The Give a Day Thread~Share Your Experience

[DebºoºS]

The Linus Project was a good fit and sort of local. We're making 2 crocheted blankets. I hadn't picked up a crochet hook in 24 years. It took me a few days watching Utube videos to jog my my memory enough to get started. I still need to teach DS how to crochet for his.
Now I remember why I stopped crocheting. It's boring. To keep my sanity I'm riding my stationary bike while watching a movie and crocheting. So far 6 Hornblowers, Mr. Ripley, District 9, Taking Woodstock, Soloist and Pianist and I'm a skein away from finishing.
The goal for today is Seven Pounds & The Burning Plain, 10 miles and a few rows

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

We couldn't find an appropriate opp in our area, but we found one six hours away. So we turned that activity (a Saturday morning) into a three-day camping trip! We had a complete blast.

We bagged oyster shells to help build a reef for oyster babies to grow on (oysters help filter water and provide food and shelter to other marine life). We learned a TON about the local environment, met a lot of really fabulous families, and smelled like the wharf afterward, LOL.

We've also decided that we're going to try to find local volunteering activities in areas that we vacation in. We already volunteer in our own community, but this was a fantastic way to get some off-the-beaten-path views on places we visit.

We'll most likely end up donating our tix, so it's doing double-duty, I guess!

 

[pixiedust23]

My BF and I had a great time working at soup kitchen. We were so insprired that we decided we would continue to work at the soup kitchen every month.

 

[DebºoºS]

Just finished blanket #1 for Project Linus

 

[Eno]

Just returned - did a shift selling raffle tickets for Variety Kids telethon - for sick, handicapped and underprivileged children. Worked steady and ended up doing an extral shift for those who did not show up - very fulfulling and have been placed on the charities volunteer list for other events. What a great program to get people thinking about volunteering !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[robind]

I did my volunteer day, today. I worked with Destination Imagination -

http://www.idodi.org/

We were helping out at the regional competition. It's an all day event and they said they had more volunteers than they had ever had. I ended up working the team registration desk for the "instant challenge", so I got to see all the teams come through. They had kids from K - 8, no high school teams this year. I didn't get to see what was happening in the challenges but all the kids seem to come out having had a good time.

It seems like a really cool program for the students, so if you have kids, check it out and get your school involved.

 

[madancer]

We volunteered at our local food bank. Dh, myself, and two dd, age 7, & 5. We knew we wouldn't earn a ticket for our 5 year old, but it all worked out! The only thing about it was they had volunteers in earlier in the day that got everything done, so our family cleaned and wiped off cans for 4 hours! My husband tore a muscle in his arm from carrying and stacking the very heavy can-filled boxes. I was quite impressed with my 5 year old who I thought did a better job than big sister at times. We have our vouchers! Yay!

 

[Stitchmistress]

DD and I did our day today at a local cat shelter. There was another Disney family there as well. I should have asked them if they are Disers. What a well run shelter! The day went by quickly as there was lots of cleaning and such to do. There are 150 cats in the shelter! We cleaned 25 litter boxes, and they kept bringing more in! It was a very rewarding experience, and we are likely to do it again. We should get our vouchers soon!

 

[Lucky'sMom]

We just returned from doing our service at the local International Children's Theater. It's one of those shows that travel from school to school within an area putting on play for small children. It was so great. My family of 7's "work" was: 4 of us passed out the programs and 3 of us collected the tickets at the door. We arrived at 1:00pm, stuffed the programs and were in place at the entrance doors at 1:30pm when they started letting people in. We collected the tickets/passed out the programs, got to enjoy the play, and then passed out coloring pages at 3pm when the show was over. That's it! I almost feel guilty. These couple of hours of service was worth $500 to us ($70+ dollar ticket/ea. X 7 people. Wow!

 

[Cruella 66]

I just read on All Ears that Disney has closed registration!

 

[DebºoºS]

Yes, they've reached the one million volunteer mark. Great that so many have volunteered so quickly.

