Top Spots For Family Volunteering In Denver
With the holiday season quickly approaching, there is no better way to spend your time than to volunteer for those in need. Teach your children valuable skills and the importance of supporting their community by bringing the whole family along to volunteer. There are so many places that need your help this season, so take a look at these spots to volunteer with your family.
Food Bank of the Rockies
10700 E. 45th Ave.
Denver, CO 80239
(303) 371-9250
www.foodbankrockies.org
Donating your time at the Food Bank of the Rockies is an excellent way to get in the spirit of giving while truly helping a very needy organization. As a volunteer with the Food Bank of the Rockies, you would help in one of a few different areas. There is the distribution area where you would be pulling inventory and building orders, the community kitchen, packing boxes, office work or the Nutrition Network, where you would be filling snack orders for after-school snacks for tutoring programs. While this is a great activity for the whole family, all volunteers must be 14 years or older, so it is important to keep that in mind.
Denver Catholic Worker Soup Kitchen
6999 Poppy Court
Arvada, CO 80007
www.orfdesign.com/cwsk
One of the most popular ways to give back this time of year is to spend some time helping in a soup kitchen. There are several around the Denver area and the Denver Catholic Worker Soup Kitchen is just one of them. This organization is always in need of helping hands to volunteer and bring food to those in need. Cooks, servers, cleaning, shopping and just about everything else is needed.
Samaritan House
2301 Lawrence St.
Denver, CO 80205
(303) 294-0241
www.ccdenver.org
The Samaritan House has been helping the homeless in Denver since 1986, serving more than 320 men, women and children every single day. It is always in need of volunteers for everything like food, cleaning and one of the many different services that are offered on site. In addition, be sure to check the Samaritan wish list to see if you are able to help with some of its current needs.
Senior Assistance Center
2839 W. 44th Ave.
Denver, CO 80211
(303) 455-9642
www.seniorassistancecenter.org
What better way to say happy holidays than to brighten the day of someone else? The Senior Assistance Center is always looking for people of all ages to volunteer their time to help the many seniors it serves. One of the best ways to help is through its Friendly Visitor Program which will have you and your family spend two hours per week with isolated seniors living at home. You could just be spending time with them, helping with chores or grocery shopping, assisting with hobbies or reading to them. There are lots of ways to help and it is a very rewarding and fun way to volunteer your time.
Volunteer Match
www.volunteermatch.org
If you aren't sure just how or where to volunteer, or if you don't know what you'll be good with, then just spend a little time at Volunteer Match online. This website will give you the opportunity to enter some information about yourself, the ages of your kids that you will be volunteering with and many other options. It will then provide a list of needy charities that are looking for volunteers just like you and your whole family.
Deborah Flomberg is a theater professional, freelance writer and Denver native. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.
