Helping Hands

As a way to incorporate life learning skills into our "curriculum" I had made a decision at the beginning of the year to search for a volunteer opportunity that Summer and I could do together.

As some of you may remember we had started volunteering with a local animal shelter a few months back. Long story made short, it turned out not to be a very kid oriented opportunity. Not that Summer didn't enjoy it, I just didn't think it was "hands on" enough for her.

Well, a few weeks ago my friend Robin gave me a link to website called Little Helping Hands. Recently, I finally carved out the time to look over the website and exchange a few questioning e-mails to the founder.

In the end the concept seemed to good to be true and EXACTLY to be what I was looking for when I started my volunteer search months ago.

Because Toby works on the weekends, I am always looking for things to fill mine and Summer's time so I searched the sites calendar for weekend volunteer opportunities.

Looks like I killed two birds with one stone. Today we volunteered with the Capital Area Food Bank. It was a wonderful experience for Summer and I both.

Not only did the kids (incidently all girls around Summer's age) get to do all the work, they also got to tour the warehouse and learn all about the food bank. It was field trip and community service all rolled into one. I was VERY impressed and learned a few things myself.

I am always surprised at how enthusiatic Summer is when she is in a group effort. When I was her age, I was always so shy and insecure that I would just stand back and twiddle my thumbs. She didn't know a soul there but she had no qualms about jumping in and doing her part. Matter of fact, I had to nudge her a couple of times about "stealing" other kids jobs.

I give the experience a 10 on a scale of 1-10. We made a couple of friends, served our community, and educated ourselves. Another great day!

And remember...THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS, CHOOSE THEM WISELY. :-)