"Volunteering together as a family is so important to me because I know, from personal experience, that being able to have your kids see volunteering modeled for them can create a desire for them to volunteer, now and in the future," says mom. "We always adopted a family for Christmas and we'd run around the store finding everything this family could need and how good it made me feel that we could help them. That experience has stuck with me my entire life; volunteering for a good cause and spending time with my mom."

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The family has enjoyed working in a community garden and creating garden literacy kits as well as park clean-up days. Through volunteering together, the family has tapped into unknown interests! "I have learned that my daughter has an incredible desire to help Mother Earth and cannot fathom how people would want to hurt “her”, which is a passion that I didn’t know she had. The questions, opinions and discussions that follow our volunteering days are also so incredible and have allowed us to discuss some harder-to-reach topics that we haven’t really covered before." 

 

"I want my kids to find ways to be the helpers in the world and the easiest way for them to do this is to serve their local community and see the differences they can make around where we live. Having park-goers thank them for keeping the park clean so they can enjoy it, or knowing that they have created Christmas decorations that may fill a home of kids that have none - those things will remind them of their imprint on the world and how special it is when their imprint is good, kind and helpful."