Thursday, October 29 2015

Are you a current Change the World RVA volunteer who would like to meet other volunteers and learn more ways to plug in?  

 

Are you someone who is thinking about becoming a volunteer and wondering how to get started?

 

Are you just curious about what our students need and how you can help?  

 

Then this event is designed especially for you!

 

We are an all-volunteer organization, and that's just one of the things that makes Change the World RVA so remarkable. Our goal is to create a community of caring adults for each of our students, and that only happens when you (as an adult volunteer) have the opportunity to spend time, one-on-one or in a group, with our kids.  There are dozens of ways that we've thought of to do this, but we bet there are dozens more that we haven't even imagined yet.  Honestly, the best magic happens when an adult (you!) brings his or her unique talents & enthusiasms to our program. Do you love to run?  Help us organize our 5K team.  Do you love to knit? Grab a couple of our students on a Monday night, and go sit in our lounge and knit. You can learn a lot about each other over a basket of yarn. 

 

Below, we have listed just some of the volunteer needs that we have, that we've imagined, but feel free to create your own way to spend time with our students.  Fair warning:  once you get to know them, you will be hooked!  We look forward to seeing you on the 29th.  We hope you'll come and learn about the many ways you can give a little (or a lot) of your time to change the lives our most remarkable young people.

 

Current volunteer needs:

• Cookie Walk – bake cookies and/or help with the event (Dec 13)

• Birthday Card Brigade – send birthday cards; recruit friends to send b’day cards

• Drivers (to job interviews, doctor’s appointments, meetings, enrichment programs)

• Monday Meals – 5:30 pm, BUMC, approximately 12 students

• 2nd Adult on Monday evenings (5:30/6:00 – 8:00)

• Teach our kids to cook.  Simple stuff. Really simple. We have kitchen. Monday nights.

• Organize our 5K team

• Become a member of our 5K team

• Walk/run with the kids on Monday afternoons, beginning November 2nd.

• Volunteer to take students to 5K races, to walk or run with them on weekends

• Help us finish our egg carton sculpture!  (Click here to see photo.)

• Another Woman's Treasure – collect purses, help with event prep, work at the event itself (April 8 & 9, 2016)

• Share your talents & interests with our students. Come on a Monday and talk about your job. Offer to let a student shadow you at work. Take a student to your favorite spot in Richmond. Take a few students to a sporting event.

• Student celebration planner (birthdays, holidays)

• Serve Thanksgiving dinner to our students.  We have a generous donor who is paying for our catered Ukrop's/Martin's meal -- you just need to pick it up, heat it up, and join us for dinner.

• We need to make 25 Thanksgiving table centerpieces for St. Mary's Woods Retirement Community. We need crafty people to help us!

• Help students with food pantry – collect & deliver items (we have a specific list)

• Help students with clothing closet – collect & deliver clothing items

• Take individual students shopping (work clothes, school clothes, special occasion clothes)

• Help students furnish new apartments.

• Help get our college students’ dorms furnished.

• Send care packages to our college students.

• Help us keep our “emergency” closet stocked:  bedding, pillows, blankets, fans (in summer), cell phones, etc.

• Organize a furniture bank.  You would be in charge of this.  It's a wildly important need, but we don't have the manpower at this point to take it on. But if you want a great project, this could be it. (We can provide storage if you can collect furniture & household items.)

• Like our Facebook page. Follow us on Twitter. Visit our web site often.

• Invite us to speak to your organization.

• Donate DVDs to our DVD library (for our classroom & kids like to take them home)

• Organize an emergency response team. When a family is evicted, it would be great to have a team that could swoop in to grab their belongings and put them in storage.

• Support Team (On email list ready to step up to the plate when needed)