I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for State Farm. I received a promotional item to thank me for participating.
For most of my life I’ve worked full time while raising children. Volunteering was not really something I had time to do or made time to do. But many years ago my husband and I made Thanksgiving dinner and made plates and took them around to the homeless on the streets. Then we volunteered to clean up a park with my son. Pretty soon we would always be out cleaning up the park. I stared looking around for places where I could get my son into volunteering but many places will not let children help.
Then we moved and I did not go back to an office job, but stayed home and worked. I had more time and started volunteering at school and with a local organization. A year later I started my own non-profit group, Helping Hands of Nocatee, Inc. I wanted a place, within my community, that I could get my children and other children involved. I want them to learn that serving others is important and to see that others do not have all that we have.
It’s been about nine months since we started. We raised over $1000 in food and money for a local homeless shelter in St. Augustine, The St. Francis House, in November. In December we raised over $1000 in toys and items of need for another charity, Pie in the Sky.
Helping Hands of Nocatee, Inc
Then we cooked and served dinner at the St. Francis House in January. I love that my kids were able to help cook and serve. They each had a good time and learned some things that day.
My children have been involved since day one. My six year daughter loves to help out the most!
Making crafts at the nursing center.
In February we took a group of children down to a nursing home and made Valentine’s Day crafts with the residents.
Then last month we had a big event Paws for a Cause to help a local pet rescue, Wags & Whiskers. It was great to see lots of helping neighbors and children of all ages coming out to help.
We continue to come up with ideas and ways to get then children involved in helping others.
Communities across the United States and Canada answered the call from State Farm to help create a positive impact in their community and submitted 4,000 causes as part of this years State Farm Neighborhood Assist. Now the top 200 causes have been selected by the State and they need your assist to help vote them into the top 40. From April 28 through May 16, anyone who has the free State Farm Neighborhood Assist Facebook application can vote daily for their favorite cause, or causes, and help bring $25,000 to the top 40 vote getters.
If Helping Hands of Nocatee, Inc were eligible in the State Farm Neighborhood Assist voting I would build a basketball court in my neighborhood. The older kids do not have much to do here but run around. This help get them organized and they would able to be active without getting into too much trouble.
There are many great causes to vote on. I voted for a Neighborhood Impact in Florida that will help buy computers for children and adults that don’t have access to one. It will also provide a civic kitchen and a recreational area for the kids. This is a great way to bring the community together and help those that need help.
It’s great to see how many people are helping put together ideas for helping others. From the infographic above I see that Florida is number 2 in submitting ideas!
Have you voted yet? What cause would you vote for?
I think what you are doing with your non-profit is amazing! I don’t know what I’d vote for but we are trying to give back more in our community and right now that is by donating eggs to our food pantry and a church that runs a soup kitchen. We’ll pray on what other ways we can get involved but I’d like to see us help out at the soup kitchen. Just have to see if they need the help.
What a fantastic program and how nice that you participated
What an amazing gift to your children and others.
I love State Farm and I love the idea of a civic kitchen! Kudos to them.
It’s really wonderful that you include your children too 🙂 It’s wonderful that you do all this!
We were part of statefarm for a while until they started pressuring us by raising our premium!
It’s going to be so hard to decide which cause to give the vote to. They’re all so good!
What a great program! This is why I’ve carried all my insurance needs with State Farm for 18+ years now.
How lovely to see families give back to their community, especially while involving their children and showing them how blessed they are in the process. Kudos to you Anne!
What a tough choice to decide which cause to give the vote to. They’re all amazing!
This sounds like a great program. And it is great to get children involved in helping others at a young age.
Wow, that is a lot of money and items you have raised! What a great thing you are doing for the community!
What a great programs! And, there’s so many wonderful causes out there to where it’s hard to just vote for one.
There are so many causes that need the support and deserve it. I tend to have a soft-spot for anything helping children.
I haven’t voted yet. Off to vote now.
How awesome, I hadn’t heard of neighbor assist!!! Looks like a fun day and a great way to help out!
Texas was number 3 in ideas 🙂 Yay! I didn’t see this one in time, so didn’t get a chance to vote but I’ll look forward it next year if they do it again.