Family Service Projects
It's challenging, when life gets hectic, to even imagine getting involved with service projects, but of all the ways you can spend time as a family, service is the most important. Our family service projects over the years have given us memories we love to share, exposure to the world outside our home, and empathy for those who face challenges. We work the hardest at our service projects when we are in need of service, to remind ourselves that there are others in even greater need.
There are many ways a family can serve together, and often these projects will encourage children to select a long-term project of their own. Over the years, we have been involved in a number of community, church and personal projects. Our children have found that some kinds of projects are more satisfying than others. One daughter most enjoys her work with Habitat for Humanity. Another helps out in our community food bank. The third child, while learning to care for my father’s grave, has taken an interest in cleaning up neglected graves in the same cemetery and placing flowers on the sites.
There are many projects available in towns of every size. If you are not sure where to begin, look in the telephone directory for a volunteer center or chamber of commerce. Libraries are often a good source of volunteer opportunities as well.
Formal volunteer opportunities are harder to find for children, although they are often welcome if their parents come too. However, you can create your own projects by picking up trash in a park or making gifts for children in hospitals. Food banks are a terrific source of volunteer work. Our local food bank welcomes children accompanied by adults to stock shelves and organize the warehouse. In addition, children organize food drives or put together hygiene kits. This bank also hands out blankets, books and toys that are donated. If you take your children, obtain permission for them to look at what is given to a family their size. Then take them to work at the Bishop’s storehouse and let them see what these families take home. This is quite an eye-opener to children and teens who might take the Church’s work for granted.
If you want a steady source of volunteer work, tell your ward’s compassionate service leader that your family wants to be called first for each assignment. Not only will she praise you every day in her prayers, but your family will be kept quite busy with church, individual and community service.
To help your family get started on a tradition of service, hold a special family home evening. The church magazines and lesson manuals, which can be found online at LDS.org have many lessons that can be adapted to your family. Challenge each member to participate in finding out what volunteer opportunities are available in your community. The next week, family members can share their resources and choose projects.
Often service projects can emerge from activities your children are already involved in. In Tacoma, Washington, my children belonged to a group that presented free Reader’s Theater presentations to children, which complimented their love of books and performing. While homeschooling, they satisfied their curiosity about public schools by volunteering at the local grade school. When my oldest daughter couldn’t find an organization that welcomed children, she convinced the Volunteer Center to let her create a book of service projects for children and called each organization in their databank to find out how children could help. Another daughter, who has cerebral palsy, helped count change after the annual cerebral palsy telethon.
When children grow up in a home where service is just what people do, they continue the tradition easily as they grow up. While you might begin the tradition by allowing them to serve in ways that are fun, over time, their range of service should broaden. The goal is for them to see service as fun simply because it’s service, regardless of the activity. Help them to remember that as they serve, they are assisting their Father in Heaven by caring for His children.
-by Terrie Lynn Bittner