5 Simple Tips to Inspire Earth-Friendly Volunteering With Kids

Earth Day's 40th Anniversary - How to Get Kids Involved

With spring fresh in the air, trees budding, and Earth Day (40th Anniversary) events getting ramped up for April 22, it's easy to get inspired to protect and preserve our Mother Earth. Get the whole family involved! Please consider these 5 simple tips for engaging kids in earth-friendly volunteering:  

Go Local! - Choose a project in your neighborhood, school, or township so kids can see the impact of their efforts in their daily lives. You may decide to plant a neighborhood garden, recycle bottles and cans at the soccer fields, or participate in a graffiti removal project at your playground.  

Give Children a Voice - Involve kids in choosing their projects and initiatives to build commitment and ownership.  Younger kids may simply vote for their favorite activity. Engage older children in researching needs and groups active in environmental volunteering in your area. 

Plan Ahead - Be sure to think it through.  What permissions and materials will you need to get started? Will you need ongoing support – for example, how many volunteers will it take to weed and water newly planted beds near the playground?  

Get Help – If you’ve found a need in your community, like an abandoned lot in need of a serious clean up – invite Scout troops, sports teams, and school service-learning teams to support your efforts.  (Many middle schools and high schools now have service-learning requirements where students must participate in a certain number of volunteer hours during the year.) Of course, VolunteerSpot’s free online scheduling and sign up tool helps make volunteer coordination easy!  

Talk it Up -  Volunteering with your children provides a fun and positive family bonding experience and opens the door for meaningful conversations about good earth stewardship, and the importance of giving back locally.

Give and Grow Together

Do Good for the Earth & We'll Plant a Tree in Your Honor!

To promote earth-friendly service activities and honor those who volunteer in their communities, we’ve teamed up with Arbor Day Foundation to launch the Give & Grow Together promotion. First, check out our free eBook full of earth-friendly service ideas. Then, to earn a tree planted in your honor, please try one of these actions:

1. Plan any local earth-friendly service activity on VolunteerSpot through the end of April, and invite at least four volunteers. Register Now
   
2. Try a sample signup for our demo neighborhood cleanup project.
   
3. Fan us on Facebook www.Facebook.com/VolunteerSpot
   
4. Give us a shout on Twitter:  #Give&GrowTogether - @VolunteerSpot & @ArborDay just planted a tree in my honor! http://ow.ly/1fUqU  < U can get 1 too!
   

Please visit http://www.volunteerspot.com/ebooks/Grow  for details on Give and Grow Together and more earth-friendly service ideas that are fun for the whole family!