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Some kids are natural givers, setting aside a bit of what they have for those less fortunate and showing a wise-beyond-their-years sensitivity. Others sound and act more like the seagulls in “Finding Nemo” with their “Mine, mine, mine.”
However, research shows altruism can be nurtured in children from a very young age. One study found simple acts of giving triggered kids as young as 1 to give back and another found toddlers displayed the same joy in working for themselves as they did when they helped others.
Volunteering through charities and nonprofits is a terrific way to encourage your children along this path. But what if your kids are too young to take part in on-site activities or events, or you can’t squeeze volunteer days outside the home into your busy schedule?
In this season of giving and throughout the year, there are practical ideas, as well as specific activities and projects your family can do together at home. It can be as nonstructured as cleaning out closets and rolling coins to make donations, creating thank-you cards for first responders or helping school-age kids organize collection drives for their classmates. For more sources of inspiration, many nonprofit groups and organizations have developed project ideas that can be done at home and dropped off at the charity.
“I always volunteered, and I have to admit, when my kids were little, I’d go and do it to take a little break from them,” Eulynn Gargano of Tustin, who has three children ages 6, 8 and 9, said with a laugh. “They got to the point where they were curious about what I did and said, ‘Well, you do it, why can’t we do it?’ So now we do a lot of projects together.”
The family’s latest endeavor is collecting books for a “free library” for the neighborhood.
“I’m not shy about teaching my kids about why there are people in Orange County who need help and why we give, and being hands-on in helping others. They learn so much,” she said.
By focusing on your children’s areas of interests and brainstorming with them on ideas to help others, they become invested in projects, and giving becomes a natural part of their lives.
“I have a 2-year-old who creates lots of artwork, primarily at day care,” Lindcy Ladra of Huntington Beach said. “I was thinking that a great way to get her involved in volunteering, even at a young age, would be to donate her artwork to local nursing homes, as older residents would probably appreciate decorating their spaces with colorful artwork made by kids.”
A good starting point to find nonprofit groups, projects and activities is OneOC (oneoc.org), which connects local organizations with volunteers.
Among its many programs is Family Volunteering, which gives kids and their families easy access to opportunities that help them make a difference. It includes a volunteer calendar that can be filtered to list local family-friendly events and activities, links to national organizations such as Points of Light’s GenerationOn (generationon.org) and Youth Services America (ysa.org) and details about four national days of service throughout the year.
One of the four days is Nov. 17’s Family Volunteer Day. It is held annually on the third Saturday of November. GenerationOn lists nearly 200 do-it-yourself projects and opportunities for families in areas such as animal welfare, environment, social justice and bullying. Projects include making doggie bags of treats for animals in shelters, handmade thank-you cards for first responders, holiday hope chests (shoeboxes filled with toys for children in need) and healthy kits for homeless kids.
KIDS HELPING KIDS
One way to make giving more meaningful for kids is to have them help other children who have less or face other challenges.
“My little 2-year-old and I collect up books, toys and clothes that he’s outgrown to pass along to others in need,” said Julie Pedersen of Huntington Beach. “We network through groups on social media to trade or give to someone who needs them.”
Several nonprofit groups in Orange County have programs and projects families can take part in that specifically benefit children.
Irvine-based Families Forward (families-forward.org), which helps homeless and low-income families, offers an Adopt-a-Family program to fulfill needy kids’ wish lists and other family needs during the holidays. Other seasonal programs include Thanksgiving baskets and back-to-school essentials.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County (choc.org) accepts donations of new toys, games and other supplies to its child life department, which seeks to normalize the hospital experience for its young patients and their families. (It can’t take used items because of the risk of infections.) The hospital has an ongoing wish list of most needed items and holds a popular holiday toy drive for new, unwrapped donations. The intake day of this year’s drive is Dec. 15 in front of the main hospital.
Santa Ana-based MOMS Orange County (momsorangecounty.org) helps low-income pregnant women and their families. It offers two holiday giving events. Adopt a MOMS Orange County Family matches your family with one of the group’s 3,000-plus families most in need. You get their wish list of necessities and choose one or more items to create a care package. Diapers in December helps needy families get baby care essentials for their newborns.
Together We Rise (togetherwerise.org), with an office in Brea, also helps foster kids move from home to home with dignity by providing duffel bags full of useful items in place of the two trash bags the kids are usually given to move their belongings. Families and organizations can purchase and decorate “Sweet Cases,” that come with duffels, blankets, teddy bears, hygiene kits and more. The group also offers Birthday Boxes for purchase that your family can put together to help foster kids celebrate their special day with candy, party supplies and gift cards.
