When you picture volunteering, you probably think of soup kitchens or someone handing out items in line.
Volunteering can look like this, but it can also show up in many different ways.
Especially for different age groups.
We usually don’t think much of kids volunteering. But why should adults be the only ones to benefit from the effects?
She Supply has been lucky enough to involve many families in their donation drives and other fundraising events. Many of these family members include high school and college-aged youths.
After gathering information from a few of these younger volunteers — one thing is certain:
Volunteering impacted each of them.
They Develop Important Skills
Being in an environment outside of school helps young adults cultivate skills that they may not have realized on their own.
Volunteers with She Supply have learned time management skills. They learned how to juggle homework, volunteering, and any other after school activities they may be involved in. Knowing how to get something done is an invaluable trait. It is easily a skill that transfers over well into adulthood.
Another key component of volunteering is knowing how to take directions. This isn’t something that’s always relayed well in school. And let’s face it — kids don’t always like to do school work to begin with. Volunteering gives kids the opportunity to develop this skill further in an environment that they enjoy.
On the other hand, they are also able to develop budding leadership capabilities by implementing their own donation ideas.
One She Supply volunteer engaged their high school faculty to help them learn more about period poverty. They also worked with their principal to set up a donation for She Supply. It allowed the teachers to wear jeans once a week if they donated $5.
Some spread their creative wings by coming up with different ways to spread awareness on period poverty.
The pandemic has also given volunteers the opportunity to expand on their current strengths or explore possible new ones.
By learning time management, how to take instructions, and lead — She Supply has helped their volunteers grow in ways that will make them valuable in the next stages of their lives.
They Are More Aware
One of the many great things about volunteering is the awareness that it creates.
Of the world outside your own.
Of how your own upbringing may compare to someone else’s. Which in turn can make you realize just how lucky you’ve been in your life. You appreciate what you have.
This is something a lot of our younger volunteers realize when they work with She Supply. When they volunteer, they are able to help those less fortunate than themselves in ways they normally wouldn’t.
It has humbled them and helped them appreciate their friends and family more.
In the pandemic, they realized just how important a community is. A lot of events were virtual because of the COVID constrictions. But that just made the few that they were able to attend in person all the more important.
You don’t realize how much you take for granted simple human interactions until they’re gone. A zoom meeting just can’t compare to a real life face to face meeting.
Kids Receive a Sense of Accomplishment
The world is changing.
Kids today simply don’t have the same kind of world from even a decade ago. As everything is shifted more and more online, it’s good to have events like volunteering to get them involved with others.
She Supply’s volunteers not only enjoy volunteering because of the social aspect — they genuinely feel like they’ve made a difference.
And that can be a feeling that’s hard to come by.
She Supply has even helped a volunteer realize what path they want to take for their career!
Getting out and volunteering is a great way to learn more about yourself. Find out what you like and don’t like. Trying new things in an environment that is compassionate and giving.
Volunteering also has the added benefit of helping students get into college.
If there is one thing that’s clear — volunteering can have an impact on any age!
A big thank you to Nikhita Ragam, Sophie Knox, Adam Johnson, Katy Meyer, Cooper Hutson, Maranda Meyer, Tomas Fernandez and Jessica Johnson.
If you would like to help She Supply on their mission to provide a sense of decency and cleanliness to women in need —
Or if you would like to extend your donation even further: