Bless Your Fellow Man with These Family-Oriented Service Projects
By Jessa McClure
There's something about getting together with family, searching out the perfect gifts for your loved ones, and gathering to consume large quantities of home-cooked food that makes people feel thankful. These feelings of gratefulness often translate into an increase of volunteer work and charitable giving during the holidays.
While doing things for your fellow man at Thanksgiving and Christmas is commendable, there are ways to help out all throughout the year, and involve your kids. Here are some ideas to inspire you and your family to give of what you have to make someone's life a little better.
1. Make Care Packages
Creating and giving bags of goodies for those in need can be a great way to not only share your resources and teach your children a valuable lesson about community and thankfulness, but it also shows the person receiving the gift just how much you care.
- Care packages for the troops – Who better to give to during the time of year when you are able to celebrate whatever religious holiday you choose, than by thanking those who make it possible. Not only does it show these service men and women how much we care, but it also gives them a special treat and taste of home at a time when they are probably missing their loved ones the most—during the holidays.
There are some rules when it comes to creating these care packages, so make sure you follow them so that your special gift will get to where it needs to go.
- Care packages for kids in the hospital – For chronically or terminally ill children, the holidays or any day can be a rough time to be away from friends, family and school. Bring a little cheer to these kids by creating bags full of coloring books, crayons, Play-doh and other treats that will make long stays in the hospital more enjoyable.
- Care packages for the homeless – While donating clothes and money to those in need, it might also be a good idea to give bags filled with items they can use right now. Things like tissues, snacks, moist wipes, water bottles and granola bars might be a welcomed change for those who are struggling to get back on their feet.
2. Collect items for needy people around the world
If you would like to focus your generosity on those outside of your community or even your country, then it might be a good idea to find an organization or group who collects items for needy people around the globe.
Kids would have a blast collecting small toiletry items and toys to fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. One little girl and her family asked their neighbors to gather up gently used shoes and help them
collect much-needed footwear for people in Haiti.
3. Go on a service scavenger hunt
Courtney Aitken, from All Things Bright and Beautiful, created a
scavenger hunt for her church's youth group to get them out in the community and helping others. This could easily be modified to create a scavenger hunt for your family. Older children would especially enjoy getting to cross off service projects on their list. You could even make it a competition among family members. The family member or group of family members who completes their list first gets to go on a special outing or receive a special prize.
There are lots of ways to serve your community—both large and small—and spend quality time with your children. Step out of your comfort zone and find ways to bless others. You never know how big of an impact you'll make.
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There's something about getting together with family, searching out the perfect gifts for your loved ones, and gathering to consume large quantities of home-cooked food that makes people feel thankful. These feelings of gratefulness often translate into an increase of volunteer work and charitable giving during the holidays.
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