Summer Fun - Volunteering with Friends

My colleague Susan & I had a lot of fun leading 28 girls in two Care Bears Volunteer Camps at Harpeth Hall School. The goal of the camp was to simply involve the girls in service each day, opening their eyes to the needs around them and how they can make a difference.

Here is what 28 rising 2nd – 6th graders can do!
• painted 21 pictures with senior citizens for their benefit auction,
• worked in the Nashville Urban Harvest gardens,
• cut out 300 masks for Cheekwood children’s programs,
• divided 300 bags of rice for Charis Food Ministries,
• prepared for Preston Taylor Ministries’ Summer Camp,
• collected 14 bags of trash at Warner Park, and made 14 bracelets out of recyclable materials.
• at the Ronald McDonald House, we stocked 242 boxes of tissue for them, sorted 9 huge bins of pull tabs for their fundraising efforts, and assembled 22 miniature houses for collecting pull tabs.
• made 8 bags of playdough and 36 heart cards for patients at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
• made 200 animal toys out of recycled towels, played with dogs and cats, assembled 100 disposable kitty litter boxes, and filled 6 dog toys with peanut butter – all for the Williamson County Animal Shelter.
• washed windows and doors at the Freedom Recovery Center, and then made 32 encouraging cards for the women and children in this transitional living center.

That's a lot of work for rising 2nd-6th grade girls. It was truly girl power in action! And, they all left camp with lots of new ideas for helping their community be a stronger and healthier place to live!