Safely Volunteer During this 2020 Holiday Season.

During this time of year, many individuals and families want to volunteer, donate gifts, or weave the importance of giving into their holiday traditions. We’ve had to give up a lot in the name of stopping the spread of coronavirus, but one thing you don’t need to give up right now is volunteering and giving back to our communities.

In 2020, we saw many nonprofits need to close their doors to volunteers to protect their team and community members from COVID-19. This required our team members to find unique ways to volunteer their time during the year. We saw our team members tap into local projects that had immediate needs and created lasting impacts on our community. The LMCU Community Relations team has put together a list of some ways to safely volunteer during this 2020 holiday season.

Kids’ Food Basket

How you can get involved: Decorate sack supplies and pick up a few items from their list on your next shopping list.
To learn more, visit https://www.kidsfoodbasket.org/stayhome-stayinvolved/

Beaumont's 'Moonbeams for Sweet Dreams'

Community members are invited to upload videos and photos wishing the children who are patients in the hospital a night of sweet dreams.
To learn more, visit https://www.beaumont.org/health-wellness/moonbeams

USPS Operation Santa

Adopt a child's letter to Santa this holiday season with USPS Operation Santa®. Spread holiday cheer and help make a child's holiday wish come true.
To learn more, visit https://www.uspsoperationsanta.com/

Macy's and Make-A-Wish Letters to Santa

For every letter sent to Santa online at macys.com/believe or dropped off in Macy's stores, Macy's will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million, to help children fighting critical illnesses' life-changing wishes come true.
To learn more, visit https://www.macys.com/social/believe/

Affinity Mentoring

Affinity Mentoring strives to interrupt the cycle of poverty through mentoring relationships that improve students’ academic skills, social-emotional skills and self-esteem.
To learn more, visit https://affinitymentoring.org/

Zooniverse

How you can get involved: Volunteer on a project, as a beta tester or as a project moderator
To learn more, visit https://www.zooniverse.org/get-involved

Hire Heroes USA

How to get involved: Mock interview assistance, career counseling, veteran outreach and more.
To learn more, visit https://www.hireheroesusa.org/volunteer/

Points of Light DIY Projects

Learn about easy DIY volunteer projects that people of all ages can complete in their spare time.
To learn more, visit https://www.generationon.org/projects-and-causes/volunteer-home

Learning Ally

Many audiobooks are created with text-to-speech software however, illustrations or figures used throughout the books are not included. Online volunteers type those figure descriptions into the text, enabling students to receive ALL book material, not just the text.
To learn more, visit https://go.learningally.org/Get-Involved/Volunteer-Opportunities

TED Translators

How to get involved: TED Translators are a global community of volunteers who subtitle TED Talks, and enable the inspiring ideas in them to crisscross languages and borders.
To learn more, visit https://www.ted.com/participate/translate

One thing that is important to remember is that volunteering is not just a holiday activity. Volunteers, whether in person or virtually from home, are needed by many organizations year-round, not just during the winter holiday months. With an increase in virtual volunteer opportunities, finding ways to give back year-round has become more accessible than ever.