Otters Helping Out – Summer 2018

Family Community Service Opportunities – Summer 2018

Share a Summer of Kindness by Doing Good Together

Beginner’s & Advanced Editions

http://www.doinggoodtogether.org/bhf/summer-of-kindness

Beginner Summer of Kindness Bucket List

Advanced Summer of Kindness Bucket List

Wednesday June 13th, July 11th, or August 8th

4:00-6:00pm

PREPARE FOOD: Loaves and Fishes Family Kitchen

• San Jose, CA
• https://www.loavesfishes.org/
• https://www.handsonbayarea.org/opportunity/a0a3200000E8qOx
• Age Minimum (with Adult):5+
• Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen provides nutritious prepared meals that are delivered and served to disadvantaged individuals with a special concern for families, seniors, and the homeless.
• Volunteers will help with basic meal prep, serving, and cleaning!

Sunday, June 17th

Shifts for various times from 1:00-6:30pm

Homeless Meal Volunteering

• Congregation Beth El
• 1301 Oxford Street, Berkeley, CA 94709
• http://www.bethelberkeley.org/getinvolved/homeless-meal
• Ages 6+ with adult supervision
• Congregation Beth El has been serving a wonderful, multi-course chicken dinner to 125 – 200 people on the third Sunday of each month for over 20 years. We are part of a network of places of worship which ensure that at least one hot meal is available every weekend on Berkeley’s northside.
• New and experienced volunteers are needed. The more people who learn the tasks of preparing, serving and cleaning up, the more volunteers we have to draw from. Sign up to serve at the next meal. Sign-ups are by time and task.
• All helpers are welcome, Beth El members or not. Volunteering also makes a great family activity. As long as young children (generally 6 or older) are supervised by their parents, there are tasks that they can do to be part of this important community service.

Sunday, June 17th or June 24th

Times vary

All-In-One Beach Clean-Ups at various Bay Area Beaches

• https://www.facebook.com/OceanWarriorsEducation/
• Beach Clean Up happening all around the Bay Area! Come clean the beach with us and friends! Chose to make a positive impact in your local community, learn about our estuarine ecosystem, and help restore degraded habitats! Contact us for more information! (info@alloneocean.org)
• *liability forms will need to be filled out by all who participate (safety first!)

Thursday, June 14th, June 28rd, July 12th, July 26th, or August 9th,

9:30 to 11:30am

GARDEN: Alameda Boys & Girls Club

• Alameda, CA 94501
• http://www.alamedabgc.org/
• Ages 6+ with adult supervision
• The Alameda Boys and Girls Club’s mission is to inspire and enable all youth, especially those who need us the most, to realize their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens.
• Help spruce up the Club’s Garden. Italo’s Garden is a 1/4 acre educational edible garden site with 31 raised beds. Volunteers will help with weeding around the base of the beds and fences, picking up trash around the garden, watering the plants, and turning the compost pile.
• On wet or especially chilly mornings, volunteers can still help organize seeds or help seed starting in their greenhouse!

Saturday, June 9th, June 23rd, July 14th, July 28th, Aug 11th or Aug 25th

10:00am to 2:00pm

GARDEN: Big Wave Project Volunteer Day at the Farm

• Half Moon Bay, CA
• http://www.bigwaveproject.org/
• https://www.handsonbayarea.org/opportunity/a0a0e00000E0WFjAAN
• Ages 6+ with adult supervision
• The Big Wave Project is dedicated to creating an inclusive and interactive community of people and businesses to provide a purposeful and independent life for individuals with developmental disabilities through affordable housing, meaningful employment, and a supportive community. Join them for their weekend workdays at the Big Wave Farm! The Big Wave Project’s mission is to support adults with developmental disabilities who want to live independently in the community with their family and friends. Our goal is to foster independence, create community, and provide hands on job skills training through our organic farm and garden.

Thursday, June 21st, July 19th, or August 16th

6:00-8:00pm

PLAY: Family Connections

• Redwood City, CA or East Palo Alto, CA
• http://www.familyconnections.org
• https://www.handsonbayarea.org/opportunity/a0a0e00000EJSKhAAP
• Ages 8+ with adult supervision
• Spend time with a lively group of preschoolers! Family Connections, a parent-participation preschool, serves low-income families. Once a month, HandsOn helps with crafts and snacks for the kids while parents participate in a parental education class. Some Spanish is preferred but not necessary.

Family At-Home Project Highlights for Summer

Create Back to School Kits

• Doing Good Together
• https://www.doinggoodtogether.org/bhf/create-back-to-school-kits/
• Date/Time: Flexible
• Location: Your home or community
• Ages: Everyone can participate
• Time Commitment: Varies
• Contact: mail@doinggoodtogether.org
• Back-to-school shopping for a child in need can be a great opportunity for a teachable moment with your own children. Plus, your generosity will help ensure that another child has everything needed to make the school year a success. Instructions and ideas included.

