsewhere.
• 
  
  I should have stopped on our way in and given bags to the mom who was obviously living out of her truck with three young children or said something or offered them something.  They were parked on the street in front of us when we went in and still when we came out.  There were no carseats in the car and there were sleeping bags and a few other belongings in the back of the truck.  Two of them (maybe ages 4 & 3) were asking for a cheeseburger.  When I told them I didn't have any, they turned away despondently.  The mother just looked at me, not in any mean sort of way, but as if she was wondering what I was thinking.  For days, I have been plagued by my inaction and missed opportunity to serve.  Hopefully everything else we do makes up for it, right?

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me."  Matt. 25: 35-45.

Week Three - Serving in El Salvador

So I am making some exceptions to the rule with this one.  Since I was still out of the country this week, it was difficult to make sure my service plans for my kids were carried out (they were to busy having fun without me).  But since I am spending two weeks serving and I will be sharing the many stories with them, I think this counts for at least one project. 

To give a little background . . . I am on the Board of a non-profit called HELP International, which trains volunteers to do community development and humanitarian service in less developed countries. This year, in addition to El Salvador and Uganda (where I went last year), we are also working in Thailand, India, Fiji and Belize. Volunteers will be there May through August and my job is to visit their projects, support the Country Directors, give them advice (if I have any), and make sure things are running smoothly. I also get to meet with our in-country partners, as all our projects are done in conjunction with a local organization, making what we do more sustainable. For an idea of some of the projects, you can click here, but it really varies every year depending on the abilities of our volunteers and the need of our partner organizations.

So here's a very brief rundown of some of the projects I participated in this year while in El Salvador . . .

--We taught Square Foot Gardening(SFG) in a rural community. This included gathering rocks from the river, digging, and getting really sweaty and dirty. The women who came to the demonstration were to go home and set up their own garden and if they did, we promised to bring chicken wire and seeds next time we come.   SFG uses less water and less space and one of the main purposes of its use in the developing world is to help the participates to raise more of a variety of foods for better nutrition.

--We teach English classes on four different levels. This will help them get better jobs and give them a leg up here in the city. Our advanced class is being trained to continue teaching the classes after we are gone for the summer.

--We work at an "orphanage" that is kind of like a foster home. It is for kids and teens who have been taken out of bad home situations, who were abandoned or some were pulled off the streets. It is supposed to be temporary (2 mos) but many of them have been there for over 6 mos and some are there indefinitely.  It is a government supported facility, so it has very low funding.  But the new director is absolutely amazing and she loves the kids.  She knows all their stories and always takes time to listen to them.  I hope that good things will soon be happening there.  Our main goals were to help the residents build confidence and self esteem and to model appropriate social behaviors.  We did this by teaching art, dance, literacy and by doing recreational therapy type activities.

--We partner with an organization called Fudem that does visual acuity testing and screening, provides glasses, and surgery if necessary. It is very similar to what I did in Uganda last year, but in addition to their office in San Salvador, they do these outreach travel clinics everyday, and they are very good at it. Also, because of recent donations of dental equipment, they have started occasional dental outreach clinics and we got to participate in that as well.  In this partnership, we our mainly giving service so that they can do what they do for more people.  By us being there, they can serve almost twice as many people in one day.  We are also working with this organization to create some educational materials, which will be the more sustainable part of the work.

--We work with a special needs orphanage doing recreational therapy, communication boards and other activities.  The residents there range very widely in their physical and mental capacities, so one on one work is very critical.  Their needs are very well taken care of, but the caretakers lack the time to give them the stimulation and education that they need and that could really improve their quality of life.  HELP actually has two volunteers that live here year-round and our summer volunteers are able supplement and step up the work that is already being done.

--We are working with the biggest children´s hospital in Central America to re-do their signage, which has been incomplete and ineffective for years. It will include a system of symbols and colors since so many people can´t read. We also volunteer there, playing with the children and doing small tasks. Some children are there for months and have no family nearby.

--We work with Habitat for Humanity helping at the work sites and we are also putting together a basic first aid training program for the site managers. This will include putting together first aid kits for each site and showing them where to but the materials so they can keep the kits updated.

--We will be teaching basic business classes with a game called the BEST game with an organization that gives micro loans and wants to move more into the social development realm.

Though I have been out of the country many times and worked with poor people all over the world, I learn things every time.  There is always someone that touches my heart in a new way.  There are new experiences that I will remember forever.  I have and hope that I can continue to share these with my children so that they can have the desire to serve and give to those less fortunate.

If you would like to keep up with and read more about the HELP El Salvador Team's work this summer, you can check out their blog here.  And you can find links to the other teams' blogs by going to the HELP International homepage and clicking on the tab that say "blogs".  Or if you have specific questions, feel free to contact me!  servcemindedkids@gmail.com

Week Two - Treats for the Animal Shelter

I always say "no excuses", but there are two reasons why this post is not as clear and detailed and as perfect as I would like it to be . . . since I was out of the country, (1) the only camera husband had was on his phone and (2) because my husband was the one who carried it out and not me, there will be a serious lack of details (that's just how men are).  So without further excuses, here's our second service project:

Russ and the kids made doggie treats/biscuits, or whatever you want to call them.  Yes, they are home-made.  You can find the recipe here.  It also has ideas of how to elaborate this project. 

