Runner's High

I’m not much of a runner, but I like to walk. A nice option for giving back to the community is to join a 5k walk or run. And they are everywhere. A quick Google search found me more 5k races than I could count.

After I narrowed it down; there were two races that caught my eye in particular:

1.       Habitat for Humanity. Here is a short description of their goal for the race taken from their website:

“Our annual 5k Walk/Run for Humanity takes place in scenic downtown Beaver. Starting and ending at the Gazebo in Irvine Park on Third Street. Runners are chip timed and ribbons awarded for each age group. All participants registered before September 1st receive a commemorative race day T-shirt and goodie bag. In addition, refreshments, including lunch, are donated by local businesses. This year’s goal it to raise enough money to pay for all of the windows and roofs on 4 houses. That’s $22,000! A single window costs $175 and a roof is $3,000. Register now, set a goal and let’s help provide simple, decent, affordable housing to families in need.”

As found on the website, the race is scheduled for Sept. 22 in Beaver. Check it out for more information pertaining to the race or other volunteer opportunities!

2.      Catie’s Race. Catie is a little girl who is battling pediatric epilepsy. The race is not only in an effort to help provide Catie’s family with money for medical bills, but also to show the community’s support for her in her battle. Check the website's race page for more information on the race or to register. This race is taking place at Brady's Run Park.

Even if you might not have a lot of time or money to donate to causes, if you can sign up and take a few hours out of your weekend to show support and donate a little money to a good cause, you’ve done well. And besides doing good for others, you’re doing good for yourself by getting some exercise! Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Center for Hope

I signed up for community service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day last year. I didn’t know where I would be placed or what I would be doing until that morning.

The woman in charge of the community service day told me I’d be working at the Center for Hope in Ambridge. I had no clue what it was, but I figured it must be for a good cause.
When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised to see what the Center for Hope was all about. The Center had so much to offer its community members, and all in one place. They had a food bank, clothes closet, Daily Bread Ministry, after school programs and even dog and cat food for low income pet owners! I was really impressed.

This article was written about the day we helped moved the Center for Hope to its new location and gives a little more detail about people behind it and how it works. Below is a picture taken from the article. We were taking everything out of the previous building and moving it to the Center's new location just a few minutes away.

There are plenty of ways to donate your time to this organization, and you should! Volunteer sign-ups are available on the Center for Hope’s website. Simply click on the "volunteer" tab, fill out the short application and wait to hear back from them!

Follow up: Random Acts of Kindness

I never finished my random acts of kindness, but I completed quite a few.  I kept track of them for the first two weeks before I started missing days and forgetting. Some of my favorites are as follows:

1.       In the downtown part of my city, the Meter Maids go home at 5 p.m. That means that people no longer need to put money into the parking meters at that time. Around 4:45, I saw a Meter Maid making her last rounds and noticed the car parked next to me would have received a ticket. I jumped out of my car and put a nickel into the meter. This took less than a minute of my time and prevented someone else from getting an $8 ticket!

2.       I’m not really a dishwashing kind of gal. Give me laundry; have me dust the whole house, vacuum, whatever.  I hate washing dishes. But my mother can’t stand waking up to a messy kitchen. When she fell asleep early one night and didn’t get around to doing the dishes, I sucked it up and did them.

3.      I’m a bartender. I was training a new guy at work. He just worked all day at his current job and was closing up with me, so altogether he had a pretty long day. I was pretty hands-off and let him do most of the work. At the end of the night, trainees aren’t supposed to get any tips. I let him have all of them instead.

The simplest thing can make someone’s day and it’s so easy to do. Looking back on what I kept track of, I can’t help but feel good. It makes me want to start all over again and spread some kindness to new people!

Did you attempt the Acts of Kindness Challenge? If so, what were your favorite(s) or most memorable experiences?



For the time-less.

I decided to switch it up a little this time. I talked before about how a lack of time is a big issue for some when it comes to getting involved. If you’re one of those people, I have a challenge for you.

For the next 25 days, perform one random act of kindness per day.

 It can be anything you choose, big or small. I read another person’s blog on here who took the challenge from Dec. 1-25 and got some good ideas for it. This blog shows some examples. It’s a good alternative for people with limited time. Even the smallest gesture of kindness counts. Not only will you make someone else feel good, but you’ll make yourself feel good and in turn, it may create a domino effect. Once you do something nice for someone, they may consciously or subconsciously do the same for someone else.

If you choose, keep track of your acts in a journal. I’ll be updating you all on my random acts and I hope you do the same.

Can you remember the last time someone (even a stranger) did something nice for you?

Mop for Hope

Girls Hope takes in academically capable girls-in-need and provides them a better chance of success. I discovered Girl's Hope about a year ago when I was planning some community service projects for my basketball team to do and I must say, it's an amazing program.

Just by reading their mission statements and information on their website, you can't really understand what an impact this organization has on the girls involved. When I sat down and had a conversation with an employee of Girls Hope, her explanation of what the program does impacted me way more than their mission statement.

Hypothetically speaking, Girls Hope would take in a child who shows much academic promise but has a bad home life. Some children will miss school for days at a time because they have a parent who is an addict and have to take care of younger siblings. Some don't have as harsh of a scenario, but still are doing poorly in school because of their home lives. Girls Hope believes that with a strong support system, the children can accomplish great things.

