Just some random GAD thoughts

[seals]

It will be interesting to see the final statistics, but I'm wondering if an organization with a non-local participation opportunity, such as Project Linus (and actually specifically Project Linus) benefitted much more from the GAD than other types of organizations. It seems a lot of people seized on the make a blanket or similar opportunity because they could do it immediately and have their voucher even if their trip was much later in the year. Thus places that might have actual on-site projects later in the year will miss out on a ready supply of volunteers.

In addition, the relative lack of opportunities for children under the age of 14 or so (just by my informal survey in my tri-state area) means more people participated in the "make a" type of opportunities. I was fortunate to see the ConKerr Cancer make pillowcases opportunity last week and mailed them off today so hopefully I'll get my vouchers. It was for minimum age 6. My 3 DSs participated as much as was possible (snipped threads, picked up cuttings, ironed, folded, etc.), although becuase the pillowcases had to be made to a particular quality their participation was much more limited than it would have been if they'd been able to go to a site and participate in an activity. I looked for many weeks, however, for an opportunity for them and even asked if they could help with an event clean up opportunity that I thought they could handle but was told the organization was going stick with the no one under age 18 requirement. Yet, I saw one opportunity about 40 miles from us that listed a minimum age of 6 and was for afterschool tutors! I'm not sure how much a 6 year old can tutor.

Overall, I think it is (was?) a great program and I plan to make more pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer and my DH worked on event clean-up for the local charity and will likely help them again sometime in the future. But, I wonder if it had as widespread an impact as Disney thought when they created it.

 

[tiredsigh]

I truly hope that this has given the organizations opportunities to think of ways to incorporate children in the volunteering process. Those agencies that allowed volunteers under the age of 14 did have to do additional planning, but those agencies are teaching children the value of volunteering. I really hope this becomes a learning opportunity for all.

 

[aceys_h0ney]

I wished we could have found something more involved (like a food bank) that my kids could have done but they were too young. We always donate things to local charitys so they were familiar with that. For this we stuffed Easter eggs for an Easter egg hunt the Salvation Army is hosting, so the kids did more work then just helping me carry bags of clothes to the car but we did it at home and I would have prefered to take them somewhere to volunteer.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I wondered the same thing but I would say the reason we see so much Project Linus type of opportunities is b/c of the Dis. As much as PL and others seem common on here, alot of places didn't offer those opportunities and you would have to know the zip code or some way to get into one of those opportunities. The Dis is a great advertisting system for people that are on here but the majority of GAD participants are not Dis'sers, so I would say that many people acutally went to onsite.

We had a problem with doing on site in our area as well, our DD7 couldn't participate in anything and when I found one (painting at a teen center/girls club) they restricted the hours to mon-fri 9-4. Which is during school time and work time for us. It also was well the begining of Feb before any opportunities closer than 50 miles showed up for us (and we live in pretty populated area).

I think the promotion has been good and personally for our family it has broadened our volunteer opportunities. I learned of PL and althought I didn't get to work with them for GAD (we did binky patrol of GA), I did get in contact my local chapter and have talked to DH about doing a blanket every other month with the kids and donating it. We had alot of fun making our blankets and think the cause is great.

 

[get_us_to_WDW]

I was wondering if Jo-ann Fabrics will see a revenue spike from all the fleece purchases? They may have gotten a lot of "foot traffic" benefit from this program including shoppers who don't normally frequent craft & fabric stores.

 

[Haley/Hayden Mom]

I too had problems finding volunteer opportunites that I could take my DD's to. I found things we could do with my 10 yr old but nothing for the 5 yr old who will be 6 in a couple of mths. We also give alot of time to the food bank that we sponser thru out church and help organize the pantry and both DD's have helped multiple times to bag up items if a person came in needing anything. We did the PL blankets after finding that opportunity and even the 5 yr old helped DH with tying his blankets for the project. She thought she was such a BIG helper by making these for little boys and girls (she didn't know they were for teenagers) get new blankets. She said everybody needs a soft blanket to sleep with just like her's. I kinda wish they would have put the age to 5 and up instead of 6 and up on some of the easier opportunities though.

 

[huskies90]

I actually passed on making the blankets in hopes of finding an opportunity that would require us to go "out" and volunteer. My youngest is 10. We finally found one at a food closet but it is not until April. We ended up doing the blankets for project linus as well anyway because we thought it was a good winter project and of course, it was for a good cause but we didn't change our registration. But now, I am hoping that when all is said and done with the program ending, we will still get our vouchers after our event in April. If not, it will be unfortunate, but I don't think I will be too upset as getting me and my family out to volunteer has been a goal of mine for a long time. I am glad Disney did this promotion simply for kicking us in the pants to get out there.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Due to GAD, our PL chapter has increased their intake 10 fold! Before, the chapter was barely able to fulfill orders, now they have plenty to spare. They shipped 400 blankets to Haiti and fulfilled another order for 250 to the local disabled school for distribution. She attributed the whole influx to the GAD program.

 

[emh1129]

Our area had park clean-ups and supply drives that were ages 6+ so that was nice.
The painting, home improvement type stuff was, of course, 18+, but they had quite a bit for 6+.
But we did choose our activity based on the age requirements. We wanted to do it as a family.

 

[kittycat9]

There was only one volunteer thing listed in my area (clean-up at our local fair grounds), and it was for ages 8+. My son is only 6, and doing garbage duty presents physical and health risks for him, so I was very thankful to have the Linus project for us to work on together. We're doing 3 blankets in all (my youngest isn't old enough to 'volunteer' though we'll let him help if he wants) - and my 6yo is going to get to pick out the fabrics for one of the blankets from my overflowing stock here at home. I'm actually quite excited about this. I need reasons to sew, it's a great release for me. LOL.

 

[poohscrew]

We too had a hard time find a place to go to volunteer because my DD is only 7 and so many required an older age requirement. That is the only thing that did disappoint me with this volunteer idea. They should have had more opportunities the kids to participate in. I really wanted to go to a food bank, senior citizen's home or shelters with my kids but was limited on the age requirements. We did the Linus blankets and it was a lot of fun for everyone. My kids had wished they could see who their blankets were going to but I told them that some very lucky child will have a blanket that was made with love to keep them warm.

The director of our local Linus Project chapter told me that they not only give the blankets to children in hospitals but they are giving them to the children and siblings of members of our troops in the military. They are reaching a lot of children around the world and a lot of good has come out of this volunteer opportunity. We are going to make more blankets later on this year and send them off to our local branch because they will probably need more by then.

Keep Volunteering America!!!!

 

[tiggerplus5]

Our family made quilts for project linus. I have lots of fabric that people give me because they know I quilt. I will definitely make more for this agency. The woman at our local chapter was super sweet and helpful!

I am really glad we did this. My kids helped with the laundry, ironing and tying the quilts. They really got on board when the earthquake hit in Haiti and they knew that we could be making quilts for the children there.

The closest volunteer opportunity was an hour away. Not much else to choose from in my area.

 

[elleherself]

There were actually a lot of opportunities in our area for six and up, but those opportunities were filled quickly. Lots of waterway cleanups, beach cleanups and the like, which are the very activities that made up my earliest volunteering experiences. I have great memories of heading out on boats with my friends picking up trash from the banks of the New River.

We ended up participating in a food drive with my six-year-old goddaughter, which she actually was able to do very capably! I thought it wasn't sinking in but when we were actually at Disney last month, she was asked many times about her volunteer activity while wearing her button and she did make the connection that Mickey was very proud of her!

 

[ancestry]

We volunteered at our local food bank which took volunteers starting at the age of 6. My 7 year olds were able to volunteer at the food bank which was great!

Although I have to say it probably wasn't the best thing for young kids as it really is a working warehouse (machines, lifts, etc.) and we ended up having to lift heavy boxes and deal with a lot of broken glass, etc. I did have to sign a release form for my children.

I talked extensively with the lady at the food bank who said this Disney program was truly a godsend for them. They were getting so many volunteers from this program that they actually added an additional shift to accommodate all of the volunteers. She was hoping that the program would run through the rest of the year. When she said that I warned her that the program was nearing its capacity (this was at the end of February). She was disappointed to hear that as she said they really needed this type of volunteer level for the rest of the year to help them out.