By: Susanna de Chenonceau, M.Ed.



Volunteering is the #1 COOLEST way to spend your summer!

It is always the right time to help someone else, and what better time to do that than the summer when you’ve got time to spare? Volunteering your time and talents means so much to other people, and it always gives you a lift, too. The best places to lend a hand are places that resonate with you, for instance, what makes you really sad or really angry? Spend your time there! Is it kids with cancer? Elderly people, who don’t get enough visitors? Immigrants with no legal representation? Find an area of society that you would like to see changed, and then follow the words of Gandhi and “Be the change you’d like to see in the world.”



Here are some volunteering places to get your thoughts rolling:

Nursing home

Food bank/food pantry

Homeless shelter

Humane society

Help an elderly neighbor

YMCA

Libraries

Theaters

Museums

Books to Prisoners

Kid Reach (tutoring)

a wetland/creek/slough/coast

preschool kids

an orphanage

Foster kids

Teen pregnancy centers

Ronald McDonald House

Aids Alliance

Friends of Youth



Look far or wide, but people need help right in your own backyard. Follow your heart, and get out there and lend a hand!