"How can we help?"
It's a question my family has been asking one another over the past week. It's a question Big-Hearted Families has been getting from members and pilot families and parents brand new to our resources.
I'm re-posting the following information from our friends over at Points of Light. Their links take you to specific volunteer or material donation needs, which is excellent.
Those of us that live far from the affected region can do the most good with that least glamorous of service activities: fundraising. If your children are interested in helping, check out the following projects, complete with discussion questions, book suggestions, and detailed steps to get started.
Get you friends and neighbors involved. Make it meaningful.
And let us know how it goes!
Points of Light is working closely with our HandsOn Network affiliates and partner agencies to identify volunteer opportunities in the communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy to ensure a coordinated response. Please note that due to the number of people interested in volunteering, as soon as an opportunity is identified, it is filled. We are working with national and local partners to identify more opportunities in the midst of our current challenges, including transportation issues, lack of fuel in the area, identifying volunteer housing and massive power outages. These challenges make it difficult to get teams out to assess the need and scope projects. While we are working diligently, please understand it may be a few days before we increase the number of projects in the impacted area.
In the meantime, there are additional ways you can engage now:
- Register your interest to volunteer. By registering with our affiliates, you will receive up-to-date information, including when new volunteer opportunities are posted
- Donate in-kind supplies and materials
- Donate to local relief efforts
- Host a local fundraiser and donate the proceeds
We request that you do NOT self- deploy to the impacted region at this time. Given the above stated challenges if you do deploy you should have an opportunity and housing identified prior to arriving. As volunteer housing becomes available we will update our website with that information.