Start 2016 right - VOLUNTEER

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19 Jan

Holiday rush is over and you and your children need a new project. Giving can be most rewarding when it hits close to home. Use your special skills, creativity and excess stuff to create your own way of giving. You may not think you possess special skills or "super powers" to help others, but you really, really do. I know you cannot leap buildings with a single bound, fly through the air and catch someone falling from the sky. That is only in the movies (rather old ones at that).

How about volunteering to work on one of the many Snell Isle Committees that really need volunteers. If that is not what you want to do, think really, really hard. I'll bet you can find something you can do to make life a little better for someone else in need. Take a moment to think of what special talents you do posses. OK, now how can that talent help someone else in need? Do you garden, paint, clean, woodwork, carve? Are you a good card player, good at chess/checkers/other games? Good conversationalist, especially on the phone? Do you walk regularly? Then we need you.

Here are some things you might never thought you could help doing:

• Assist an elderly neighbor with some basic fixes around the house.

• Help a neighbor in need with some easy gardening chores.

• Plant a special flowering plant that both of you can "nurture".

• Pick almost any organization – a church, legal aid center, soup kitchen - and chances are they could use some help.

• You can play cards or chess or board games with a shut-in.

• You can read to the blind or a shut-in.

• You can learn sign language to communicate with the deaf.

• You can shop for groceries for someone and deliver them.

• You can you deliver newsletters for a neighborhood association.

• You can make a daily phone call to those unable to go outside.

We need people just like you. Most importantly, WE NEED YOU. Whether you can give an hour of your time or a full day, there are people desperate for your help and for you to use those wonderful skills that you have. We just need you to come forward and VOLUNTEER.

This is what being a good neighbor is about. Let's show St. Petersburg we all have the right stuff. You never know when the situation might reverse and you become that person in need. Please volunteer now to help SIPOA or any organization, because together we can do . . . anything and we can help anyone.