How Your Family Can Volunteer During a Pandemic
Right now, you and your family are on your own little Gilligan Island. It was supposed to be a three-hour tour, but thanks to COVID-19, you and your team will remain stranded for at least a few more weeks. Like hilarious shipwrecks, you probably feel isolated and disconnected from the rest of the world.
While physical distancing is ultimately what will help us get out of this congestion, maintaining civic ties is what will help us get through it. People still need to make meaningful connections with each other, but fulfilling that need for a while may look a little different.
This crisis is a great opportunity to teach our children the importance of helping when and how we can – but how can we teach this lesson when you are supposed to keep your hands to yourself? This is where virtual volunteering comes into play, allowing you and your family to donate from the comfort of your home and in safety.
“There are many opportunities for families looking to volunteer together,” says Darcy Hughes, Community Relations Coordinator for VolunteerMatch . “Activities such as sending cards and letters to an aged care facility or creating COVID care packages that comply with CDC guidelines.”
Since 1998, VolunteerMatch has fostered millions of volunteer and nonprofit dating to match special projects, geographic locations, and mission-related initiatives.
“There are over 600,000 virtual volunteer opportunities available on VolunteerMatch right now,” says Hughes.
Here are some of our favorites, but there are plenty to choose from .
Write letters to seniors alone
East Side Elders has created an easy way for volunteers to write letters to seniors at a care facility in St. Paul, Minnesota. Write your letter using their online form and staff will print it and deliver it to a resident in need of a connection.
If you would like to send your notes closer to home, contact your local nursing home for information and protocols for sending handwritten notes and homemade pictures or postcards from children.
Walk the dog
You can walk around your neighborhood – or even your living room – and raise money for our four-legged friends at Ruff House Rescue while you do it. Mobile application Wooftrax allows shelters and services Animal Rescue raise funds, prompting the owners just take a walk home dog.
The more you move, the more money donated. This is a great way to keep kids physically active and to limit the time they spend watching screens while their schools are closed. Again, you can ask your local animal shelter if they have a similar program before you start walking.
Perform in a virtual concert
The foundation encourages musicians young and old – regardless of talent or preferred instrument – to take part in their series of concerts to fight the coronavirus. Shine like a star and help people through this difficult time with musical entertainment. Have your child trumpet and join the group .
Get tricky for the cause
Here’s a chance to bust out of the sewing machine and put your family’s creativity to use for a vital cause: The Good Shepherds Foundation , a youth-led, not non-profit organization, hosts a disc face mask in the area of hospitals and health centers in New Hampshire currently experiencing lack of face masks. This is your chance to help those on the front lines while energizing your family’s creative synapses.
Volunteering is a family activity that never goes out of season. He teaches the importance of kindness, compassion and perspective – skills that will continue to be invaluable when we finally leave our islands. In the meantime, your efforts will do much more benefit to others than turning a coconut into a radio.