One thing to remember is that you have to leave the dog biscuits in the oven overnight in order for them to get hard enough, so plan appropriately.  Also, it calls for "chicken stock" which is not the same thing as chicken boullion or chicken broth (maybe you already knew that - I didn't).  Apparently it makes it more salty.  Also, the only ingredient I had a hard time finding was the rye flour - you have to go to a real grocery store, they don't carry it at Walmart.  And if you don't have a wheat grinder, you will have to buy cracked wheat or wheat germ, but other than that most of the ingredients are items that you would typically have on hand.

So after they made the biscuits, I had set up a time for them to visit the animal shelter.  Because of the young ages of my kids, they were limited in what they could do there (which is one of the reasons why we also made the biscuits).  They were able to help feed the animals and to walk/play with some.  It was a short visit, but perfect for them to feel like they had done something useful.  As with most of the service activities that we will do this summer, the focus is on helping them to feel good about what they have done rather than on trying to make a huge impact on the recipient.

Never miss an opportunity to serve

I think the title says it all.  Our community has an "Adopt a Planter" program to help plant flowers every spring.  Our church congregation had adopted one section and the invitation was open to all, so we jumped at the chance!  One morning, one hour outdoors, little planning on my part, simple, fun, and we could see the product of our efforts.  Since it was on the side of a busy road, I had gotten a babysitter for my youngest two boys and Corbin and I made a date of it.  After we were done we went to McDonald´s for breakfast and had a great time chatting and playing.  It was a perfect service project!

Week One - Yard Sale Fundraiser

What a great success!  Over Memorial Day weekend, we had a HUGE yard sale and raised almost $900.  Part of the money will go to support HELP International (I am visiting their projects in EL Salvador this summer) and part will go to UNICEF (Corbin wanted something to do with the Haiti relief efforts).

So here´s how we did it:

About a month before we sent emails to family, friends and neighbors (mostly ones that lived nearby or that we would be seeing within that time) letting them know of our plan and telling them to start cleaning out their closets, garages, toy boxes, etc.  I sent a reminder email a week or two before and told them they could drop it off anytime. 

The week before, we made big, bold signs and planned where we would put them.  Different cities have different rules, but I think the best way is just to lead them straight to your location with a sign or an arrow on each corner leading in from the main roads.

Then we spent the week organizing - sorting, putting things on tables, pricing (and discarding the things that wouldn´t sell).  I was able rope a couple of my neighbor friends into helping me, so the kids played and rode their bikes around while we worked in the garage.

I taped up the signs the night before with duct tape and the same color balloon on each sign.

When the big day came, we were up about 6:30am, got everyone dressed and started pulling the loaded tables out of the garage at 7am.  We had most of the furniture and big items stored in our front living room, and boy did it feel good to get everything out of there!

Corbin ran his own treat/drink table and did quite well.  We had candy from the dollar store, homemade banana bread, s´mores bars, rice krispie treats, and cookies, and some store bought mini cupcakes (leftover from his end of school party the day before).  The soda we bought $2.58/24 and sold them for 50ç a piece.  (If you know you are having a yard sale, you can look for sales like these).  We made over $50 just from this little treat stand! 

We ended up doing it on Friday and Saturday.  I had never done a 2 day yard sale before, and really didn´t want to, but we had so much stuff at the end of the day that there was no way I couldn´t.  And in the end, we doubled our money, so it was definitely worth it.

Some pointers and suggestions if you are thinking about doing a yard sale for charity:

--Plan enough ahead of time to get donations and make it worth it.  Talk about it and really spread the word.  I had people I didn´t even know bringing things over, because they heard about it from someone else.

--Pick a charity that is meaningful to you so that you can answer the question "why them?", when people ask.   Let your children help you.  Talk to them about why you would or would not give to a certain organization.

--Borrow tables from neighbors.  The more you can have up off the ground, the more people will buy.  Plus you can have the tables all set up and just put in your garage ahead of time.

--Recruit your friends to help.  It is always nice to have extra hands both before and during.

--Check the weather.  Our original date got rained out, but we had a back up plan and it turned out perfect.  You may be fine with the cold or a little rain, but you will not get as many shoppers.

--Your signage is everything!  Make sure people can find you.  It is also a good idea to list your yard sale online.  Most communities and/or cities have somewhere you can list it for free.

--In general, people don´t buy things that have stains, holes, missing parts, or are broken.  Don´t let these things clutter up the goods that really could bring in some dough.

--Give your kids small jobs, like laying out the shoes or toys or putting the same amount price sticker on a table of items.  And let them have a lemonade stand or candy sale, they will feel very empowered!

--As it gets towards the end of the day, take whatever price people are willing to pay.  If you are just going to donate it in the end anyway, why not get a little something for it.

--Many charitble organizations will pick up in-kind donations, so it is a good idea to arrange for pick up that day, so you don´t have to pack everything away.  You can also just throw it all in the back of a truck or trailer and take it to your local Goodwill.

Good luck!  I hope yours will be as successful and fun as ours was.  I would love to hear your suggestions or your experiences.  I´m sure we will do this again someday.

Oh and P.S.  My husband fell in love with this chair.  It´s a La-Z-Boy rocker recliner and is so comfy.  But unfortunately it didn´t sell (probably because someone was always sitting in it), and so he thinks it is staying in our living room.  I think not.  Any takers?