Casady Community Service-Learning Blog: November 23: Family Volunteer Day

NOVEMBER 23, 2013

From Generation On. ORG http://www.generationon.org/parents

Family Volunteer Day, a Points of Light signature day of service, demonstrates and celebrates the power of families who volunteer together, supporting their neighborhoods, communities and the world.

For 22 years, Family Volunteer Day has been held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to "kick-off" the holiday season with giving and service. This year Family Volunteer Day takes place on November 23rd. Disney Friends For Change is the presenting sponsor of Family Volunteer Day 2013 and Embassy Suites is a supporting sponsor.

Volunteering as a family is fun! Family volunteering encourages the members of a family to volunteer as a unit. It can be done by the whole family together, by one parent and one child or teen, or with extended family such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It can be as simple as creating cards for children in the hospital or as complex as bonding hundreds of families together in a day of service at a community park. However families choose to do it, families engaged in service can help mobilize thousands of new volunteers and instill in the next generation a lifelong commitment to volunteering.
Get Involved!
Families are super teams! The combination of ages and generations in your family means you have everything needed to effect meaningful change in your community: energy, creativity, passion, knowledge, experience and different perspectives and skills (plus practical things like a car.)

Find a volunteer opportunity near you! (Please note: this links you to HandsOn Network's Action Centers across the country).
Want to create your own family volunteer project? Here are some examples to get you started!
Reflection: An important part of participating in service is reflection. Chances are that you will learn something from the experience of helping others. Download a tool to help you with reflection.

Additional Resources

Family Volunteer Day Toolkit (pdf)

This is a guide for families to use together to plan their service projects. The combination of ages and generations in your family means you have everything needed to effect meaningful change in your community: energy, creativity, passion, knowledge, experience and different perspectives and skills.

International Education Week: 11/12-11/18

International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.

We encourage the participation of all individuals and institutions interested in international education and exchange activities, including schools, colleges and universities, embassies, international organizations, businesses, associations, and community organizations. Individuals and institutions tend to hold IEW events as it is convenient for them in their local communities. We want you to celebrate as much and as often as you like!

To that end, we are providing promotional materials that allow you the flexibility to promote events whenever they may be planned! Our activities will begin on November 12 with the release of Open Doors, an annual survey that provides information about international and U.S. student study abroad and will continue through the week of November 18.

See more at: http://eca.state.gov/programs-initiatives/international-education-week/#sthash.f8SMOncT.dpuf

The 2013 Institute of International Education (IIE) Open Doors Report is out! Check out the link below for the latest facts & figures in study abroad, and international education, including the top universities hosting international students, how many U.S. students studied abroad last year, and where they all went. http://goo.gl/v3h3VO #IEW2013

Support Thanksgiving Cards for Wounded Warriors

Thanksgiving and support cards for Wounded Warriors are being made by all divisions. PD and LD are making cards in After School Care in collaboration with after school care faculty Mrs. Linn, Mr. Lopez and Mrs. Clay. Maggie Adair'16, YAC-Youth LEADOKCasady, facilitator of this project, spoke at LD and MD chapels inspiring everyone to make cards on their own time and place them on baskets at the front offices. The Service-Learning office located at the Woolsey Wing is also providing time and resources for any interested student or faculty to make cards. Maggie will send cards to the Wooden Warrior program
Wounded Warrior Project http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/programs.aspx; 4899 Belfort Road, Suite 300, Jacksonville, Florida 32256 on November 20th.

From Point of Light Foundation: Stories of Service

On Veterans Day, three powerful stories of service

This Veterans Day, I’d like to pay tribute to all veterans by telling you the story of three people – a boy who lost his dad on 9/11, an Army helicopter pilot and West Point graduate, and a Marine coping with PTSD. All three are making a difference through their service to America’s returning heroes.

At age 5, Sean Egan lost his father, a New York fire captain, on 9/11. Today he is a senior at Monsignor Farrell High School on Staten Island and founder of Hearing Our Heroes, an organization of 300 high school students who regularly visit and help veterans. They shovel snow in winter, do yard work in the summer, and come up with a surprise every now and then.

This summer, they surprised returning combat veteran Army Private Rasheed Akbar. During his deployment in Kuwait, Rasheed's young daughter was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment. Like too many other military families must, the Akbars had to endure great sadness and hardship while separated. When Rasheed's tour of duty was finally complete, Hearing Our Heroes honored his service and his family's sacrifice with a celebration of his homecoming.

Sean is today’s Daily Point of Light Award winner. Read more about him here.

Erica Jeffries served in the Army for five years, flying helicopters to deliver supplies to the troops. Today she’s a diversity officer at Exelis, a defense and aerospace company in Reston, Va. Exelis partners with Points of Light and AmeriCorps to support the Community Blueprint and Veteran Leader Corps, national programs that coordinate and improve services for returning veterans and their families.

Erica is one of the Exelis Action Corps leaders who are dedicated to serving veterans and military families. Erica and her co-workers volunteer regularly with Fisher House, a nonprofit providing temporary housing for military families near hospitals where their loved ones are recovering from combat injuries.

“When I was on active duty, my mother was able to stay at Fisher House in Texas while I was in the hospital,” says Erica. “It was a wonderful gift and a blessing to our family.” Read more about Erica's story here.

Heath Cobb, a former Marine who served in the Middle East, returned home with what he calls “the scars of war.” As he writes, “Rehab and mental institutions became commonplace. My often bizarre behavior was fueled by rage and I found myself in a vicious cycle of hate.”

An aunt suggested to Heath that he get involved in the community as a volunteer. The effort turned his life around. “I found the pride I felt when serving others was the same pride I felt by defending others,” he writes. “Suddenly, almost overnight, my sense of self was restored, my identity renewed.”

Today Heath is an AmeriCorps member and a member of Points of Light’s Veteran Leader Corps serving other veterans in Georgia. Read more about him here.

Today let us remember, thank and celebrate veterans. And let us honor their service and sacrifice through our actions. Please volunteer, advocate for and support veterans and their families. Click here to learn more.

In service,