Camp Outreach 2019

For the past 5 years, I've been spending a week every summer serving at Camp Outreach. Here's a video of pictures taken this year. I even show up a time or two.



Camp Outreach is a missionary camp focused on improving the lives of those living in the inner-city neighborhood of Stingtown Indianapolis and working on the hearts of those young and old who volunteer to serve in the community. 2019 was a great year for Camp and we can't wait for next year!

Walmart's 12 Days of Giving

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walmart for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
 

Is there a nonprofit in your community that could use some help?   Be sure to visit Walmart's 12 Days of Giving page on Facebook and nominate them by November 18th, and they could be one of many to receive a portion of the $1.5 million in grants that Walmart is giving away this holiday season.

Simply visit the Walmart Facebook page to get started.  Click the 'Nominate Now" button and fill in the information - nonprofit name, contact info, web page, and an optional photo.  Then, in 200 words or less, tell Walmart how this nonprofit organization benefits your community and makes a difference in people's lives.  On December 10, Walmart will start the “12 Days of Giving,” by announcing funding to the winning nonprofits.

I don't really know of a local  nonprofit that I'd like to nominate, though I'm sure that there are some quietly doing good work that really could use some help.  I have a soft spot in my heart for our local Friends of the Library organization, because they do so much for our local library, and that really does do a lot for our community.  However, when I read through the categories in the drop-down under "What does this nonprofit do your community?" - Fighting Hunger, Communities Impacted by Disaster, Infants/Babies/Children, Warm Weather Clothing, Shelters, Veterans and Military Family Assistance, Senior Care, Women, and Other - I wonder if what they're doing is important enough.  Organizations serving in some of these categories can really make a difference in people's lives.
 
Is there a local nonprofit you're going to nominate?  Be sure to do it by November 18th!  Then come back and tell me about the difference they're making in your community.  I'd love to hear it!

Speaking of Volunteer Labor

Major appreciation and a huge standing ovation should go out to my son Cory and his friend from band, Amber. Both of them stayed after band yesterday and helped get the calendars ready for mailing. We could not have done it without them! Still, we didn't get out of there until 9pm. Where are all the other volunteers? It would have gone so much faster if we'd only had a few more people helping.

Cory and Amber get to count their volunteer hours toward their community service. I think it would be good to actually require community service for graduation, but they don't. Instead, if the students accumulate a certain number of hours over their high school career, they get special recognition at graduation. It also looks good on a college application. Beth didn't want to help because she's 'not going to college' - and because she doesn't have to do it to graduate. Besides, she did have to work from 4-9, so she could only have helped for an hour. Still, an hour is better than nothing. We did make her work at her job and ordered pizza from the place she works. So Cory and Amber got pizza and soda out of the whole thing, too.

She did end up having her chance today because we found out that about 800 calendars, that should have been tabbed last night by another volunteer, were not done. So guess what? We got to do those, too. Beth helped for about an hour, and then she had to get ready to go to work.

The discussion last night: were they slave labor or were they volunteers?