Don't let a family reunion deter you from doing service!

Since we had to spend a week at the above pictured lake (poor us, I know), and we were going to be isolated with family for the extent of that time, we thought we had better plan to do something nice for our family members!  We had lots of ideas, one being a kind of pay it forward/act of service kind of thing, but we didn't really put enough time into thinking about it to figure out how to get other people to do it.  So we'll save that for next time. 

This time around we decided to do little pillow treats for all of the cousins each day.  (We actually ended up just handing them out since no one ever slept in the same place twice and sometimes at midnight just ended up throwing out a blanket and sleeping on the deck.)

Ex.  "Jensen Cousins ROCK!"

And my 9-yr old really wanted to buy these, so I told him he had to think of something clever to say with them.  First he came up with, "You drive me up a pole".  Hmm, not quite what we're looking for.  Then, "You 'pole' me up".  And finally, we settled on, "When I'm in a 'marsh', you 'pole' me out." Not sure what that really meant to any of them, but it's the thought that counts.  (Small sidenote though, we should have kept these in the cooler.)

We also made bandanas for all the cousins with their names on them and then had a signing party so everyone could sign each others'.  

If you want to know how I made them, leave a comment and I can give you a thorough description of what not to do.  After about 12 of them, I finally figured out the best way to do it, so I only had about 4 that actually looked close to perfect.  Oh well, they were still a big hit.

My kids loved the idea of doing things to surprise their cousins, and since these kinds of things are not usually done on this side of the family, it was indeed a fun surprise for all.  I think we will do this again with more flair, even if we are not doing our Summer of Service (which I think we will).

Another idea would be to do some sort of service project during your family reunion that involves the whole family - making a meal at the homeless shelter, putting together hygiene kits for a women's shelter, letters and packages to servicemen, doing a clean up at a park or beach, etc etc.  All it takes is a little planning ahead but it is ALWAYS worth it!

Service Spies

When I posted on FB about this blog, a friend led me to this site, which I followed to several other sites, and eventually to one called The Birthday Project.  All of which gave me ideas for our service project for this week . . .
They were calling it "Random Acts of Kindness", which mostly everyone gets, but alot of ours were more just anonymous.  On Monday of this week, we had a Family Home Evening lesson (curious about what that is?  Read more here and here.) about kindness - one, because of this impending project and two, because my boys needed a little reminding about how to treat their brothers. ;)  But I realized in planning that discussion with my kids, that kindness is more a way of being, a way of acting and a way of treating people.  So "random acts of kindness" would come from being who we are, or who we should be, all the time.  So hence, while this project was inspired by people blogging about their random acts of kindness, we decided we would actually call it our "Anonymous Acts to Make People Smile" or AAMPS.  I hope it catches on. :)

So here's what we did and why with all this sneaking around, my boys dubbed themselves the "Service Spies" :

*Hid pennies around the playground (heads up, of course) for kids to find as they played.

*Taped microwave popcorn to 6 different Redbox locations with a notes that said "Enjoy your movie!" or "Have some popcorn with your movie and enjoy this random act of kindness!" or Cody's "Relax and enjoy your movie!"

 

*Left a packages of diapers and wipes inside the changing tables in the mall bathrooms.

 

*Left quarters on 8 different vending machines at the hospital. (This was the boys' favorite and where being a "service spy" really came into play as they tried not to let anyone see us.)

We also stopped to get food for meals for two families and gift certificates for the local grocery store to go with it (which we organized in bags and left on their porch later that night).  While we were there, we bought one of the pre-packaged bags that you can donate right then and there to the food bank.

We had LOTS of other ideas that we didn't get to do, but we had so much fun, I'm sure we'll do this again some time.  The end of the day was supposed to culminate as we handed out Otter-Pops at the park to all the hot, sweaty kids, but turns out they take longer to freeze than we thought, so we'll just have to save that for another day.  We did have fun cooling off at the splash pad though!  A great end to a great day!

 

 

"Is that your daddy?"

