Honors Student Experience

This event was sent to me recently, what a fun way to teach financial literacy to the leaders of tomorrow!

You can sign up here, breakfast and lunch will be provided! If you’re interested in a specific booth (options listed below), make sure to let Becca Spielman know via email. These will be assigned on a first-come-first serve basis.

• Housing
• Utilities
• Healthcare
• Transportation
• Insurance
• Banking
• Communications
• Child Care
• Chance
• Charitable Giving
• Entertainment
• Financial Advising
• Shopping Center
• Supermarket

Happy volunteering!

Today I had the opportunity of touring the HopeFaith Homeless Assistance Campus. Campus is a good way to describe the 50,000 square foot facility that is meant to be a one-stop-shop of day services and education to the homeless and at-risk population. You may or may not know this, but most homeless shelters that provide a safe place to sleep close at 6:30am. And one of the major barriers to the homeless is a lack of transportation. So having one location for these individuals to take care of a variety of basic needs can have a huge impact. The list of services that HopeFaith has on site is truly impressive: a medical clinic, eye clinic, and dental clinic; clothing closets for men and women; sewing rooms and sewing internship programs; a bike shop and bike repair internship program; indoor and outdoor community gardens; they even have a barber shop  in the works. This is on top of serving hundreds of breakfast and lunch meals a day. Located in proximity to two homeless shelters, HopeFaith can strategically serve a large population of homeless Kansas Citians and empower them  to become self-sufficient and independent.

HopeFaith Ministries is continuing to improve this facility and, of course, they could use your help! I talked to the volunteer coordinator today during the tour and she was enthusiastic and passionate about finding the right volunteer opportunity for anyone who comes in her door. Because they have so many different programs, there are a lot of different volunteer opportunities. And they are flexible for creating a unique volunteer position to fit your talents.

If you’re interested, check out their volunteer webpage and reach out to Kayla today.

Happy volunteering!

This email came across my desk recently:

“My name is Amie Eppler and I am a Camp Director for Olathe Parks and Recreation Special Needs population. The camp meets Mon.-Thurs. in June from 12:30-4:30 at Frontier Middle School. I am looking for community members to come to the camp and share their talents or skills they have.

These are some examples of skills or talents that I am looking for:

• Theatre
• Outdoor Group
• Cooking/Baking
• Magician/Balloon artist
• Arts/Crafts
• Science experiments

If you have a group that would like to visit the camp and interact with the students that would be awesome. I know that you have other camps on campus, but if a club wanted to set-up some activities for my campers, we could travel to the campus.

You can share with them my information:

Amie Eppler
epptigger@aol.com
913-634-5643 (please text or leave a message)
Camp Heartland & Rolling Along Camp Director
Functional & Adaptive Special Education Teacher”

Reach out if you’re interested! Happy volunteering!

In the last year Bridging the Gap Volunteers have:

• Planted more than 7330 trees
• Restored 14 native wildlands sites
• Collected and processed 127 species of native seeds
• Picked up more than 8814 pounds of litter
• Educated thousands of recyclers

And there’s so much more to do! If you’re interested in helping with Bridging the Gap’s mission of working to make the Kansas City region sustainable by connecting environment, economy, and community, then check out their upcoming volunteer opportunities! Especially check out the tree planting on Earth Day (4/22), because what better way to celebrate Earth Day then by helping the Earth?

Happy volunteering!

A lot of people are familiar with the Goodwill stores, but not everyone is familiar with their mission. Aside from helping us get rid of our old stuff, and in turn helping eliminate waste and providing cheaper items for those in need, Goodwill also empowers people with disadvantages and different abilities to earn and keep employment through individualized programs and services. So buy giving stuff to Goodwill, you are helping fund their employment services, empowering local job seekers, and keeping items out of the landfill!

You can also help by volunteering of course! And on Saturday, April 27, Goodwill will be at JCCC for the Overland Park Extravaganza Donation Drive.

Volunteers will:

• Assist with accepting donations of household items and clothing and place in Goodwill trucks
• Assist with flow of donations and traffic to ensure safety and proper loading of truck
• Need to be able to lift 20 pounds, bend and stand as necessary

There are two shifts available: 7:30am to 11:00am or 10:30am to 2:00pm

If you’re interested, you can sign up here. If you can’t volunteer, what a good time to do some spring cleaning and unburden yourself of anything that doesn’t bring you joy 🙂

Happy volunteering!

The mission of the Guadalupe Centers is to improve the quality of life for individuals in the Latino communities of Greater Kansas City.

They accomplish their mission by: providing early childhood, secondary, adult education and workforce training programs, facilitating access to health and social services for all ages, promoting and providing Latino cultural enrichment events, sponsoring social activities that engage our diverse communities.

