Posts Tagged ‘Mother’s Day’

Celebrate Mother’s Day by Doing Good!

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

This Sunday, May 13th is Mother’s Day- a time to celebrate the woman who birthed, raised you, and provided all of the wisdom that has gotten you this far. On this special holiday, we invite you to honor the women and mothers in your lives by doing good.

  1. Honor a mother or woman making an exceptional difference in her community by nominating her for L’Oreal Paris USA’s Woman of Worth. Women are making a big impact in our communities every day. If you know a woman that’s working to make your community better nominate her for L’Oreal Paris’ Women of Worth, which recognizes, celebrates and supports the women making big differences in our communities.
  2. Give your mom gifts that give back! Whether it’s a necklace, bracelet, or pretty pair of earrings, 20 percent of the proceeds from Jewelry for a Cause goes towards the charities of the client’s choice.
  3.  Give A Mom-To-Be A Safe Delivery: In 2010 alone, the International Rescue Committee helped more than 152,000 pregnant women have safe deliveries in areas where hospitals have been destroyed. When you send your mom an IRC Mother’s Day card, your $24 donation will make sure that figure keeps climbing.
  4. If your mom has more than enough “stuff,” consider this fresh idea: Provide a green garden — and a living — for another mother and her family. An Oxfam fruit and vegetable garden provides fresh fare for families in need to eat themselves or sell at local markets. Purchase your Oxfam garden from one mom to another here.
  5. Don’t forget to take care of Mother Earth! On Sunday spend the day out doors with your mother by taking planting a garden or beautifying your local park by planting flowers.
  6. Help keep mothers healthy by volunteering to do a Mother’s Day 5k Run/Walk. If you are not interested in actually running the race, you can always help set up, decorate, pass out water and snacks, or simply cheer! Whatever you are willing to offer, you will be welcomed with open arms and thank you!

 However you choose to celebrate Mother’s Day, we hope that you are doing good! Tell us in the comments how you plan on helping others for Mother’s Day!

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Posted in Family Volunteering, Impact, Just for Fun | 2 Comments »

Inspiring by Example

Friday, May 7th, 2010

In honor of Mother’s Day, HandsOn Blog features a guest post from Jenny Viars, a Program Coordinator at Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind based in North Carolina.  You can read her personal blog at Great Little Stories.

As Mother’s Day approaches, I have been thinking about ways that my mom taught me the importance of volunteering and other forms of service in the community. The best and most lasting instruction is that which is by example, and learning to serve one’s community is no different.

My mother was a stay-at-home mom, and as an only child, I went with her everywhere.  My mom was very active in our small town, and I tagged along as she delivered Meals-on-Wheels, exercised her Library Science degree by helping at the local library, sang in community choruses, and helped out in many ways at church.  I’m sure that often, I was more in the way than anything, but I still have very vivid memories of the places we went.  My mom also volunteered at myriad school functions and tirelessly helped me with all those school fundraisers (how much wrapping paper does one family need, after all?).

Not only has my mom always been generous with her donation of time and energy, but physical donations to help those in need were always at the forefront, as well.  Outgrown clothes went to a local organization that collected items for children in need; other unused items went to the local charity-affiliated thrift store.  I was raised with the knowledge that others in our community and beyond did not have everything they need, and that it is important to share whenever possible.

Interestingly, I also learned another important life lesson: the power and importance of saying no.  It is so easy to say yes to everything and often so difficult to say no to an organization in need.  But my mom taught me that sometimes you have to choose; that it’s better to give your best to the ones you choose than spread yourself too thin. I try to remember this in my daily life; my varied interests and professional organizations can easily overwhelm my calendar, so I try to be conscious of the things I schedule.

In writing this, I started trying to remember when I started volunteering.  I was always involved in church activities as a child, and I started babysitting and working with children by about the age of 11.  Both of these interests have carried over to adulthood – I am active in my current church with choir, handbells, and children’s ministry, and a large part of my non-profit job is working with children with visual impairments.  In addition, I love keeping up with what is going on in my community, especially local nonprofits and their projects, and I actively support several.  I frequently donate to my own community charity-affiliated thrift store (and make purchases there!), and I belong to a local Kiwanis Club, a national service-based organization that focuses on children. I don’t have children of my own yet, but I am sure that I will be active in their schools and other interests, also.  Sound familiar? I now see how much of my involvement today mimics what I watched my mom do.

Perhaps most importantly, I learned from my mom that the value of volunteerism is indefinable, that giving one’s time and resources can make a palpable impact on the lives of others.  I’ve even taken that lesson into my career path at a nonprofit, where part of my job is actually volunteer coordinator.  I know that many of the programs we have at my agency would not be possible without our volunteers, and this appreciation inspires me  to volunteer all over again. Without the inspiration and leadership of my mom, my path and my interests might have been much different…and not nearly as much fun.

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Posted in Inspire, Service, Volunteer Reflection, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 4 Comments »

Finding Your Houses of Parliament

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

My mother painted the Houses of Parliament in the basement of our century home. Early on a Saturday morning, years ago now, I heard her toiling away in the rather unattractive and unwelcoming basement.

When I crept down the stairs, I found her in London; a London she had painted on 10-foot panels of foam board for a small community theater bereft of funds.  For many children, this moment might have been odd. For me, it was rather normal.

My mother was always doing something odd for someone and doing that something for free. The “doing things for people” sat fine with me. However, the “for free” part, as a teenager scrounging for every dollar I could squeeze out of a part time job, that part confounded me.

With Mother’s Day upon us, I was thinking about how that confusion transformed into a most cherished clarity… and it happened like this:

Time and time again, there she would be, painting detailed scenery, serving on boards, creating educational programming for community centers, visiting senior citizens we weren’t related to…. and all for nothing.

At least I thought it was for nothing. Little did I know how those lessons of selflessness and service were slowly, with a kind of genetic osmosis, seeping their way into my DNA.

What resulted from her silent, illustrative appreciation for service was a deeper understanding of my place and role on this earth. She showed me that either I could choose to be a cog in a mechanism for good, or I could be a sabot wedged into those cogs, merely slowing progress.

At first blush, aspiring to be just a “cog” may seem downright uninspiring, undistinguished….and well, kind of lazy.  But my mother’s actions spoke volumes on just the opposite of those terms. Her life was, and still is to this day, about an understanding of, and acting on, the belief that we are all connected. It is an understanding that everyone is a “cog;” no more, or less important than the next. That we should be working for something far greater than the total square footage of our homes, or the price tag of our cars.

Being a “cog” in the mechanism for good is the most important role we can play in life. That’s not to say we don’t pursue or own goals. We can strive to become CEOs or the best landscaper in the business, but how we get to those goals collectively defines us as a society.

As we work towards our goals, are we also looking for ways to be of service to others? In doing so, remember that each little act of help, each hour of service, oils the cogs and keeps that mechanism for good running smoothly.

I am proud to say I am just a cog, because I understand the fact that there’s really no “just” about it. My life is not just about me; I am no more, and no less, important than anyone else.  What is important is how I choose to live my life.

What is important is that we all look for ways to be cogs in a mechanism for good. What is important is that we all continually seek out our own Houses of Parliament, and paint them with as much passion, with as much care, and with as much importance as my mother did in the basement of our century home.

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Posted in Inspire, Service, Stories from the Road, Volunteering, Volunteerism | 2 Comments »