These local organizations need your help. Here's how you can get started.
These local organizations need your help. Here's how you can get started.

Volunteer Opportunities 🤝

It’s kind of easy to feel helpless in the face of all that’s gone on over the past ten months (and the past seven days). But there are still many ways to help during this difficult time.

That's why, for your first weekly adventure of the new year, we're sharing ways you can make a positive impact in your community. 😌🤝

This list of volunteer organizations isn’t in any way all-inclusive, but maybe it’ll get you thinking about how you can help. Whether you want to get outside and get dirty, make phone calls, care for animals, help at a food bank 🥫 or bake something, there's a group in Kansas City that needs you right now. 🙏 Go find it!

1. Urban Trail Co.
Urban Trail Co. is an all-volunteer organization that specializes in building and maintaining 100 miles of trails around Kansas City. 🍃🥾 Its volunteers work with an eye toward conservation and good stewardship of the land. If you sign up to help, you can choose which part of town you’d like to be in. And, if you’re not exactly the outdoors type, they also need help with administrative work. 🖥️🖨️
2. Harvesters
The pandemic has put many families at risk of hunger in our region. Harvesters Community Food Network estimates an additional 100,000 people in its 26-county region are at risk of hunger due to the pandemic — including one in four children.

One way you can help is by volunteering at Harvesters' mobile food pantries, or at one of their two pantry locations in Kansas City or Topeka. 🥫 You can also help create handmade greeting cards to be included in food boxes for seniors (just make sure you follow Harvesters' guidelines). 💌 Register to volunteer online.
3. Heartland Conservation Alliance
Heartland Conservation Alliance is an urban land trust made up of over 30 organizations all working toward the goal of “protecting, restoring, and caring for our region’s natural resources.” 🏞️ The Alliance's current area of work is the Blue River Watershed, which runs through the heart 💙 of Kansas City. Anyone who wants to be involved can email Sarah Benal for more info.
4. Local Parks
Volunteering with local parks is a great way to get some fresh air while making a positive impact on our local environment. 🏞️

You can volunteer with KC Parks to help clean up litter, remove honeysuckle and other invasive species, or help with gardening and landscaping. 🌱 You can clean up litter on your own as well, just be sure to follow these safety tips when you do. 🦺🗑️

Individual cities and counties also look for volunteers to help at animal shelters, with clerical duties and various types of community programming. 🐶 The city of Olathe has a long list of ways you can get involved as well as suggestions for minors who want to help.

5. Kansas City Hospice
Kansas City Hospice is looking for a wide variety of volunteers, including people who are willing to donate their professional services like hairstylists and notary publics. 💇‍♂️ Though the pandemic has limited some of the options for volunteering, there are still many, many ways to help while staying safe, including baking for families, sewing memory pillows or helping with the organization's retail boutique. 🥧🧸
Looking for a better fit? Volunteer Match is a national hub for anyone interested in being a volunteer or any organization that needs a volunteer. It’s used by Girl Scouts of America and 130,000 other nonprofits. Whatever your interest is, this website will find a place for you to step in and step up. 💪

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This was your 80th Creative Adventure email from KCUR 89.3. Catch up on our past issues here.


Photo Credits:
1. Public Domain
2. Harvesters
3. Wikimedia Commons

4. KCMO Parks | YouTube
5. Bournemouth Borough Council

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