What was your Give A Day Get A Disney Day Volunteer Service like?

[Kayla's Mom]

Is it that easy? I mean we could do something like that... I wasn't sure what there would be that we could do my son is 7, we don't drive so its hard to get around. I don't sew or id think about the blankets.

Could you pm me an tell me a bit more about this treasure box? how full dose it need to be. what did you use? was it very much to buy?

I would like to find away to save money maybe one day ticket for each of us would make things easier.


nvm isee now its over all well

Yes it was that easy! I filled each one with about 10 different items and they were full. I bought stuff at the dollar store and used some new items I had around the house. Spent about $10 per box.

But yes, unfortunately the program has ended.

 

[ACDSNY]

Darn, the organization DH was signed up for just cancelled their work day. I guess he's just out of luck now.

Luckily I already have my voucher.

 

[drag n' fly]

Well woot ours is confirmed for this Saturday!. We are helping with a fundraiser for a children's theatre group. I get to run the ice cream buffet station and dd13 gets to run the face painting station plus we get to watch the kids perform Charlotte's Web. It will be a fun day!

 

[juliejuliejulie]

Our family of 5 plus 2 in-laws completed our activity last night. My 2 daughters and I sat at the Kroger entrance and asked people to donate food for the Salvation Army and/or United Way. We got there at 10 and the Salvation Army truck came to pick up the food at 1:30 so we were able to leave 30 minutes early!

My husband, son and 2 in-laws served soft drinks at a pasta dinner for a child abuse prevention mini-marathon fundraiser. They arrived at 4:30 and were done by 9:00. The icing on the cake was that we brought home a TON of pasta from Fazoli's and Pizza Hut that was leftover!

I've printed out the first 3 vouchers and will probably receive an email next week to print out the other 4. I sure hope so; we leave the day after Easter!

I am going to search now to see how to "upgrade" to a multi-day pass for 4 of us.

 

[QueenDoOver]

I just finished mine. We pulled Scotchbroom for 4 hours on Jetty Island. I'm pooped! It was great to spend the day in such a beautiful location though.

 

[DLR29]

Me and my family did our GAD volunteering earlier today. We helped out a a YMCA camp, sprucing the thing up. There were probably about 150 volunteers there, so there were tons of jobs to do.

We got there at 9 and it was supposed to go to 3. We all got special wristbands and everybody was split up into different groups doing different jobs. My brother, my dad and I helped pick up big branches in the woods in the morning along with about 15 others. My mom (cause she has a bad back) went and painted about 50 signs with another family. Other activities included planting flowers, repainting the basketball court, general cleaning, and overall a bunch of maintenance stuff. Then we had a delicious "camp" lunch (you know, typical camp bbq hot dogs and hamburgers, lemonade, etc. but it was really good)

I feel like they overestimated the time it took to do these jobs because by lunch (12:15PM), I think most people had "finished" their jobs, so they just kinda made up some more stuff to do (pick up trash, more branches, etc.) for another hour. Then we all regrouped at 2, took a group photo, got a nice little thank you "goodie bag" thing, and left. They also took our wristbands to make sure that we were there for the whole time.

Now, we're just waiting for our voucher. We're going to use them at WDW to upgrade to Premier Passports!

 

[4bugzinarug]

Ours was fun! We cleaned up the local lake, all around the shore and the fields. Can't believe how much trash "people" dump carelessly. We will definitely do this again next year, regardless of a GAD voucher or not. Was a great opportunity for our kids to take part in this program. They too were shocked by all the trash, and felt proud to be part of cleaning up the lake!

 

[sway_559]

Dh and I just finished ours today . We signed up helping box up groceries to be distributed to local charity organizations. Putting together the boxes of groceries and sorting through to make a wide variety for each box was fun. It gave me a sense of accomplishment that each box was going to a family that would use it. After that part was over though it got a bit monotonous, we counted and boxed THOUSANDS of Caprisuns. It was just a quiet, fast assembly line, which wasn't overly fun (but oh well, no biggie). I have to say I was a bit saddened by a couple volunteers. Three teenagers signed in right in front of us, made a bee line for the bathrooms (texting away) and hid out in there the whole time (and I'm pretty sure they snuck out early too!) so sad they couldn't at least use that time to help people in need . All in all, it was good though. We enjoyed volunteering, and DH and I want to do it again just on our own without GAD

