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March 2021 - Boston
Start a Safe Sleep Collection Drive

Room to Grow

Date/Time: Ongoing

Location: 63 Sprague Street, Hyde Park. Please reach out to allison.russo@roomtogrow.org for information about dropping off donations.

Ages: Everyone is welcome to participate

Time Commitment: Varies

Room to Grow’s three-year program aims to close the opportunity gap for babies in Boston by supporting low-income families with parent coaching, essential material items, and community referrals. This past year has been unlike any other, and Room to Grow hasn't skipped a beat by quickly pivoting to virtual programming (with essential baby items shipped directly to families’ doorsteps) and continuing to enroll new families. Room to Grow is recruiting hosts for a Safe Sleep Drive in March, in honor of Sleep Awareness Month! This virtual drive will focus on pajamas, pack n’ plays, sleep sacks, and more! Sign up to receive guidance and resources for how to host a safe and socially-distanced collection drive in your community. Let them sleep like babies!

Contact: allison.russo@roomtogrow.org, 617.859.4545
Wish List Drive for Household Items

Ronald McDonald House Boston Harbor

Date/Time: Ongoing

Location: #318 Charlestown, MA 02129. Items can be dropped off Monday-Friday 9am - 7pm, and weekends 9am - 4 pm. Please call 617.398.6458 prior to your arrival. Thank you

Ages: Everyone can help

Time Commitment: Varies

Ronald McDonald House Charities® of New England (RMHC NE) provides a tremendous, comprehensive and supportive network of resources to children and their families through Ronald McDonald Houses, Ronald McDonald Family Rooms and Ronald McDonald Care Mobiles. With your help, we can bring greater capacity to serve children facing all pediatric illnesses at Boston’s children hospitals, Rhode Island’s children hospitals and other medical facilities throughout New England. Your family can help RMHC Boston Harbor support families by hosting a wish list drive. RMH Boston Harbor is often in need of household items to support our families throughout their stay and ensure apartments are fully stocked with essential items at all times. These items are vital to our ongoing operations and help provide a true feeling of home in each of our apartments. The wishlist items are on Amazon but you may collect, donate or purchase the items anywhere! You can also choose items from the RMH Boston Harbor online wishlist. Feel free to include a tag or note with your donation, so we can share them with our families (please no religious messages or “Get Well Soon”). Contact the RMH Boston Harbor Volunteer Coordinator, volunteerboston@rmhcne.org, to schedule the delivery of collected items to their office in Charlestown.

Contact: volunteerboston@rmhcne.org or 617.398.6458
Meal Prep, Donation Drive and Education

On The Rise

Date/Time: Ongoing needs

Location: On the Rise is located in Cambridge. Volunteer projects can be done from your home.

Ages: All ages are welcome

Time Commitment: Varies

On The Rise is a day program for homeless and formerly homeless women. We provide safety, community, and advocacy for those living in crisis. We believe that healthy, trusting relationships catalyze healing, and help our participants discover new and exciting possibilities. On The Rise continues to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several ways that volunteers can help to support On The Rise.

Make bagged lunches: Our traditional meal program has transitioned to bagged lunches since the beginning of the pandemic. We are currently scheduling dates in April and May (it'll be here sooner than you think)! We generally ask for 10-15 lunches, each including a sandwich, snack, fruit, and something to drink.

Donation drives: Engage your community by holding a drive for either gently used or new items. Pick from this list of in-kind needs, such as toiletries, clothing, or snacks. (This project can be completed entirely online!)

Virtual session: Host a virtual session with your network or community to learn more about On The Rise's programs and our mission.

Sponsor a Moving Home Drive: As our program participants find housing, we ask our community to sponsor their transition into their new home. Working with a personalized wishlist, sponsors will purchase items ranging from dishware, to comforters, and bath towels.

