After a recent t feature in the Seattle Herald, local businessman and Electroimpact chairman Peter Zieve has ignited a conversation here in Mukilteo about giving back to the community. Peter has started a campaign to try and get more people into community work and he himself is doing the same through his sports program which seeks to help young boys and girls to get off the streets. News reports and blog posts are one thing which will help the debate but for real results we must take action in the city which we live and for the people who live with us, and here are some ideas of doing just that.
Family Help
Community actions don’t always need to be grand gestures and you can do your bit by simply helping out a family who live near you. Many families require help with all manner of things from shopping, child care or even just a listening ear. There are families in communities all over the country who are going through tough times and need support and offering them some of your time could see you giving back.
Campaign
If you don’t feel like you can offer much by way of your time in a physical sense, then you could most certainly try to campaign for more community based activities. The politics of this will be tricky but where there is a voice there is hope. Here in Mukilteo Peter Zieve and some other local business people were vociferous to local government and they began to allocate more funds for community backed projects.
Schools
If you have some time on your hands during the week then you could volunteer at your local school and help the teachers there with the children. Roles in this capacity can be things like dinner duty or even helping out in the classroom.
Senior Center
Unfortunately, we have a huge population of elderly people who are living in senior centers who have nobody to visit them. If you have even just a few hours you could commit to visiting these people and have a chat with them which will brighten up their day. These men and women have lived long lives and all they usually want are people to talk to and to engage with.
Donations
If you do not have enough time on your hands to physically help then you could always donate some money to locally backed projects which do great work in the community. Unless there is money being provided by the government, which there usually is not, these organizations need all of the help that they can get and your cash donations may go a very long way indeed in helping them to thrive and help more people in the community.
Don’t think that you can’t help, there is always something that you can do.