Volunteering is cool
Obama says we should all volunteer. It’s cool to give your time to the community. Some of our local high schools require that students fulfill a certain amount of community service hours each year before moving on to the next grade. Whether you want to volunteer, or your school is asking you to do so, we can help you find some interesting places to spend a few hours every week. We found places for those that want to volunteer with the senior citizens, or small children, or in a garden setting, with farm animals, in an office environment, in a police car, or even at a festival. Here is a list opportunities for teens to choose from and please let us know if you have additional ideas:
Chamber of Commerce: (where all the action is!) light office work and help us prepare for Art & Wine Festival.
Deer Hollow Farm: because pulling weeds and feeding pigs is fun. Hidden Villa: because you aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty and you want to learn about organic farming.
Library Services: shelving and organizing books with precision at the Mountain View Library.
Mountain View Police Explorers: learn teamwork, responsibility and decide whether or not a career in Law Enforcement is for you.
One Dollar For Life: builds schools all over the world with money contributed by American students.
Community Services Agency: work in their Food Pantry, visit homebound elderly or help in the Holiday Toy Store.
Avenidas: help with daily activities or in the cafeteria of the Mountain View or Palo Alto facility
Mountain View Day Worker Center: have ESL conversations with the workers, ESL tutoring, graphic design, and help create a presence on social networking websites.
Humane Society of Silicon Valley: because you love animals and they love you.
YMCA: find out about the “Leadership in Training” program by contacting your local Y.
City of Mountain View ‘Leader in Training’ Summer Program: become an official volunteer for the city of Mountain View (get ready to apply for next summer!)
Palo Alto Community Child Care: because you love reading stories to kids, singing songs with them and baking cookies.
Invent your own volunteer project: find a need in your community and solve it. Rally your Facebook friends together to clean a park, adopt a family-in-need, restore order to an over-grown yard, knit scarves for the homeless, or have a bake-sale to raise money for a cause. Get your PTA, church or school involved. Use your imagination!
Great stuff! Volunteering was quite unpopular in Asian countries, particularly South-East Asia until recently. Most people still opt for India (because it’s more publicized) as volunteer opportunities abroad, but Bangladesh can be a great start to. My friends and I work for a youth-empowered volunteer organization that has been running successfully for 3 years now, and it’s been great! If anyone is interested in volunteering abroad, they should totally contact us!
Cool!! No more excuses for “nothing to do this summer”!!
What a great resource of local opportunities. I know a ton of students (and parents) who just do not know where to begin looking. So glad we have this to refer to!