Help.

Previously I mentioned that I wanted to volunteer.  So I started my research.  Just a general google search: Volunteer opportunities.  BAM! So much.  The more I looked into it the harder it seemed.  I thought I could pick a place and go volunteer.  Done but no.  I found this great website:www.volunteermatch.org.  You can search opportunities by city or state.  It was so hard for me to find a place to volunteer because a lot of them require a 6 month to a year commitment which I cannot commit to right now.  A lot of the opportunities require a background check.  I had no idea but I guess that makes sense.  I used to volunteer at a soup kitchen with an organization I was a part of in college and someone would just set up a date and we'd show up.  I guess it's a little more complicated now.  I was feeling a bit discouraged but then I came across another website www.volunteerguide.org.  I like this one a lot better.  It gives you ideas based on the time you want to spend . . . minutes, hours, volunteer vacations: 1 week, 2  weeks, up to 4 weeks.  The opportunities range from simple things like donating your out of date glasses to more elaborate projects like building a school.  You can donate glasses to the Lion's Club or mail them directly to New Eyes for the Needy.  After scouring the site for ideas I settled on something small but that I feel would make a great difference.  I decided to send happy mail to a sick child.  Hugs and Hope and Post Pals are organizations who feature recipients.  Post Pals is based in the UK so I decided to stick to Hugs and Hope which features children all across the US.  I chose a young boy who suffers from retinoblastoma, eye cancer.  He likes music so I decided to send him a radio so that he can listen to his favorite radio station.  Instead of sending him a plain greeting card I wrote him and his parents a note and made him a bag.  He can use it as a lunch bag or as a trick or treating bag next month.  I will mail it tomorrow.  I hope he likes it!   I have decided that I will go through the list and each week send someone something.  Hopefully I can brighten someone's day.  If you'd like to help make sure you read all the guidelines and the kids bios.   I think this is a good start to my volunteering career.  After this I'll start looking into more time consuming projects.  What do you think?