Volunteer throughout the year

By BESTY FLAGLER
PARENT TO PARENT

The holidays are over, but people nationwide still need help year-round. Here are ideas to keep the giving spirit rolling throughout the new year:

For some youths, volunteering has grown into a passion.

Xavier Jefferies, 16, of Charlotte, N.C., tutors at a local YMCA's after-school daycare center and volunteers at the local youth group he founded, the Kick Back Crew. The group is dedicated to beautifying his neighborhood.

For all his dedication, Jefferies has been named Allstate Insurance Co.'s "Give Back Day Hero" for the Southeast. The company also has set up "Allstate Give Back Day" nationwide to encourage volunteerism on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 18) and throughout the year.

Another teenage volunteer, Carly Williamson, 18, a high school senior in Davidson, N.C., says her interest in volunteering began when she was a child -- and has grown.

"Volunteering is a great passion of mine," she says. "I think it's important for every child to be consistently exposed to people in less fortunate situations than themselves, not to learn pity, but to learn compassion."

When she turned 16, Willliamson says she began volunteering for Habitat for Humanity builds. Youth volunteering, she says, helps kids realize "it's not all about them."

Last summer, she went to Ghana and worked in a small traditional African village. She taught English, worked on the construction of a library everyday, and assisted with medical care. "I learned how universal a laugh is, and also how universal need is," she recalls. Through e-mail, Carly raised enough money to buy new school supplies for the children.

Ideas to get your kids involved throughout the year:

-- Help your children run a coat drive this winter, such as twin 5-year-old boys did as part of a collection for their transitional kindergarten class. Their teacher says the boys were proud of the mound of coats they collected in their neighborhood. "It's important to teach lessons of the heart, not just of the head," she says.

-- Assist your child's school with developing a curriculum to include giving back to your community, such as regular visits to a nursing home resident.

-- Find out what toys such as puppets or dollhouses and accessories that a local non-profit family care agency could use for play or art-therapy programs. Send only what's clean and in good shape.

-- Give a non-profit group storage units or book cases that are in good condition. Call ahead. Don't just dump furniture at a doorstep.

-- Donate sanitized sets of plastic animals to a women's shelter or children's home. Parent and baby animal pairs, which can be pricy, help children role-play and understand more about their own disconnected families.

-- "Shop" in your own home for excess art supplies that can be regrouped into plastic cases, marked in sets and passed along to disadvantaged kids.

Devin Hermanson, a charitable giving expert and national director of World Vision's Gift Catalog, suggests:

-- Families select a charitable organization to support together.

-- Consider making homemade gifts, such as no-sew fleece blankets, then donate the blankets to a homeless shelter.

-- Work with your children to create a coupon book for your neighbors who might need an extra hand this year. Coupons could include shoveling their sidewalk, watching their children, or providing a meal.

Other ideas:

-- Seek out year-round individual or group volunteer applications online. Christmas meal preparation and deliveries warm our giving spirits over the holidays, but food pantries need to be filled year-round.

-- Pare down the children's books at your home, and ask friends to do the same. Donate them to your local library for a book drive, or to schools and after-school programs.

To make connections online:

-- www.volunteermatch.org -- The Volunteer Match Web site matches you with a cause that needs your help. The site includes some work-at-home, virtual tasks.

-- www.voa.org -- Volunteers of America offers ways to give of your time, as well as links to services for those who are disadvantaged or disabled.