SheSue Experience

I love finding new volunteer opportunities. Nothing feeds the soul like helping others. Since I don’t have a lot of time, I tend to stick with opportunities that can be done from home.

To find out how you can help Katrina’s Angels, go to their website.

Everyone has heard of the Ronald McDonald houses. The Ronald McDonald Houses provides lodging for families whose child is in medical crisis. These houses provide a much needed safe haven for families to stay, often with other families in a similar situation. Step inside and you will find a supportive atmosphere, a resource library and even a home cooked meal.

This box will bring a smile to the family who is faced with a difficult time. It is the perfect way for someone to give to the community without having to be physically present. For more information on the this program, check out the Ronald McDonald house at Volunteer Match.com.

Remember when you were young and you loved getting mail. I would save all the stickers or stamps and give them to my children. After receiving a gift as a child, I was required to write a thank you. Getting the return letter was so much fun.

Make a Child Smile or MACS is an organization for children with serious illnesses. They ask for volunteers to send cheery cards or small gifts to these children. It’s very easy to do. You don’t even have to sign up. Although it is good to sign up for their newsletter so you are aware of changes in their programs.

You can choose to send one card to one child. Or you can send many cards to many children as often as you want. The home page posts 3 featured children who you may choose to send a card to. By clicking on their picture, you will get a story on that child and their address. Or you can check out all the children and send as many cards as you want. Or you can check the urgent children page which lists children who have recently had a traumatic experience.

So make a child smile by sending a fun card. For more information, check out the Make a Child Smile website.

What started with one has branched out into a nationwide movement. Tara Lacher of Mandan, North Dakota. Inspired by a promotion by Mary Kay giving out pink wraps with part of the proceeds going to cancer awareness; Tara started a mission to give pink scarves to all women going through cancer.

She started on her own, knitting a scarf every time she heard about a woman with breast cancer. She hand delivered each scarf. The surprised recipients opened her gift to find a handmade pink scarf. They cried, admitting that it was things like this that kept them going. This made Tara even more determined.

On the website read about groups around the country who are participating in Tara’s venture. Also find out how you can help. Warm up those knitting needles and bring some joy and awareness to those with cancer.

Do you enjoy sewing? But how many clothes do you really need? Here’s an opportunity to use your skills to provide for those in need. Shriners Hospitals for Children provides care to children up to 18 years old at no charge. With 22 hospitals world wide, Shriners provides pediatric care, innovative research and teaching programs. From it’s humble beginnings in 1922, Shriners specializes in orthopedic care, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate care.

To run all these programs, Shriner’s depends on donations of all kinds including equipment, toys, and your time. Here’s where you sewing comes in. They are always in need of quilts, welcome bags and surgical dolls for the children. To learn more about this program check out their volunteer application. Not only will you be helping out the hospital, you will be feeding your soul.

Imagine hundreds of small flags all lined up in rows. Every Veteran’s Day while my son was active in Boy Scouts, troops all came together to plant flags on all the graves at a local cemetery. After planting the flags, there was a ceremony with speeches, colorguard (presenting of flags both Scouting and American) and music. It was a touching ceremony, bringing grown men to tears.

I have three vets in my family, granddad, dad and brother. I found the following written by a Marine in honor of those who have and now serve in the military:

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a Jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel:

The soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking. So, what is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another – or didn’t come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat – but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.

He is the parade – riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket – palsied now and aggravatingly slow – who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say “Thank You”. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
~ ~ ~Father Denis Edward O’Brien, USMC

Over the years, I have considered participating in one of those programs where you write letters to military personnel serving overseas. This year is the year. What I found were programs that offer much more than just letters. There are many programs out there. The program I decided on is called Soldier’s Angels. They offer a long list of programs such as making blankets, canes or baked goodies; sending first aid supplies, caring for pets at home, offering support to loved ones at home, or sending holiday care packages. I have decided on the Adopt a Soldier program. I will be responsible for sending a card or letter every week plus sending a care package once or twice a month. The ‘adoption’ lasts for as long as their deployment from 6 months to a year. I’ll let you know how it goes.