 

[DizMe]

I am in the process of getting my kitty beds made for the rescue shelter. It is a very worthy project, don't get me wrong, but I sure wish I'd picked something else. I did not realize how much time and money would be tied up in this thing! I have to provide fleece, double batting, and backing fabric for 20 x 30" beds, which have to be sewn up, turned right-side out and then stitched all around the outside plus two times closer to the center so the batting doesn't shift when washed. I have to make 10 per person which is 60 beds from my family. That's a lot of fleece, batting, and backing, not to mention a ton of time since I'm the only one in the family who can sew. They're due by the 10th of April and I've not even begun sewing yet. I'm kind of broke so I don't have the batting and can't get it until after the first. Luckily, I had friends and family members who donated some of the fleece (you can use gently used blankets) and I bought some at the thrift store. A king-sized blanket gives you enough fleece for 15 beds, but it's very hard to find fleece blankets at the thrift store that will be enough fleece for more than a few beds. I'm getting there, though. I have 30 cut out and my mom is sending me enough for 20 more.

I had originally inquired about making activity kits for kids in the hospital. Sure wish I hadn't waited until it was too late for that one. My family could have assembled those in an afternoon.

 

[Ariel224]

My family & I just finished our service this morning, which consisted of picking up trash at one of our regional parks from 9 to noon. The semi-rural park is built on former BLM land, which lent itself over the years to a lot of partying and shooting of tin cans and bottles. The vast majority of what we picked up was broken glass, which makes a trash bag HEAVY really quickly! The kids acted like they were on the best treasure hunt ever. My daughter even commented that she was having fun & would like to do it again sometime.

I think a hot shower is in order now..........my back is going to be very sore!

 

[amamax2]

We did our last weekend - we worked at a Food Bank sorting through the donations and putting them in order.

It was actually fun and very rewarding! There were lots of people - some for the GAD, some for other programs (a group of students from a Culinary Institute, for instance) and everyone worked so hard we were done sorting 27,000 lbs of food in only two hours!!! (We were all scheduled for three.)

One group sorted through to get rid of anything that was expired or badly damaged; the group my family was in then sorted the items into categories and boxed them, then stacked them, by item.

It was immensly gratifying to see that huge warehouse go from chaos to order.

Two things that were very sad, though. One, several people came, signed in, then left (don't know if they were part of GAD or one of the ther programs, but either way, they didn't fulfill their obligation.) And two, so much food had to be thrown away because it was expired or damaged (and I don't mean by a little - years old food and smooshed cans) - they said they get a lot like that - I think some people clean out their pantries and then donate all the stuff they wouldn't use anymore.

Best part of the whole day: we went to lunch afterwards and my DH asked if we would receive our vouchers in time for our May trip. My DS (11 yrs old) said what do you mean - what did this have to do with our trip? He had no idea that we were getting DL tickets for doing this!! We've been talking about doing some kind of volunteer work for about two years, and he just thought now we were starting. I almost cried that he worked so hard "just because." And to make it even better, both my DSs (11 & 13) asked if we could do it again next month and what other kinds of volunteer work we could do! It made me really feel like I had gotten through to them on some level how fortunate we are and how we have a responsibility to help others.

 

[Flitterific]

DBF and I did our GAD project yesterday. We were at a park from 9am-12noon pulling weeds for a habitat restoration project for the California quail. Some of those weeds were quite stubborn so we both had quite a workout and are sore today. Still, it was very satisfying.

Unfortunately, all the dust and pollen triggered my allergies and I've been miserable since yesterday afternoon. My eyes are super itchy and red, and I'm totally congested as well However, I'm glad we did it. DBF doesn't like to volunteer so the GAD thing was a great way to motivate him to do it with me. I used to volunteer about 20 hours per week while I was in college and continued to for a while after I started working. But then I started taking classes part-time in addition to working full-time and volunteering was not feasible anymore. Volunteering yesterday definitely brought back a lot of great memories and it feels very good to know that we made a difference in what we did yesterday

 

[Gisele]

It is so very nice to read how so many people are and have done such good work. It is very giving to make so many kitty beds, if I can assist somehow, let me know. And for everyone to do their best work, is awesome. Too bad some people did not full fill their obligation, on purpose. Perhaps in the future they will see the error of their ways, and try to correct it.

Keep up the great work everyone!