The program gives the girls a value-center, family-like home and provides them with support all the way through college. While reading Girls Hope's success stories, I can't help but think where these girls would have ended up if it weren't for the love and care they received throughout the years. Click here to read some of the success stories.

If you want to get involved, there are plenty of ways to do so. My teammates and I, being poor college students, didn't really have much money to donate to the program. We wanted to be involved in a more hands-on way. They gave us a couple of options, and we decided to go in and clean one of the houses for them. It might seem like an odd request for community service, but I just kept in mind that although it might not be a big project, we were members of the community and we were showing support. By helping out, we were telling Girls Hope that we think what they do is wonderful, and they are appreciated.

We swept, mopped, scrubbed, dusted and wiped every surface of the first two floors of the house. Here's a picture of us on the front porch after our couple hours of cleaning:

Other volunteer opportunities are listed here. Be sure to take a look. There are a lot of different ways to give back to the program! Girl's Hope is also on Facebook and give updates on upcoming events. Type in Girls Hope in your searchbar and "like" them!

Thanks for the pants.

There's a saying that I came across:

"You give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. You teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime."

Now, before I continue, I want to tell a quick story. Seriously, a really quick one. A Facebook friend of mine made a status complaining about the amount of money coming out of his paycheck. He was mad that he was being "forced" to pay for welfare and foodstamps. I responded, agreeing with his statement but countering with the point that there are in fact some people in this country that cannot make ends meet and need the assistance, even if it's just for awhile. He then responded by saying that, "McDonald's is always hiring."

If said friend thinks 40 hours a week at McDonald's is enough to live off of, I'm ashamed to say we attend the same college. And that he probably gets better grades than me. However, this story reminded me that people who don't make much money and are trying to make a better living for themselves probably don't have much money to spend for interview clothes. This brings me back to the quote you read above. With that said; Professional Outfitters feeds people for a lifetime.

Even though this specific organization is local to me (Beaver County), I felt that it was too cool not to share with you all. Basically what they do is take gently used dress clothes and sell them (nearly dirt cheap) to low-income people that need interview and career clothing. Additionally, Professional Outfitters gives people a crash course in interview etiquette. Since I think that this is an absolutely amazing cause, I've decided to start a clothing drive for them. I just posted to Facebook about two days ago, so hopefully it will generate some responses soon.

Click here to see their website. For anyone reading this who is local to Beaver County and wants to make a donation, the address is listed there. It also gives a more detailed description about what they do. You probably never knew that your size-too-small dress pants could make such an impact on someone, did you? Wish me luck on my hunt for clothing. I'll keep you updated on how much I collect.

No more excuses.

Now that my faithful six followers know the direction of this blog, I think it’s important to say that it can be somewhat of a pain to line up these community service projects I was bragging about.

You would think that most places in need of volunteers would answer the phone and say, “Yep, we’ll see you this weekend!” But from my experience it can take a little more effort than a simple phone call.

Personally, there are a few different things that have deterred me from giving back in the past:

1.       Busy, busy, busy

·         I don’t really have that much time during the week for any leisurely activities. A quality Facebook creep twice a day, a couple meals and an hour of taped reality TV before bed is my downtime. Fortunately, my jobs are flexible enough that I can call off on weekends, provided that it’s 2-3 weeks in advance. Even though it can feel like a big hassle or inconvenience, it’s definitely doable. Find what works for you.

2.      Skepticism

·         If you’ve never watched a commercial with a photo montage of abused animals at 3 a.m., bless your soul. If you don’t feel like crying and hugging your hound afterwards, you don’t have a soul. But for me, before I dial the 800 number at the bottom of the screen, the same thing always crosses my mind: “Is this money actually going to the poor little animals?” I’m guessing I’m not the only one who thinks this way. If you don’t feel comfortable sending your 15 dollars a month or have a tight budget, there are alternatives to donating money.

3.      Apathy

·         Before I started doing any sort of community service, I never really thought about it. It all started with a mandatory service learning project in an ethics course I took. Afterwards, I felt great. Regardless of how we like to think we are; a lack of action means an apathetic attitude.

4.      Where to start?

·         Finding a place to volunteer at can be surprisingly difficult, especially if you want to volunteer yourself to a wide variety of causes. It can be a little scary to make the call and inquire about what kinds of volunteer opportunities are available, and that’s understandable. Any change in a person’s life can result in hesitation. Once you get past the first call, it’s smooth sailing. On a different note, most places that need volunteers and donations can’t afford to pay someone to maintain a website (shocking). Some don’t have one at all. This makes it more difficult to find the places that need help the most.

5.      The process

·         Depending on the organization and the tasks you’ll be performing, volunteering can be a process. Some places require you to get clearances. Some have an application and interview process. Others might even require a volunteer to go through training sessions before they’ll let you help them out.  However, there are a number of places who do not require any of those prerequisites making it really easy to volunteer on your own time.

If you have any of the above thoughts or problems, it’s possible to get past them. The reward of helping someone who needs it is way greater a reward than any of the negative attitudes or roadblocks you need to get through. From here, I’ll start to talk more about different places you can volunteer for and share some personal experiences.