Dorris Higgins: Create your own event to give back this year

Published 12:57 pm Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Doris HigginsIn cooperation with the Volunteer Center of Southwest Michigan, file will publish opportunities for volunteers each week.

To find out about these or other volunteer opportunities, please call 983-0912 in the St. Joseph-Benton Harbor area, 683-5464 in the Niles area; visit our Web site at www.volunteerswmi.org; or e-mail us at volun teer@volunteerswmi.org for further information.

To arrange an appointment, please call ahead. Appointments do not constitute an obligation to accept a volunteer opportunity. The center is a United Way partner agency.

Holiday volunteering
• Make the holidays special for your fellow volunteers. With tight budgets, nonprofits are having a hard time finding ways to thank their volunteers. You can create and/or donate cards and other tokens of appreciation to be given to fellow volunteers. The Volunteer Center will distribute them to southwest Michigan agencies that will give the items to their volunteers.

• Why not create your own holiday volunteer event? Collect food for a local food bank, hold a baby shower and donate the items to a mom at a shelter, or bake cookies for families too stressed by illness to do holiday baking, or color place mats and take them to a nursing home for the residents to enjoy while they eat their holiday meals. Call the Volunteer Center for ideas on where to bring your items in your neighborhood or where they are most needed. No time during the holiday? No problem! You can hold a family discussion and decide on what you as a family would like to do during 2010. There are community needs all year long.

Adults
• Berrien County MSU Extension is offering their Michigan Master Gardener Volunteer Program starting in January. Master Gardeners provide research-based information and technical assistance in gardening and horticulture at various locations. The 11-week course teaches the basics of gardening and home horticulture that is then put to use by serving the community through the volunteer service requirement. Master Gardeners assist throughout our community with 4-H and youth plant science activities, planting projects, Habitat for Humanity and more! Trainings are held on Saturdays, Jan. 16 through March 27 at Fernwood in Niles. There is cost for the classes. A minimum of 40 hours of volunteer service per year are required to maintain one’s Master Gardner certification and active status. You need to apply by Jan. 4. Classes are available annually so if you can’t make it this year give them a call and make your plans for 2011.

• The Refuge of Southwestern Michigan in Buchanan is a ministry that brings mentors into the lives of struggling kids and adults. It is offering volunteers a 16-week mentor-training program. Training will be every Tuesday, Jan. 12 through April 27  from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and all day Jan. 16.

• Michigan Community Blood Centers has a new name, Michigan Blood. Don’t want to donate blood? No problem, you can also volunteer to work at a blood drive serving cookies and juice. They mail out a schedule well in advance and you can pick a blood drive that is at a location and time that is convenient to you. You can also help out at their office answering phones, mailing letters and other tasks. All these duties help give the gift of life that is blood. Volunteers should be at least 18 years old.

• Did you know you can be a museum docent at the Orchard’s Mall in Benton Harbor? The History Center at Courthouse Square/ Berrien County Historical Association would like you to be a docent for its  special exhibit “War Stories” at the mall running Dec. 1 through Jan. 8. Shifts are available seven days a week. You will also help with selling gift items that support the museum.

During the holidays, donations can be down so please consider giving the very personal gift of your blood.

Berrien County Chapter of the American Red Cross
• Tuesday, Dec 22 – Community Hospital, 400 Medical Park Drive, Watervliet, noon to 5:45 p.m.
• Saturday, Jan. 10 – River Valley Senior Center, 13321 Red Arrow Highway, Harbert, 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
For a complete listing visit www.berrienredcross.org.

Michigan Blood (formerly known as Michigan Community Blood Centers)
• Monday, Dec. 21 – Sodus Township Library, 3776 Naomi Rd., Sodus, 2 to 6 p.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 26 – Martin’s Supermarket, 720 S.11th St., Niles, 2 to 7 p.m.
For a complete listing visit www.miblood.org

Adults and youth
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure needs you to deliver printed materials to 10 or fewer locations in your area at your convenience about three times a year to promote activities and events. You can even take the family along. Posters and list of locations will be provided.

• Se habla Espanol? Educational Talent Search at Lake Michigan College is a program designed to encourage students to stay in school, graduate high school and attend college. They provide academic, career and financial counseling to participants and their families. They would like to have you update their forms, Web site content and correspondence by translating it from English to Spanish. You can pick one item to work on or do as many as you have time for. As an ETS bilingual translator, you must have access to an Internet connection, consistent e-mail address, working phone and the ability to come to the ETS office in Benton Harbor about twice a month. Youth volunteers over 15 are welcome.

• Join United Way in making an impact in southwest Michigan. 211 is a free, easy to remember phone number offering 24/7/365 service that links people with information regarding health and human services agencies, programs and services. 211 is going live soon in Allegan, Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties. You can help ensure that the information in the database is accurate by assisting with phone surveys. You will call the agency and fill out paper work needed to ensure everything in the database is ready to go.

This database will also be available online to the public. Wow! This is an important service coming to our community that is already widely available in other communities across the country. Come be a part of this important effort when you volunteer at the United Way of Southwest Michigan’s Benton Harbor offices during regular business hours. The amount of time and the schedule you set each week is flexible.