Making Summer Better for You Your Family and the World

"Summer" by Kevin Dooley

    

                    Imagine it's the end of June and you have a family.  Your kids have already told you, "I'm bored" 50 to 100 times. You want to give back and volunteer, but home and work  just cut into your time and money.  So, what are your options? Here are a few, from the simple to complex in random order(some may have to be in planning stages this summer in order to do them the next year)     

1. Volunteer Vacations  

by 

USFWS Mountain-Prairie

        This option is not for you if you have young children or don't have a lot of vacation time. A few links to check out if you are interested;  

                   

Family Travel Network - vacations for the entire family

Volunteer vacations for families in the U.S.

Family Volunteer Projects (for families with 

children under 18)

2. Volunteer locally 

by verino77

Join and search  VolunteerMatch to find opportunities sorted by distance and/or interest.

3. Host an exchange student 

photo by Eric Fischer

                                        

   This requires a commitment of 10 to 12 months, but it can be very worthwhile for you, your family, as well as the student. My family hosted a student from Germany and one from the Netherlands  via Face The World over 5 years ago.  To learn more, look at these links;

Face The World

Host An Exchange Student | AFS USA | AFS-USA

Hosting & Volunteer Opportunities | Exchange Programs

Home | CSIET

4. Take on 1 charity project and do it with your relatives , church or neighborhood

By Sannita [CC-BY-SA-3.0 

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or 

GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)],

 via Wikimedia Commons 

              A lemonade stand for children with cancer, a canned food drive(food banks typically get more donors around Winter), a carnival or any of these cool ideas: Summer Charity Projects for Kids - ABC News

 5. Use a search provider that gives to a favorite cause

              by wikipedia

                    

                      You use the web to search for fun or work, why not 

make each search add up to some good by using Dailygood by Goodsearch or iGive.com to raise funds for a favorite charity?

6. Donate a fan

            Donate a new or  gently used fan to the Salvation Army.

More Images @ MyNiceProfile.com

        So what do you think of these? Want to try one or more of these or do you have any better ideas? Please let me know in the comments below or @Appls4aCause and use the hashtag #bettersummer.  

photo outline  

Shop Amazon - Soak Up Summer

Want to check out some summer fashions;

Summer Casual by cynthiacoleman featuring print shirts

Google+ Pin It

 

Related articles

• Summer from the Heart: Meg Guroff of AARP Talks About the Benefits of Summer Giving(community.ally.com)

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• Youth Volunteer Corps Gives Back To Start Summer Vacation(wibw.com)

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• Student volunteers beautify Wichita in weeklong camp(kansas.com)

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• The Ultimate Guide to the Best Summer Ever(mashable.com)

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• Why I'm Volunteering to Be a Reading Partner Again(havefundogood.blogspot.com)

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• What Is the Best Summer Vacation Spot in the World?(mashable.com)

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• Volunteers needed to help at B.C. Summer Games in Nanaimo(nanaimobulletin.com)

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• School's Out...Almost(ahseagleseye.wordpress.com)

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• Summer Trips to Enrich Your New Graduate(community.ally.com)

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• 13 Ridiculous Travel Accessories No One Will Ever Need(mashable.com)

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What Are You Doing or Thinking of Doing to Benefit Your Community

Photo by missanalee21 at Photobucket.



What charity work are you doing or considering doing in your local area? I am considering volunteering at the local Humane Society to play and visit with the pets who are without owners & homes at least once a week. It will be a mutually beneficial thing, because I can't afford a dog right now and I tend to be a couch potato even when my physical challenges and illnesses don't get in the way and because it's a good thing to do.

Search Amazon.com for charity
 Search Amazon.com for volunteering

Seed Newsvine

Change the world in just your pyjamas!

'Help From Home' http://www.helpfromhome.org/ is an altruistic grassroots based initiative that provides information on easy, no commitment volunteering opportunities for people who don't want to get out of their favourite chair or even their favourite pyjamas to perform them. Most of the actions will cost nothing or very little to complete and take no more than 30 minutes to accomplish – some can even be performed in under 10 seconds and all from the comfort of your own home!

There are over 450 easy home based volunteering opportunities listed on the site and they are designed for people who don't want the commitment that goes with volunteering nor the impact it has on their time and finances. There are 3 main categories of easy actions to choose from, each one having the potential to benefit all sorts of worthy causes. Here's just a brief taster of what's included on the website:

Good Causes – Helping charities and worthy causes
- Feed a starving person for free with a simple click of the mouse.
- Make a very seriously ill child smile with just a letter or an email.
- Play games that donate to charities for free
- Install free software to help fight cancer with your pc.

'Green' Actions – Tackling environmental and energy issues
- Lower pc power consumption by using free software.
- Save the rainforests by planting a tree for free just by using a search engine.
- Donate your excess food, plants and seeds to be redistributed to needy causes.
- Help predict climate change with your pc

Advocacy Actions – Highlighting injustices and wrongdoings
- Posters for Peace. Print them out and display them somewhere prominently
- Send a pre-written email to a decision maker on global poverty
- Join a Virtual March on global warming
- Boycott socially irresponsible companies

If you've ever felt like helping out a worthy cause, but didn't want to leave your home to do it, then Help From Home's website might be just the answer. Put those pyjamas on and change the world. It's so easy to do!
http://www.helpfromhome.org/