Sports Gift (sportsgift.org) is a Dana Point-based charity that provides sports equipment to impoverished and disadvantaged kids in the U.S. and more than 60 other countries. One of its collection programs suitable for a family activity is to create a Sports Shoebox filled with uninflated balls, jump ropes, T-shirts and socks and other new items. Kids can write a note of encouragement to the child recipient and include it in the box.
WISH LISTS
Beyond specific activities and programs, many local charities detail what kind of donations they accept and their wish lists on their websites. These can be used as inspiration for families to match their kids’ interests to build a donation package to drop off at a local site. Here are just a few examples and some of their typical needs (new-item donations only unless noted):
• Orange County Rescue Mission (rescuemission.org) serves meals and provides shelter and clothing to the needy. The mission’s urgent needs list includes canned meats, fruits, vegetables and soups, peanut butter, and boxed or bagged rice, pasta and mashed potatoes.
• Numerous animal shelters need donations. OC Animal Care in Tustin (ocpetinfo.com) is an open-admission animal shelter. The Orange County Humane Society in Huntington Beach (ochumanesociety.com) provides care to dogs and cats before they are adopted. The Seal Beach Animal Care Center (sbacc.org) is a nonprofit, no-kill shelter. Typical donation needs are dog and cat food, kitty litter and litter boxes, pet toys and new or used towels and blankets. Visiting the Seal Beach shelter was a particular favorite volunteer project for Gargano’s kids, she said.
“We put together bags of treats and other things to deliver, and they got to visit with the dogs and kittens,” she said.
• Share Our Selves (shareourselves.org) offers health services, food and case management to adults and children in need. The donation wish list includes school supplies, toys, baby items, hygiene products and cold-weather items.
• Ronald McDonald House Orange County (rmhcsc.org/orangecounty) provides a home away from home for the families of seriously ill children being treated at local hospitals. Items on the wish list include single-serve chips, snacks or cookies, bottled water, fresh fruit and plastic serve ware.
• Jewish Federation & Family Services, Orange County, (jewishorangecounty.org) provides family services to those in need. The wish list includes pasta and sauce, peanut butter, jelly and personal care items, such as toothbrushes and paste, shampoos and deodorant.
• Colette’s Children’s Home (coletteschildrenshome.com) provides housing and supportive services to homeless women and children. The wish list includes baby wipes and diapers, twin-bed sheets and comforters, dinnerware sets and small appliances. “It was nice to work with one charity and see our efforts directly put to use in our community,” said Tami Seaver Lincoln of Huntington Beach about working with the nonprofit when she was a room mom at her child’s school. Those efforts included the donation of “several large bags of used costumes just in time for Halloween. We also had a sock drive and a diaper drive that year, based on what Colette’s told us they needed.”
NATIONAL EFFORTS
Need more inspiration to give back as a family? Here are just a few of the nationwide charity organizations that offer activities and programs
that are especially appealing to kids:
• Family-to-Family (family-to-family.org) is a New York-based charity that encourages families to “Share Your Bounty.” The organization features hands-on giving programs, including the Birthday Giving Project. Your family puts together a “party in a box” for a child whose family could not otherwise afford it. You can fill a decorated shoebox or shopping bag with decorations, a box of cake mix and can of frosting, small toys, a gift book or small-denomination gift card. Don’t forget the candles.
• Through its Creative Arts Care Program, Caitlin’s Smiles (caitlins-smiles.org) delivers arts and crafts projects and kits to children in hospitals who are awaiting treatment. The website has an extensive list of kits that can be put together by families, including for dreamcatchers, bookmarks, keychains, journals and bracelets.
• Color A Smile (colorasmile.org) is a nonprofit that sends children’s drawings to senior citizens and troops overseas; it has shared more than
1 million drawings to date. It prefers that you use one of its hundreds of templates of color-in and free draw pages available on its website for ease of mailing.
• Enchanted Makeovers’ Capes for Kids program (enchantedmakeovers.org) provides handmade, superhero capes to children in shelters to honor their strength, imagination and hope. A no-sew pattern is provided, and family members can let their own imaginations fly, so to speak, as they create one-of-a-kind capes.
For every organization mentioned, there are many more that would benefit from your family’s generosity during the holidays and throughout the year. And it doesn’t have to be an organization; it can be as informal as baking cookies for an elderly neighbor or sending a handmade thank-you card to a member of the military.
“A really easy thing for toddlers to help with is creating care bags for the homeless,” said Amelia Bunny Capell of Anaheim. “Just fill one to two Ziploc bags with various toiletries, snacks, water, socks/underwear, even $5. They can be kept in your car and if the opportunity to give comes up. It’s handy to have.”
With meaningful conversations and engaging your child’s talents and interests, you can instill the love of giving and community. So whether you have an artist, a cook, an animal lover, an environmentalist or an all-around altruist, you can turn “mine, mine, mine” into “ours, ours, ours.”
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