There are numerous ways to give back to your community and serve those in need, but here are 7 meaningful and local opportunities that will hopefully fill your calendar (and your heart) this holiday season.
1. Bountiful Basket Food Shelf
This local food shelf has a mission to nourish neighbors, inspire hope, and support families. As a volunteer, you can sort and organize donations, help pack mobile orders, or be a friendly face as you greet shoppers.
2. Auburn Homes
Are you musically gifted? Do you enjoy playing cards or table games? Connect with residents at Auburn Homes in Waconia or Chaska. Spend an afternoon calling Bingo, assist with arts and crafts, play an instrument during meal time, or simply sit and visit.
3. WeCAB Driver
This organization provides safe, affordable, and reliable transportation to individuals in Carver County and the Westonka communities who need to get to a medical appointment, food shelf, or the grocery store, run an errand, or attend a worship service. Its success relies on volunteer drivers and dispatchers.
4. Love INC
Love INC of Carver County bridges a gap by mobilizing 30 local churches that collaboratively address the community’s spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, and material needs of those facing hardship. Help by transporting donations from collection sites, sorting, assembling, and labeling items into care packages, answering the helpline, and connecting individuals to the appropriate resources.
5. Surprise and Delight
If you listen to KTIS, you’re probably familiar with the drive-thru difference. Whether you’re in line getting a morning coffee or swinging through after practice, pay for the person behind you. Chances are, your small act may be the catalyst that creates a bigger ripple.
6. Carver Scott Humane Society
Are you a cat-lover? The local Humane Society welcomes cat care volunteers to assist with daily cleaning, feeding, medication, socialization, and snuggles.
7. Be an Elf
Did you know you can answer a child’s letter to Santa? Through the USPS Operation Santa, letters written by underprivileged children get answered by volunteers. You can adopt a letter from the website, then shop, package, pay, and ship.