I’ve got a lot to be thankful for this year and I’m betting you do too. And while I’d encourage all of us to volunteer a lot more than we already do during the rest of the year I know that it’s this time of year when we most think of volunteering. However last year when I called to check around a lot of homeless shelters and soup kitchens had more than enough volunteers for Thanksgiving proper. So this year I’m asking a wee bit early in the hopes of finding some, perhaps unexpected, volunteer opportunities for doing good in our community this year during the Thanksgiving season.

So I’ve got two parts to this:
1) I’m asking for information on organizations with volunteer needs right now, during the months of November or December. It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving related needs but needs that need to be met during this Thanks Giving season. If you’re part of such an organization or know of such an organization let me know. Comment or email is fine.

If you have non-traditional volunteer needs let me know that as well (you’ll see why in part 2)

2) If you’ve got a special skill or knowledge that you’d love to put to use in a volunteer capacity but don’t know how to go about finding someone to volunteer with let me know. I’m going to try very hard to mine my contacts, my knowledge and my circle of acquaintances to act as a connector between you, your very special skills and the organizations that need you.

For example, say you’re a kick ass carpenter and you’d like to put that skill to work in a volunteer capacity in our community.  You’re pretty sure there are some good non-profits out there that could
benefit from this knowledge but you’re not going to start cold calling
to find out who there are.

OK maybe carpenter isn’t the best example. Here, I’ll write one for myself: say you oh I don’t know, know a lot of about the interwebs, social media and online communication. You’re pretty sure there are some good non-profits out there that could benefit from this knowledge but you’re not going to start cold calling to find out who there are.

I want to help put people from group 1 and people from group 2 together. Obviously I need your help in this endeavor. Give me info on your organizations, give me info on your skills. Email is fine if you don’t want to comment and let everyone else know your super power. 

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and
responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder
and look after not only ourselves, but each other.
- President Elect Barack Obama

Let’s work on perfecting the world one little bit at a time to the best of our abilities.