 

[ratfam]

We volunteered with our local Project Linus chapter as it was the only thing that all four family members could do (based on the kids' ages) in our desired volunteer time frame. They wanted no-sew fleece blankers. My ds 11 came with me to pick out the fleece in advance. We made a fun family evening out of it--made a nice dinner and some homemade ice cream, rented a movie (Hurricane Season, we would all recommend) and made our blankets while we watched. I had a done a little prep work ahead of time to ensure we would finish that night. We dropped off our blankets the next morning, and we had our vouchers by email three or four days later. It was a really great family experience, and now I know more about Project Linus, which I had never heard of before. This was all completed a few weeks ago, before the program ended. I'm glad we had the opportunity to do it.

 

[hereyago]

On Tuesday, DD11 and I helped at the local food bank. Now, I knew the food bank was there and donated at Thanksgiivng during a Mayflower marathon, but until the GAD, I didn't know they did a few different things.

We helped pack bags of non perishable foods for underprivledged kids to have during the weekend. The bags are packed during the week and on fridays, the bags are taken to about 16 different schools in a couple different cities and are destributed.

We were there from 1 until 3 and we did the 3 schools that were listed for that day and the volunteers who came in at 3 could start on the next day's bags. So we did about 140 bags. DD and I plan to keep volunteering there. It was a great experience.

 

[disneydreamgirl]

DS (11) and I volunteered on March 15 and received our confirmation/voucher e-mail within a week. We had a busy day at the Salvation Army where we organized a storage area, amalgamated and organized school supplies and repackaged items, unloaded a van full of food donations and organized the overflow food stock, stacked and organized donation stands, swept the area, organized Christmas decorations and toys, among other things. We really enjoyed our day together and DS said it was fun. We worked hard and he's the type of kid who likes a task and feels good finishing it. It was good for him to revisit that there are kids and families out there who have very little. All in all a very positive volunteering experience for him, which was really the point. I had investigated volunteering opportunities before GAD came up and it's difficult to find anywhere that allows children under 16 or 18 to participate. I was so happy to see that there were a good few choices for him and that we were able to be productive and complete meaningful work for the agency.

 

[MylilTink]

On 3/22 I volunteered to make Breakfast for Dinner at a local Ronald McDonald House with a group of other people. Surprisingly, only three of us were part of the GAD volunteer program.

I received my GAD voucher yesterday! I'll probably print another copy just to use in a scrapbook since this will be my first trip to WDW.

 

[Sneezie]

On 3/20/10, I volunteered with the Baton Rouge Junior Achievement Organization at their annual Bowl-a-Thon checking people in then processing them out. I received my vouchers and promptly stored it in my safe. It's safe and sound and ready for me to take it out in September!

 

[DaniB]

I registered our family with the Canadian Cancer Society (to sell daffodils) over a month ago. We just completed our volunteer program last night.

We arrived complete with snowpants, hats & mitts as it was already cold and going to be colder once the sun went down. Suprisingly we found the manager of the store had told the volunteers we could sell the flowers inside the store, by the exit. Yayyy!! I worried if our 6 and 10 year olds would be able to stand outside for long. I also worried about dropping money everywhere due to cold fingers.

It was fun! Our daughter asked if we can do it again, so we told the co-ordinator we would definately volunteer next year. Our daughter got an extra kick out of our volunteer opportunity as she remembers (a little) of her grandma fighting breast cancer, and her other grandma passed away almost 2 years ago to cancer.

I have photos but unfortunatly I have to get them developed & scanned. I forgot our digital camera and had to purchase a disposable

The kids were super cute (especially the 6 year old) asking people "would you like to buy flowers for cancer" and sold a lot!! Since we had the last shift (7-9pm), I did not think we would sell that many. I think it was because of the kids.

 

[Paticake]

DH and I made Easter baskets for children in foster care, already got our vouchers and today I voluteered at a Women's Health Fair. I know I can only receive 1 voucher so I told the organizer not to worry about putting my name into Disney. I have to say both experiences were very good.

 

[Hillbeans]

DH and DS 9 just did their GAD today - beach clean-up in Sandy Hook NJ. It was really cold but they made the most of it. DH said there was half a dumpster full of garbage at the end of the event, so that's good.

The e-mail said they had 800 volunteers between today and tomorrow, so I am assuming they had a nice turnout.

 

[bcarson]

My family and my bff's family are making blankets for project Linus. So we have to do 8. We thought we would get them all done today. But that is a lot of cutting. LOL! We got 4 done and are going to find another day to do the other 4. My bff and I cut, me even my finger, and the kids tied. It was fun.