So last week for our Summer of Service project, we made a quick trip over to the assisted living-type facility right here in town.  I wish I would have taken more pictures, at least of the boys going in full of anticipation.  It's always kind of awkward in those settings though.  But I'm sure you can picture it.  It is an older building, relatively small, quaint place.  I can't remember the name of it, but it is your typical lower-middle class rest home, nursing home, whatever you want to call it.  And what a simple, but great experience we had.

So before we went we made cute little cards that said "Have a good day!", "Have a happy day!", "Someone's thinking about you!", etc.   Cody was in charge of drawing the pictures, Corbin was in charge of writing words, and Colton helped by adding stickers of smiley faces and butterflies.

 

We also took some flowers to hand out.  Too bad there's no picture, and I have no idea what they were called, but they looked something like this:

We found them on sale in bunches at the grocery store and they were perfect for dividing because they had several blooms on each stem, so we could give them individually to many people.

With the cards and the flowers, we were able to visit several residents, and both male and female enjoyed our company.  We visited a few folks that were getting ready for dinner in the dining room and then a couple of the CNAs took us around to specific residents that they thought might enjoy our visit.  There were not just elderly people there, and I think it was good for my boys to visit people with severe disabilities and talk about why they are there.  Everyone was so gracious and smiling.  I wish we could have done more! 

A funny story though, one older lady who came walking into the common area was not they least bit interested in the kids, their flowers or their cards - she was like "Is this your Daddy?, Is this your Daddy?", nodding and moving towards my husband.  I think he's good-looking, but yeah, sounds like he's got some other admirers now.

Overall, the project was a good experience for my boys and I KNOW the residents that we visited loved it.  What I would do differently next time?  Find ways to linger longer with each resident; prep my boys more with ideas of what to say; bring more flowers!  Below are a couple of articles about visiting the elderly, mostly family, but I liked the idea of bringing a magazine and then talking about what's in it.  I think that's a good ice breaker and gives you a way to spend a little bit more time talking.

Good luck with your own endeavours!  I think this is an easy project and yet so meaningful for the recipients who often just need to know that someone cares and hasn't forgotten them.

http://www.caring.com/articles/visiting-elderly-loved-ones?vm=r

http://www.ehow.com/info_8591454_benefits-can-elderly-youth-visiting.html?vm=r 

Funding Our Summer of Service

Unfortunate as it is, sometimes the service we want to do takes more than just a sacrifice of our time. 

Sometimes it takes cold, hard cash. 

And that's where this project comes in . . .

 !!

We have actually done a yard sale fundraiser every summer for the last few years, and it is a GREAT way to get an extra chunk of cash to donate without dipping into your budget.  For the last two years, as I have traveled with HELP International, we have supported that and I also let my boys choose another non-profit they wanted to give to.  It helps give them purpose and get them excited about the whole endeavour.  One year, Corbin had seen the devastating effects of the earthquake that hit Haiti and so we decided to contribute to UNICEFs work there.  The next year, we participated in a walk for some family members who have Cystic Fibrosis, so we gave money there.  It makes it more meaningful when your kids understand who and what they are doing all this work for!

This year, our fundraising was two-fold again.  We knew we could do more with our Summer of Service if we had more financial resources, so about 1/3 of the money we made is set aside for our awesome projects.  The rest of it is the beginning of the savings for my 9-yr old's first humanitarian trip (which will actually occur when he is 10).  We don't have all the details yet, but we're thinking Peru?  So needless to say, he was on board and excited about raising money.

Corbin and his cousin manning the "treat table".

The one important thing (ok, two) we learned this year, that in all my expert experience I hadn't taken into account - always do it Friday and Saturday if you can and DON'T do it on a weekend when there are literally dozens of other yard sales going on.  We didn't make nearly as much money as we have in past years and I think this is probably one of the biggest factors.  So plan accordingly. 

If you want to read other tips, check out this previous post.  And don't wait until you're rich to start being philanthropic - plan your yard sale and donate now!