February Service Event

Join us on Saturday, February 7th to visit the veterans' home in Warrensburg. We will deliver valentines to the veterans as well as play board and card games. It is sure to be a fun and yet rewarding morning. You can sign up now using the VolunteerSpot link. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Caroling Update

I received a special request from the memory care facility at Jackson Creek. They are a new addition to the campus and would also like to have us visit their facility. We will change our time from 2:30 to 2:00 pm in order to go to all three buildings. They are very excited to have us so I am hoping to have a great representation of our group!  

New Service Opportunities

I am in the process of finalizing several service events for our year. Due the size of our group, it will not be likely that our entire group will be needed at each of our events. We would love to have as many as possible while meeting the needs of our event. Please utlilize the VolunteerSpot sign-up on our blog to ensure groups are not overloaded. To sign up for any of these events, you can sign up via up the VolunteerSpot to the left to the left is this post under the heading of the blog or by visiting this direct link to VolunteerSpot.

Christmas Caroling

We will be caroling at Jackson Creek Villages on Sunday, December 7th from 2:30-4 pm. Families are welcome! The residents loved having us last year!

Ronald McDonald House

Based on the interest of the students at the first meeting of the year, we have scheduled monthly snack days at the Family Room of Children's Mercy Hospital in downtown Kansas City. Snacks are provided to families visiting their loved ones at the hospital. The requirements limit 8-12 volunteers and this includes children. Snacks may be store bought or made on the premises, but, due to food guidelines, may not be prepared at home. Please read the entire set of guidelines before signing up for this event. WE are slotted for the second Saturday of each month from 2-4 pm. Please consider signing up as a group with another family. I will be in contact with volunteers the week prior to each snack deliver date. 

Snack Guidelines from Ronald McDonald House

We are scheduled for 

December 13th  @ 2:00 pm
January 10th @ 2:00 pm

February 14th @ 2:00 pm

March 14th @ 2:00 pm

April 11 @ 2:00 pm

Easter Egg Hunt

More details will follow, but mark your calendars for Saturday, March 28th at 10:00 am for our 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt at PB. Last year our group hosted the event for students receiving special education services in the district. We hope to make this an even larger event. 

Service Opportunities

Helping Hands will take on many service opportunities throughout the year. Some of these will be group based during our meetings after school, some will be off site on weekends, and others will be service opportunities for families at home.

We hope to have an off site service event scheduled soon, but we have other ways you and your child can get involved now!

• Pop Tabs - We started a collection drive last year for pop tabs. Our collection is getting very large and we will be donating them to the Kansas City Ronald McDonald House Charities very soon. This will not stop us! The pop tabs are recycled and used to fund the local RMC houses. This is just a small way we can show our support for the great things they do to support families striving to take care of their hospitalized children.

• Harvesters - We are scheduled to volunteer at Harvesters in Kansas City on Saturday, January 24th from 10 am  to noon. This was the first Saturday date they had available. You can sign up for their service event by clicking on the VolunteerSpot link to the left of this post. Families are welcome, but all volunteers must be 5 years old or older. 

• Hope House - This is an opportunity for your child to start a drive on their own. Hope House, a local shelter supporting victims of domestic violence have a list of needs posted to their website. Encourage your child to start a drive on their own to help collect any of these items listed. We can arrange transport of the items to the shelter. We will collect items all year. For an updated list of items in need, you can visit their website at http://www.hopehouse.net/donate-items-hope-house.

We are always looking for more service events for our club members and families. Please email me if you have connections to a local event and/or charity. 

Welcome!

We are so happy to kick off a new year with a new bunch of volunteers. This site is where you will be able to sign up your child for service events. 

This year, we have close to 40 members! This is significantly higher than last year. VolunteerSpot will allow parents to sign up their child for events as well as allow us to limit the number if needed. We will do our best to schedule events in which everyone can participate! 

Please return your child's T-shirt orders by next Friday. Additional shirts are available at $5 a piece. Members shirts are included within the dues. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!

New Year about to Launch!

Applications for the 2014-2015 team of Helping Hands are out and due by Wednesday. Our first meeting will be this Thursday at 3:45. Mrs. K. Brown and Mrs. Woodin are planning to serve as leaders as well! I am looking forward to a great year of service with a fantastic group of young volunteers. 

Pop Tab Pandemonium

This year, Helping Hands helped launch a collection drive for pop tabs to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City. There is a special event, Pop Tab Pandemonium, scheduled for Saturday, May 10th at the Longfellow House by Children's Mercy Hospital. While the volunteer opportunities were filled, we have been invited to come as visitors to donate our pop tabs and take a tour of the house. We have also been added as potential volunteers in next year's event. The carnival-like event is FREE and promises to be a great day.

For more information, check out the VolunteerSpot link on the top left of our blog.

Harvesters

Thank you to all of the volunteers that came and helped us at Harvesters today! Our job today was to box up bread items that will be delivered to several distributors in the Kansas City area. The families helped tape boxes, sort the bread, label the boxes, and stack them on the large pallets. We were busy little workers, but were able to box up all of the bread they had laid out for us. The kids are already asking when we can go back!

Easter Egg Hunt Pictures

Easter Egg Hunt

Carnival Bake Sale

Helping Hands plans to host an Easter egg hunt for students with special needs who attend any district's elementary buildings or early childhood center. In order to raise the much needed funds for this event, PTO has agreed to allow us to have a bake sale during the upcoming carnival on March 7th at PB.

For families willing to donate baked goods for our bake sale, please send them to school by Thursday, March 6th. If you would, please package cookies or cupcakes into packages of 4 to prevent multiple people from handling the baked goods. Also, please clearly mark anything that contains peanut products or nuts. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs. Twiehaus or Ms. Shonda!

Also, we are in need of volunteers to work the bake sale. You can sign up your child using VolunteerSpot. Again, you can use this view our upcoming projects and sign up just by clicking the link on the left-hand side of the blog.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Sneak Peek!

We have a group of kiddos eager to present to the school board tomorrow night. Here is a sneak peek of their presentation. I am very proud of their willingness to present as well as their abilities to pull this all together.

Introducing: Helping Hands

Why do we volunteer?

Board Presentation ~ Thursday, January 23rd

Please join us this coming Thursday evening, January 23rd, at 6:50 pm for a special presentation for the district's board of education. We have a special invitation from the district to share about our club. The students have been working hard to prepare for the evening. We will begin presenting at 7:00 pm and should be finished and ready to leave by 7:15 pm at the latest. Please have your child wear their Helping Hands T-shirts and be at Grain Valley North Middle School's library at 6:50 pm. This will be a special evening highlighting our students and their desire to serve our community.