How Can You Be of Service This Holiday Season?
You are here:The holidays can bring out the best and worst in us. It can bring out selfishness and greed. It can also bring out kindness, thoughtfulness, and the desire to serve others. There are many ways to be of service. Service is defined as “an act of helpful activity; help; aid.” The options to be helpful or provide aid are limitless. Here are some ideas of ways to be of service this holiday season.
- Adopt a family. During the holiday season many children go without food, much less new clothes or toys. There are many organizations now that organize adopt a family where the members make a holiday wish list and you go shopping and send them gifts. It’s a great way to share an abundance of wealth.
- Surprise a stranger. Pay for the person’s order behind you in the drive thru. You’ll never meet them, but imagine how that might affect their day. You can do this on bridge tools, too.
- Give blood. This is something you can do year round, but less people donate blood during the cold seasons, so supplies can run short. This is a great time of year to organize a blood drive at work.
- Collect new jammies for foster kids. Many foster kids are afraid and cold at night. A new pair of winter jammies can be quite a luxury for a foster child. Involve your community and see how many pairs you can collect.
- Organize a beach day clean up. Even though the summer crowds have died down, there is still plenty of trash that will find its ways into the ocean with winter storm surges. Supply gloves and trash bags and see how many friends and family you can get to join you.
- Volunteer. You may be thinking about hosting holiday dinners, shorter days, and thinking there is no time. Even a few hours a week or a month can make a big difference for an organization that depends on volunteers. Whether it is serving at a soup kitchen, petting animals at a shelter, or mentoring a young person through the big sister/big brother program, there are many ways to serve.
- Remember to serve the planet. Cheaply made toys and clothes are overflowing our landfills. Instead of buying a lot of holiday gifts that you then wrap in paper, try buying one nice gift that you wrap in a reusable fabric bag. The Earth will thank you.
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