Community Service with Kids

Serving Children and Youth In Need During the Holiday Season

By Brett S., Parent to Peaceful Penguin Gabriel and Village Alum Bailey

It’s never too early to begin introducing your kids to the act of giving. Here are some ways we’ve found to help. You can too!

This time of year, many are often inundated with travel, shopping, decorating, cooking, chauffeuring kids, attending events, sending holiday cards, work, and the list goes on. I’m the first to admit that I’m always caught up in the holiday hoopla. I’m also the first to admit that all of my “to-dos” are the result of privilege. For my husband and me, it’s the privilege of having careers that result in jobs, which allow us to pay a mortgage for a home in a safe community for the family that we love and care for. However, during the holidays, we are acutely aware of those who have little or nothing, and particularly children. As parents, we want Bailey and Gabriel to be aware of the reality that many children face all year round, and particularly during the holidays. As such, our family commits to engaging in community service projects that benefit children during the holidays and throughout the year.

Here are a few places that can use your family’s help:

• Unity Care serves underserved and foster youth throughout the Bay Area. Their goal is to provide safe, stable and affordable housing for youth as they age out of the foster care system. This holiday season your family can work on Move-In Kits for foster youth in Santa Clara County who are moving into their own spaces.
• Loved Twice, on the other end of the childhood life spectrum, serves infants. Your family can make blankets for newborns through a non-profit program that provides recycled clothing to newborn babies in need. According to their website, all of Loved Twice’s clients live 200% below the national poverty level. The majority are single mothers and uninsured. My children worked with pure diligence with the knowledge that they were creating a warm blanket for a baby in need.
• Operation Christmas Child (OCC) is a program that sends a variety of gifts (all fitting in a shoe box) to children in more than 100 countries around the world. What’s unique about OCC is that when you stuff the boxes, you don’t know where they’re going, but you can track them. Gabe’s boxes were sent off shortly before Thanksgiving and we’re not yet sure where they landed!

Contributing to the lives of children in need is how our family serves the community. Your children are never too young to serve their community. From our family to yours, we wish you a wonderful holiday season, and remember that even the smallest act of kindness can have a big impact!