Contact: Maddie Porter, Development & Engagement Coordinator, maddie.porter@ontherise.org or 617.497.5665
14th Annual Boston Bruins PJ Collection Drive

Cradles to Crayons

Date/Time: Ongoing through March 13

Location: Drop off donations at 281 Newtonville Ave, Newton

Ages: Everyone can help

Time Commitment: Varies

Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities. The Boston Bruins, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), Wonderfund, and Cradles to Crayons are coming together with organizations in your community to collect new PJs for local children living in low income and homeless situations. We are looking for brand new pajamas, appropriate for all seasons, from sizes 2T through adult medium. Please do not give pajamas that include any family or holiday references, and refer to our Quality = Dignity guidelines. Our most needed sizes are:

  • Girls: 2T, 3T, 4T/5T (child xs), 14/16 (child xl/adult s), 18/20 (child xxl/adult m)
  • Boys: 14/16 (child xl/adult s), 18/20 (child xxl/adult m)

If you are interested in hosting a PJ collection drive, please click here for PJ Drive Toolkit.

Contact: Molly Walsh, 617.782.0803, mwalsh@cradlestocrayons.org, Registration is available online.
Easy Fleece Hat & Drawstring Bags

Operation Gratitude

Date/Time: Ongoing

Location: Please follow shipping directions for individual items and send to:
Operation Gratitude
ATTN: Handmade with Love Program
9409 Owensmouth Avenue
Chatsworth, CA 91311-4278

Ages: Everyone can participate

Time Commitment: Varies

Every year, Operation Gratitude sends 300,000+ individually addressed Care Packages to Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen deployed overseas, to their children left behind, and to First Responders, New Recruits, Veterans, Wounded Heroes, and their Care Givers. Each package contains snacks, hygiene products, entertainment, and handmade items, as well as personal letters of support. Your family can help in a number of different ways. If you’re crafty, consider making easy fleece hats and/or drawstring bags. Click here for more information on how to make these handmade items. If you don’t sew, deployed troops always appreciate hand-written letters. Click here for letter writing instructions. Your handmade items and letters are expressions of appreciation and love that reassure and comfort our deployed service members.

Host a Coat and Winter Clothing Drive

Brookline Cares

Date/Time: Ongoing through April 15

Location: Donations may be dropped off at Edith C. Baker School, 205 Beverly Road, Chestnut Hill (during school hours) or click here to schedule a drop off

Ages: All ages are welcome to participate

Time Commitment: Varies

Brookline Cares is a volunteer organization started by Brookline High School students. Our organization promotes awareness, fundraises, and accepts donations of winter clothing to donate to people in need. Here at Brookline Cares, we believe that everybody, no matter where you come from, deserves warm clothing. Our mission is to provide this necessity to as many people as possible to make a positive difference. Coats, winter hats, gloves, boots, and scarves may be donated and should be in good or new condition, meaning no tears, rips, etc. The clothing collected will be given to people in communities with high rates of COVID-19 in the Greater Boston area. These communities also have high rates of poverty and homelessness. Clothing items will be given to the Mobile Testing Van run by the Kraft Center at Mass General Brigham, which goes to these communities to test people for free. The clinical team will then distribute the clothing out from the van. The people who get tested will be the ones receiving the clothing. The van will run for 16 weeks starting January 4 through April 23. If you don’t have winter clothing to donate but would like to participate, consider giving money to the gofundme page for purchasing empowerment coats. An empowerment coat converts into a sleeping bag and can be used by people experiencing homelessness or people who do not have shelter. Each coat costs $125 and all funds will be used to purchase and distribute as many coats as possible. More information can be found at www.empowermentplan.org or on the @Brooklinecares instagram page.

Contact: Eliot Arnold, 23arnolde@brooklinek12.org
Create a Project

Good Deeds Day 2021

Date/Time(s):
  • March 29, Project registration deadline
  • April 11, International Good Deeds Day

Location: Your home or community

Ages: Everyone is welcome to participate

Time Commitment: Varies, depending on project

Good Deeds Day is a global movement of doing good. Throughout the world families, neighbors, schools, clubs, companies, and communities come together to do a good deed project. Does your family have an idea of a Good Deeds Day project for your community? Or you can browse their project ideas page for ideas. We encourage individuals to recruit colleagues, friends and family, and plan a project as a group!