One of the cultural enrichment events/social activities they do every year is their Cinco de Mayo Fiesta! This fundraiser not only benefits their programs, but it continues a neighborhood tradition that originally started in 1922, making it the original Cinco de Mayo Fiesta in Kansas City! Growing in popularity with new attractions for the 2 day event, families can enjoy local and out of state entertainment, mariachis, folkloric dancers, food trucks, kid’s rides, petting zoo, vendors, contests, raffles and much more!

And as always, they need the help of volunteers! Click here to check out the different volunteer roles and shifts. Give back and have some fun while you’re at it!

Happy volunteering! And happy Friday!

Community Housing of Wyandotte County (CHWC) is a not-for-profit community development corporation dedicated to revitalizing, stabilizing and reinvesting in Kansas City, Kansas neighborhoods. They aim to provide meaningful programs to the residents of Wyandotte County to help them achieve, preserve and sustain quality neighborhoods and housing. They also provide financial counseling, home buyer assistance and a friendly caring staff willing to help all along the road to homeownership.

Volunteers help CHWC in a variety of ways. CHWC especially needs help at their urban farm during the spring, summer and early fall and welcome individuals, families and groups to come help plant, weed and harvest healthy produce that is provided free of charge to nearby residents and families of students of the elementary school located just across the street. They also do neighborhood cleanups and need help staffing outreach events to increase engagement with the community.

If you’re interested in helping out, visit their webpage to find out more about their volunteer opportunities!

Happy volunteering!

Earth Day Orchard Planting

Cultivate KC is a locally-grown nonprofit working to grow food, farms, and community in support of a sustainable and healthy local food system for all. They believe that growing and sharing local food nurtures our ability to care for each other and the world in which we live.

On April 22 from 2-6pm they are hosting an Earth Day Orchard Planting! Celebrate Earth Day at their Westport Commons Farm, where they’ll be planting an orchard with trees from The Giving Grove and spreading mulch from Missouri Organic Recycling. Click here to sign up!

Happy Volunteering!

Tara

Green Works in Kansas City is an agency that excels at environmental education and workforce development for urban youth. In creating partnerships that open doors for their students they aim to positively impact their futures. They educate students about the environment with project-based learning and meaningful service projects. They provide job skill training, financial literacy and paid summer internships to prepare their students for life after high school. And they involve their students in educational initiatives in their neighborhoods.

I received this email from them today:

“We are halfway through the Green Works Excelerate class (career readiness program) and we have another volunteer opportunity you might be interested in.

We are seeking volunteers to help with an upcoming Excelerate class from 3:45 to 5 pm on Thursday, April 11.

Tamika Doolin, our instructor, has planned for a Mock Job Fair in which students will rotate to each volunteer seeking feedback on their resume, personal brand pitch and share what career field/job(s) they are interested in.

Class begins at 3 pm, but as noted above, volunteers don’t need to arrive until 3:45 pm. You are welcome to come at 3 pm if you want to hear what the students are doing in class prior to the Mock Job Fair. Class ends promptly at 5 pm.”

If you’re interested, contact Elaine Warren at elaine@greenworkskc.org.

Happy Volunteering!

Phoenix Family is a great organization that has a lot of volunteer opportunities because they offer so many diverse services in the Kansas City area. Their mission is to empower people living in low-income housing communities with the on-site support they need to gain stability and achieve self-sufficiency.

Just last week I took a few students to one of their senior living facilities and helped build two garden beds for them to use this spring. We had a blast! The residents put us to work and were very grateful for our help. Here is more information on that volunteer opportunity and a couple other needs that Phoenix Family has right now.

Community Garden Help

Seniors find so much joy in their community garden and love having the chance to grow their own fresh, healthy vegetables. Some seniors have limited mobility and could really use help getting the garden ready for planting.

You can schedule any day that works best for you. There are gardens in communities that could use the help of just one person, your family, or a larger group.

Email April DeNatale to get started!

Help Children and Families with the Basics

You can help children and families with some of the basics like clothes that fit and household essentials. These basics can be hard for children and families at times. Pantries located right where families live help fill the gaps. You could help sort donations and organize a pantry in a community in South Kansas City.

This is a great opportunity for either a small family or larger volunteer team.

Email April to set up a date and time that works for you.

Help Seniors Stock their Kitchens with Fresh Food

With just a couple of hours of your time, you can help seniors stock their kitchens with fresh food through the Mobile Food Pantry Program. You will spend the morning getting to know seniors, unboxing fresh produce, and setting up a small market right where seniors live. Seniors will choose fresh food to take home free of charge and won’t have far to carry heavy bags.

This is a great opportunity to volunteer on your own or with your family. Dates and times are available all month across the metro.

Click here to learn more and sign up!

Happy Volunteering!