Volunteer on the Spot and Create Eco-Friendly Community Efforts
Posted by Lisa Carey
Sometimes just the idea of planning an eco-friendly project is enough to “scare” some people right out of doing it. But what if there was an eco-friendly way of planning that recycling, community garden or other environmentally sound project that was easy, fun, saved time, money and even “green” on it’s own? Find out about Volunteer Spot, where you can organize your effort and plant a tree with the Give and Grow project co sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation. Not sure what community project to begin with? Get ideas too!
April is a month full of opportunities and reminders to go green. With Earth Day, Volunteer Week and Arbor Day all in the same month how can we not remember to start those eco-friendly projects both in our home and our community?
It’s easy to get started with being environmentally conscious in our homes. We start recycling, we get rid of plastic bags and bottles, we make eco-friendly home improvements and we may even purchase an environmentally sound car or make changes to our driving . Maybe we are even trying to teach our children how be more environmentally friendly. But how can we take that knowledge we are gaining about saving energy and helping the environment into our community, schools and neighborhoods?
First, think about what you would like to do. Whether it is working with your school or community you must have a plan. Do you want to clean up the local park, plan and plant a community garden, or plant trees on Arbor Day? Maybe you want to start a clothing or recycling drive with your child’s school or sports team or a swap program for those expensive school and sports uniforms and equipment. Or maybe you want to start recycling efforts at work, gathering ink cartridges, paper, plastic, or cans for recycling.
Whatever project you are hoping to accomplish, you can’t do it all by yourself. You are going to need volunteers. One of the hardest things about starting a project and getting others involved is keeping up with all the emails, planning and organization of your project. You may think you don’t have the time to organize a group or community project to help the environment, but you can and there is an eco-friendly (paper free) way of doing so.
I was recently introduced to an online service and tool, VolunteerSpot.com. This paper free electronic online service provides groups with the tools they need to plan and execute a project. Not only does it help with providing tools for sending out multiple messages to volunteers, creating tasks list and the ability to assign those tasks, a planning calendar and avoids reply all messages and phone tag.
What is so great about VolunteerSpot.com?
-it’s online so it’s paper free
-increases communication between everyone participating in the project
-cuts planning and communication time by (some say up to 85%) giving you more time to devote to the really important eco-friendly task you have decided on
-encourages more people to get involved in your eco-friendly project since it is so easy to use to assign tasks and communicate
-It is free – though some organizations may be charged for the service it is free to grass roots efforts
Even more importantly, it has teamed up with the Arbor Day foundation to create “Give and Grow Together.” This project rewards eco-friendly projects by planting a tree in their honor in fire-damaged national forest. The Arbor Day Foundation’s is a nonprofit conservation and education organization whose mission is to inspire people to plant, celebrate and nurture trees.
One school group who used VolunteerSpot to create a community garden found long standing results, “”Our school garden is a huge success all year round thanks to a dedicated team of parent volunteers. VolunteerSpot makes it super easy to schedule the help we need and parents love the reminder emails when it’s their turn to pitch in,” said Marguerite Kennedy, Principal of Gavilan Hills Academy in Gilroy, CA. Its volunteers are among the more than 170,000 people using VolunteerSpot across the country.”
How does this program work? Plan any local earth-friendly service activity on VolunteerSpot through the end of April, and invite at least four volunteers, and the Arbor Day Foundation will plant a tree in your honor. Sharing the promotion via social media (Facebook or Twitter) or trying a sample sign up on VolunteerSpot will also earn a tree.
It’s that easy. You can start your own eco-friendly project and as a result help your community and plant a tree. Not sure what project to begin? Give and Grow offers these suggestions for your family and community.
So, go pick a project get online and start your own plan to do something for your community and the environment.
Need more ideas? We organized a swap shop (swapping clothing, toys and books among over 25 families); cleaned up a park and began a collection and recycling effort with Terra Cycle recycling Capri Sun like juice “boxes” for our school.
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