Choose to Include Snowshoeing Clubs

Special Olympics MA

Date/Time: Weekly, ongoing

Location: Multiple locations throughout Massachusetts

Ages: Everyone is welcome to participate

Time Commitment: Varies, flexible

Special Olympics MA has a new fitness activity this winter: Snowshoeing! Walking Clubs were such a success this past fall that we are inspired to keep going during the winter months! Strap on your snowshoes and stay active this winter with Special Olympics athletes at weekly winter Snowshoeing Clubs. We are looking for volunteers to start a club in their home community.

Snowshoeing Club Head Coach: The head coach is responsible for planning and coordinating weekly snowshoeing, overseeing and communicating with athletes and volunteers, taking attendance each week, and ensuring proper safety protocols are followed. Must have snowshoeing experience and be 18 years or older.

Snowshoeing Club Assistant Coaches and Unified partners: Volunteers of all ages are invited to join and enjoy physical exercise with athletes. Depending on the size of the club, you can assist the Snowshoe Club head coach as needed, or simply have fun and enjoy as a participant!

Contact: Please email volunteer@specialolympicsma.org to start a snowshoeing club near you.
www.specialolympicsma.org
Warm Feet for Warriors

Soldier's Angels

Date/Time: The sock collection will run from February 1 – April 30. (Don’t worry if your socks arrive a little before the 1st or a little after the 30th– we anticipate that most people will end their collections on the 30th and the socks will arrive in the 2-3 weeks following.)

Location: Please mail your collected socks to:
Soldiers Angels’ – Warm Feet for Warriors
2895 NE Loop 410, Suite 107
San Antonio, TX 78218

Ages: Everyone can participate

Time Commitment: Varies

One of the items that is most requested from service members and veterans is socks! Just think of how nice a brand-new pair of socks feel when you pull them on! Soldier's Angels wants to help keep our troops and veterans’ toes feeling toasty, and you can help! Start a sock collection drive and send us new socks in all colors and sizes in their original packaging. We will distribute the socks to veterans in VA Hospitals and include in our care packages to deployed service members. Our goal for 2021 is to collect 10,000 pairs of socks for our deployed service members and veterans. You can buy any adult size socks. We have service members and veterans of all sizes and genders, so as long as they are adult socks, we’ll find the right person for the sock after we have them! As you will see on our Amazon Wish List, black socks are preferred, but really any color is fine! These socks are not meant to be used as uniform socks by our deployed service members. The military has pretty strict regulations when it comes to military uniforms and every branch is different. These socks will be used by military for time out of uniform. For veterans in hospitals, the color doesn’t matter at all, but hospitals require that patients have non-skid socks. Check out the Soldiers Angels’ – Warm Feet for Warriors page for more information about how to participate.

2021 Alpine Skiing Tournament

Special Olympics Massachusetts

Date/Time: Saturday, March 13, and Sunday, March 14, 8:30am - 2:30pm

Location: Berkshire East Mountain Resort

Ages: 16 years and older; must have ski/snowboard experience

Time Commitment: Six hours (can volunteer for one or both days)

Special Olympics Massachusetts athletes from across the state will be competing in the Alpsine Skiing State Tournament on Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14 at Berkshire East Mountain Resort in Charlemont, MA. Intermediate athletes will compete on Saturday and advanced and novice athletes will compete on Sunday. Volunteers will assist on the slopes to assist as gatekeepers, trail forerunners, and trail tails for each race. Volunteers are required to have ski or snowboard experience and provide their own equipment. Special Olympics will provide lift tickets.


Did you know that along with DGT's family-friendly volunteer opportunities every month, we also offer a monthly newsletter and parenting-focused blog? Find them on our website, or better yet, subscribe now to have these tools, tips, and important resources sent to your inbox. Be sure to also share your favorite posts and tips with big-hearted families you know.
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This list was compiled by Doing Good Together™ (www.doinggoodtogether.org)
When calling to volunteer for any of the opportunities listed above, please let the coordinator know you found it through this listing. You are encouraged to ask any questions you may have of the sponsoring organization before committing to a project.
Disclaimer: This list is provided as a service to families. Inclusion of organizations in this listing does not imply affiliation, endorsement or quality assurance on the part of Doing Good Together.™ Doing Good Together™ bears no responsibility whatsoever for the activities and actions of the listed organizations.

© 2021 Doing Good Together™