Host a Card-Making Party

• Doing Good Together
• https://www.doinggoodtogether.org/bhf/host-a-card-making-party/
• Date/Time: Flexible
• Location: Your home or community
• Ages: Everyone can participate
• Time Commitment: Varies
• Contact: mail@doinggoodtogether.org
• Get some friends together to make cards for others…think of all the people who would be cheered by your handiwork.  Recipients could be seniors in a local nursing home or kids in a hospital or others in your community in need of cheering up.  Instructions and ideas included.

ON-GOING

Saturdays or Sundays

Alameda Meals on Wheels

• 9:15am -10:15am
• 516 Willow St, Alameda, CA and delivery around Alameda
• (510) 865-6131
• http://alamedamealsonwheels.org/about-amow.html
• Deliver meals to homebound seniors and people in need around Alameda (along a prescribed route).  A great opportunity for kids to participate in delivering and saying hello.

Saturdays or Sundays and some Evenings

Alameda County Community Food Bank

• 8:30-11:30 or 12:30-3:30
• 7900 Edgewater Drive/ Oakland, CA 94621
• (510) 635-FOOD (3663)
• http://www.accfb.org/volunteering/
• Kids must be 10+ years old and accompanied by 1 adult per 5 kids.
• Individuals and groups are needed to help sort, screen and box fresh produce and non-perishable food for distribution to the Food Bank’s partner agencies.

Anytime

Storm Drain Stenciling

• Alameda
• City of Alameda Clean Water Program
• (510) 747-7930
• https://alamedaca.gov/volunteer-opportunities
• Become a storm drain steward and provide an important service to our community!
• Have you ever seen “No Dumping, Drains to Bay” painted above a storm drain?  By simply painting this message above a storm drain, you will have a unique opportunity to educate our community about how to protect the Bay.
• You pick the location in the City of Alameda, and we will provide all of the stenciling equipment and guidance you will need.  This can be a small family project, or a community service effort.

Sundays

Sunday Dinner

• 5:00pm-8:00pm
• St. Mary’s Center/ Oakland
• http://stmaryscenter.org/volunteer/
• Cooking a meal to serve between 50-80 elderly adults in our commercial kitchen, serving the meal and then cleaning up the dining area and kitchen.
• (Weekday meal opportunities are also available: Serving Lunch during the week days- Arriving by 11:45 am on a week day to help set up, plate food, serve it to our seniors and then clean up after the meal.

Saturdays

Lake Merritt Institute Lake Clean-Up

• 10:00 am-12:00 or 1:00pm
• 568 Bellevue Avenue, 2nd Floor/ Oakland
• http://www.lakemerrittinstitute.org/help.htm
• Volunteers meet at the Institute office, on the 2nd floor of the Boating Center, 568 Bellevue Avenue, next to the parking lot, in Lakeside Park. Go up the stairs at the end of the parking lot. If you see the duck pond, you have gone about 100 yards too far.  We usually work for 2 – 3 hours or more. Gloves are provided. Individuals can also work alone using one of the four “U-Clean-It” boxes around the Lake where you will find gloves, trash bags, barrels, nets, directions and sign in sheet.
• Reservations are not required for most events; just wear old clothes, meet us at the office, or work on your own.

Scheduled By You

MedShare

• San Leandro
• http://www.medshare.org/volunteer/
• MedShare volunteers have sorted and repackaged over 6,000 tons of medical supplies and equipment.  MedShare provides approximately 1,000 different boxes of various life saving medical supplies per shipment.

Donation Wishlist

Operation Dignity (Oakland)

• https://operationdignity.org/our-wish-list/?platform=hootsuite
• Ideas for donations, assembling gift bags, and other items needed
• Operation Dignity assists homeless veterans and their families. We provide emergency, transitional and permanent housing for homeless veterans in Alameda County, California. We also offer comprehensive support services, nutritious meals and a strong peer community. Our goal is to help veterans rediscover hope and provide the tools needed to live a self-sufficient and stable life.

Ideas for Family Volunteering

https://sanfrancisco.citymomsblog.com/family/ten-ways-volunteer-kids-bay-area/

https://www.510families.com/hands-on-volunteering-with-kids-in-the-bay-area/

http://www.doinggoodtogether.org/bhf/pick-a-project/

http://redtri.com/san-francisco/get-in-the-spirit-volunteer-opportunities-for-the-whole-family/

https://www.handsonbayarea.org/calendar

Greater Bay Area

Glide Memorial Church

• 330 Ellis Street (Main Building)/ San Francisco, CA 94102
• 415.674.6000 | info@glide.org
• https://www.glide.org/serveameal
• Volunteers ages 9 and up or 12 and up to prep (9) and serve (12) meals, at Glide Memorial Church.

Lifemoves: Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness

• Locations around the Peninsula
• http://lifemoves.org/how-you-can-help/volunteer/for-youth/
• Prep and serve meals, help maintain shelters, etc.

San Francisco/Marin Food Bank

• 900 Pennsylvania Ave./ San Francisco, CA 94107
• 415-282-1900, x 244 or email volunteer@sfmfoodbank.org
• https://www.sfmfoodbank.org/volunteer/
• Projects typically involve sorting fresh produce, packaging bulk foods, assembling grocery boxes for seniors, and sorting donations from food drives. Children are welcome, too! .On Saturdays, our minimum age is 8, and on Sundays it is 4 years old.

Summer Ideas From Start a Snowball

From: http://startasnowball.com/community-service-for-kids-causes/

• Health
  • Join the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s efforts to reduce childhood obesity and inspire your friends and families to eat healthier, move more, and make a difference in your school and community.
  • Work with your local Red Cross to give blood, organize a blood drive, volunteer at a blood drive, or encourage others to give blood.
  • Set up a lemonade stand like Alex’s Lemonade Stand to raise much needed funds for childhood cancer research.
  • Host a bone marrow registry drive.
  • Help stop fellow students from making destructive decisions. Find service ideas, a planning guide, and media outreach templates in SADD’s community service guide, SADD Serves: Youth Giving Back
  • Organize a KaBOOM! Play Day to help build awareness for the importance of play, strengthen your community, and bring old-fashioned fun to your neighborhood! Or, take babysitting and kid-sitting to the extreme and organize a National Wildlife Federation day of play outside!
  • Collect and donate DVDs to Kid Flicks so they can send a movie library of 100 DVDs to every Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Department within the United States.
  • Help spread the word about the dangers of second hand smoke and host a Quit Day, or help the American Lung Association.
• Education
  • Help get books to kids in need! Join First Book to volunteer with a Campus Advisory Board or create a virtual book drive to get books to kids in need.
  • Team up with your classmates and friends to raise awareness and money to support refugee kids in schools in the U.S. and around the world.
  • Recruit your peers to read with, tutor, or mentor younger students… Big Brothers Big Sisters is always looking for more “Bigs,” especially guys to serve as Big Brothers. Or, help connect with your local Boys & Girls Club.
  • Donate books or host a book drive to help WorldWide Book Drive promote global literacy and education.
• Hunger
  • Plan a Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry in your community and submit the proceeds to Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America.
  • Plant a community garden to grow food to be donated. Then, plan to harvest in the fall on Food Day – October 24, 2013.
  • Youth of all ages can tackle child hunger through generationOn’s “What Will You Bring to the Table?” initiative. The campaign will turn ideas and actions into 1 million meals for children facing food insecurity in the United States.
  • Organize a food drive, and Move for Hunger can provide you with collection boxes, fliers, and even help pick up your food donations to deliver to your local food bank.
  • Go Orange for No Kid Hungry: Help raise awareness to the 1 in 5 kids who face hunger everyday by asking your classmates to all wear orange , the color of hunger awareness, on the same day.
  • Join Revolution Hunger and take part in the steps it takes to become a Hunger Fighter to help solve global hunger.
  • Use Feed America’s  Food Bank Locator to find a local food bank and work with or start a Back Pack Buddies program in your community or school
• Environment
  • Organize a Walk for Water with H20 for Life in your school or community, and raise money to help bring water to schools in developing countries.
  • Become a leader in your community around an environmental issue and use one of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoot’s project kits.
  • Use TakingITGlobal’s Climate Change Youth Guide to Action to help you address the issue of climate change in your community and globally.
  • Go BLUE with Water Planet Challenge for a myriad of different water-related service learning projects you can adapt to your community. Start a Meatless Monday campaign. Or, learn how to reduce, reuse, and reTHINK how you use water.
  • Help Plant Trees for Wildlife or Restore the Canopy and contribute to A Billion Acts of Green® by planting trees.
  • Implement Students Saving Energy, a three-step plan that can easily be implemented by any student who wishes to lead their school on the path toward sustainability.
  • Did you know that each day we use 500 million straws–enough disposable straws to fill over 46,400 large school buses per year? Help us Be Straw Free and reduce the use and waste of disposable plastic straws.
  • Stow It Don’t Throw It! Assemble and distribute personal-sized fishing line recycling bins to anglers and boaters while educating the public on sustainable fishing practices.

• Community Building
  • Be a Good Global Neighbor and provide shelter, warmth and dignity to families who have lost everything in a disaster. Raise awareness about disaster relief by holding a fund raising event for ShelterBox. Ask your friends and family to sponsor you to sleep in a tent for a night as you experience how people live after disasters.
  • Show your support for American military veterans. Or, join AARP’s Create the Good initiative to support active-duty military members and their families.
  • Make blankets with Maddie’s Blankets to donate – small blankets for animal shelters to use or large blankets for youth in foster care, shelters, or transitional housing.
  • Raise money and help build a Habitat for Humanity home in their community. Youth who are age 5 to 25 can get involved as leaders, planners, fund-raisers and press agents. Youth ages 16 to 25 can work on the construction site to help build the house.
• Human Rights
  • Use stopbullying.gov’s Youth Leaders Toolkit to contribute to anti-bullying initiatives in your school or community.
  • Join PeaceJam’s campaign to address 10 of the most pressing issues of our time and we need your help! Any person can join PeaceJam’s Global Call to Action and create a project to positively impact their community or the world.
  • Explore the MDGs on the United Nation’s CyberSchoolBus and find ideas for action for each of the 8 goals, or download Only With Your Voice: MDG Youth Action Guide.Also available in Spanish, French, German, and Dutch.
• Disaster Relief
  • The American Red Cross is a good place to go to help with disaster relief.