I volunteered often during the Flood cleanup a couple years and remembered I registered through Hands on Nashville, and thought it might be worth checking out again. As luck would have it, they let me search for volunteer opportunities by age - and I discovered the Salvation Army of Nashville needed volunteers for the Angel Tree, and ages 13-18 were welcome! So, I signed us up!
Tonight, Paige and I went down and they explained what they needed us to do: Take a big bag, and take an Angel -- the Angels that had not been picked off the trees you see in the mall. Write the number of the Angel on the bag, and go in the two big rooms that contained brand new donations --- boxes and boxes of toys, clothing, bedding, diapers, home good - you name it. We needed to fill the bags with stuff for each angel; basically, "shop" in the rooms according to the angels needs/wants, and them go match the number with the family bag. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.
Each of these dark bags were huge bags and the sheet contained each angel in the family - so if a family had four children, there were four kids listed on the sheet (each a different number). The big bags are lined up by number, and as you finish the angels, you put them in the family bag.
I don't know if Paige really realized before we got there that often, some of these kids truly need the basics --- as she walked around digging around for stuff for her first angel, she came over and said "It says his biggest needs is socks. Socks, Aunt Nicole!" At the bottom of each angel, their biggest want was listed - and Paige was so bound and determined to grant every wish she could. She dug through every single box she could find to find the toy that each child wanted. One 12 year old wanted a bedding set for her bed....one little girl wanted puppies (okay, so we couldn't hook her up with the puppies, but we did find her some great stuffed puppies and some barbies that came with puppies!)....one little boy wanted a truck --- Paige was sure to find them all.
When we were leaving (I think we were able to get 14 angels done between the two of us in the two hours we were there. There was about 30 volunteers, to that's awesome!), one of the employees there mentioned that if I wanted to email the Volunteer Director, she could see if they had some spots open to help deliver the gifts to the families -- giving us the warning "You will cry!". Paige's face lit up at the mention of it and immediately said "I want to do that!!!"
I emailed the director as soon as I got home, and hopefully she's got some spots open - I am so proud of Paige. I remember being 14, and it's easy to take everything for granted. (We all do, all ages....but it's a little easier to do when you're a kid that doesn't have to work or pay for your own things, and have a family that spoils you! :P) It was so heartwarming to see her so eager and happy to help other kids have a great Christmas, and want to deliver them.
If you want to check out the opportunities in your area, I know that Salvation Army also puts up their listings on Volunteer Match - so please check them out! (And I know personally, the company I work for does company matches -- if employees volunteer x amount of time, they will donate x amount to a charity, etc - so if you use VM, be sure to see if your company does this too!)
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