Blog Series, Guest Regulars and Wonderful Readers Made 2011 our Best Year Yet!
We want to celebrate and thank our guest contributors for a great year of all things service and giving back. From insightful perspectives on school parent involvement, non-profit success and benefit auction how-to's, to volunteer management and social media tips, teacher appreciation and fun class party ideas, employee volunteering and corporate responsibility news, faith group and community-building concepts and so much more - our blog proved to be an ever-evolving foundation for sharing timely and desired content.
A favorite summer blog series, Teacher Tuesdays, was a thrilling opportunity to feature guest posts focusing on parent engagement in education from a teacher's perspective.
Our Summer of Service feature gave us the privilege of featuring leading guest bloggers who shared their unique and personal perspectives on service, volunteering and citizen philanthropy. Topics ranged from volunteering for kids and volunteer management, to the power of story-telling, employee service, supporting military families and so much more!
The My School My Way campaign brought together over 30 bloggers sharing the highs and lows of parent volunteering, and how they did it their way in their school. From humourous anecdotes to heart-warming insights, our My School My Way blog campaign had something for everyone, and we were honored to share these wonderful parents and writers with our readers. Wrap-up and roll call.
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April Welch, our resident Mental Clutter Coach, joined us week after week for Tidy Thursday - bringing fresh ideas and bright new ways to approach organizing our lives!
Worship Wednesday guest posts from Sue Brage were a true blessing. From a faith-based perspective, her thoughts and words shed light on growing one's faith group and the interpretation of service in doing so.
Sherry Truhlar of Red Apple Auctions LLC brought us countless helpful tips, ideas and strategies when it came to running a successful auction. From publicitiy, to gathering volunteers, legal refreshers, and best practices, expert advice made auction fundraisers less of a dream and more of a reality for many readers.
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VolunteerSpotlights gave us a chance to shine a light on the amazing individuals and organizations who use VolunteerSpot to make a difference in their community. From school parent leaders to festival organizers, conference coordinators to humane societies, congregational volunteer leaders to regional homeless shelter organizers - the willingness to do good was colorful and widespread and we were honored to share each and every story.
Additional Guest Regulars included:
Chris Jarvis of Realized Worth brought us insights into workplace volunteering, corporate social responsibility, and employee volunteer programs.
Andrea Patten of What Kids Need to Succeed illumined top tips, best practices, fun stories and helpful hints when it comes to running a successful nonprofit.
Myrdin Thompson of RootsandWings Library and MomCongress provided a keen and astute perspective from everything grant-writing, to literacy promotion, and advocating for more school involvement.
Susan Wells of SteveSpanglerScience joined us to share super creative and much-needed ideas incorporating science into the classroom, whether for a class party, school science fair, or the "dreaded science project."
A variety of incredibly talented and knowledgable contributors made our array of free e-books available as a highly sought-after resource for countless volunteers, organizers, teachers, team moms, and room parents! From healthy snack ideas, to parent-teacher conference, class party, volunteer recognition, bake sale, school carnival, fundraising, talent show, and family volunteering ideas and tips, our e-books continue to be a fun and helpful resource for our readers and we are thrilled to be able to share them on our blog.
There are so many more favorite posts and contributors in addition to these listed and we hope you take the time to look around. Of course, our blog would be nowhere without our amazing readers and those who help promote and share our posts. 2011 was an incredible year and we are sure 2012 will prove to be even better - many thanks and here's to a New Year!
