Volunteer opportunities?

[BLAKE]

My company is doing a group volunteer thing in the next month or so as a chance to do something together out of the office and get some warm fuzzies from doing some good.

Anybody have any ideas as far as what might be good options? We were throwing around the idea of Tarrant Area Food Bank or maybe the FW Botanic Gardens, but you guys might have some better ideas.

Go!

[Back N Black]

My company is doing a group volunteer thing in the next month or so as a chance to do something together out of the office and get some warm fuzzies from doing some good.

Anybody have any ideas as far as what might be good options? We were throwing around the idea of Tarrant Area Food Bank or maybe the FW Botanic Gardens, but you guys might have some better ideas.

Go!

Help build a habitat home..

[Strychnine]

We did the Houston Food Bank a couple months ago. 4 hours work on a Friday morning and about 20 of our people went.

[slow99]

We just did job corps. Teaching the kids about interviewing, being professional, I did a managing finances session.

[DON SVO]

We did North Texas Food Bank, I enjoyed it immensely.

[BLAKE]

Cool, good stuff so far. Thanks y'all!

[Chili]

At my last company we did a lot with Habitat and Meals on Wheels.

We did a few others with specific school districts, but those were direct partnerships with my company and the ISDs themselves. Usually that would be mentoring kids, kind of like big brother / sister.

[Mopar63]

We are looking for volunteers for the Arthritis Foundations "Jingle Bell Run" but that's not until the first week of December.
Sorry for the shameless plug.

[Chili]

We are looking for volunteers for the Arthritis Foundations "Jingle Bell Run" but that's not until the first week of December.
Sorry for the shameless plug.

We usually solicit for that too (Leah and I, I mean, not my employer). We were signed up and collected a good amount of donations for last year's Fort Worth event, but the actual event ended up getting cancelled due to weather.

[ARIX]

I bet Ferguson has lots of opportunity for you guys...too soon? The Ronald Mcdonald house was a good place to volunteer.

[Fordblue625]

Thumbs up to TAFB here. The folks there do fantastic work, and their backpack for kids program is really neat.

[Shorty]

Look into Junior Achievement.

[Chili]

I bet Ferguson has lots of opportunity for you guys...too soon? The Ronald Mcdonald house was a good place to volunteer.

I have heard good things about the Ronald McDonald House..

One of my nephews was born several months premature and ultimately passed a couple months later. During the time he was in the hospital my brother and his wife spent a good deal of time there with him. Although my brother and his wife did not need to use the Ronald McDonald house (he lived near the hospital) many of the other parents he met there did. When his son passed, in lieu of flowers, they requested donations be made to the Ronald McDonald House. This was based on the overwhelming feedback he had received from those parents that were using it.

[BP]

I've done a Habitat house and didn't really enjoy the experience, it was more about marketing and less about doing good. That and the "family" was an elderly woman and her two worthless middle aged sons, who were more than capable of doing the work themselves.

I'd contact sarah.centeno@tafb.org and do the food bank. It can be as easy as setting up and collecting from various donation stations or you can work at the bank and sort/process donations. My group does all of the above and we have a half Christmas party at a local pub where all of the proceeds go directly to the bank.

[Chas_svo]

My company, of ~65k peeps, do a great deal with local food banks, and habitat. Knowing construction, it seemed like a good fit to do habitat, but the whole setup was a waste. They want to only work about 4hrs, when they could get us the whole 8. They also setup the house in Granbury, which is a pretty long haul from the Las Colinas office. I can't believe that is the closest to DFW. What seemed like a good way to volunteer turned into a mess.

Sorry to gripe about what should be a good thing, but with some charities/companies, it's all talk, and very frustrating.