By Marci McPhee, Just Serve Specialist, San Antonio East Stake
What will be YOUR legacy from the Pandemic of 2020? With a different rhythm of life in these social distancing days, spend some time in the holy work of serving God’s children. Here are service ideas you can do safely from home.
Start with JustServe.org and click the search option “volunteer from home” for local service ideas. In addition:
FAMILY or INDIVIDUAL SERVICE THAT REQUIRES NO SKILLS:
- Send thank you notes to first responders, troops, health care professionals, nursing home staff, government decision-makers, kind neighbors, family members, etc.
- “Chalk the Walk.” Get permission ahead of time from a nursing home, hospital, rehab facility, etc. Then write notes of appreciation to staff in chalk on the sidewalk. You may want to do this for a neighbor family or shut-in as well.
- Photograph grave markers for billiongraves.com. A family walk through a cemetery in the fresh air can also be a great service to others seeking their ancestors.
- Send letters of cheer to hospitalized children or adults, special-needs folks in residential facilities, elderly recipients of Meals on Wheels, etc.
- Call, use Zoom, or Facetime with parents, grandparents, an elderly neighbor, ministering brother or sister, or other ward member. Or reach out to a friend or family member who is home with children; talk to each child individually to give their parent a break.
- Go through the pantry and donate to a food bank any unexpired nonperishable foods that your family has outgrown. Tastes change – and someone else could use that box of macaroni and cheese if your teens decide they are too cool for kid food anymore.
- Clean out the toybox, kitchen, attic, or garage and set things aside to donate to refugees, crisis centers, shelters, etc. Organizations may be closed for now, but they WILL reopen.
- Go caroling. Seriously. Set up a time with a neighbor or surprise them. Ring their doorbell, then stand back 6 feet. They come to their doorstep; you sing Primary songs or hymns or your favorite goofy songs. You’ll make their day.
- Make care bags for individuals experiencing homelessness. Stuff plastic bags with snacks and contact information for the closest shelter. When social distancing days are over (and this WILL end), you’ll have care bags ready to keep in your car, backpack or stroller to give to someone you meet on the street who needs a hand. (See Haven for Hope care bags.)
- Capture this moment. Try the “About Me” activities from Family Search. The pandemic will define this generation the way JFK’s assassination and September 11 defined those generations. You will want to remember your feelings, and your children and grandchildren will wonder how you got through it all. Besides, “numerous psychological studies over the years have confirmed that writing about personal experience seems to help the brain regulate emotion,” said Mark Obmascik, author of The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II, Atria (2019), 104.
- Capture someone else’s story in the “My Family” section of Family Search. How did your family members get through hard times before? Interview the oldest generation in your family.
- Feed the missionaries or a ministering family or a neighbor, or pick up groceries for them. Arrange a pickup time, then practice “contact-free” delivery. This from Meal Train: “Place the meal or groceries on the porch. Leave the [food] by the front door and return to your car. Once in your car, kindly call the recipient and let them know the delivery is available.” Then follow up the delivery with a personal phone call, which may be just as nourishing to the soul as the meal or groceries.
- If you have fleece on hand, tie blankets or hats and scarves for the needy. (No skills needed besides cutting and tying a knot – we promise!)
- If you have old t-shirts, socks, rags, towels, or rope on hand, make pet toys for animal shelters. See 5 Tips for Making Pet Toys to Donate to Your Local Shelter (and notice step 1 – make sure the shelter is on board and find out their specific toy needs).
FAMILY or INDIVIDUAL SERVICE THAT REQUIRES SKILLS:
PHOTOGRAPHY: Submit your photos for possible use in Church products. ChurchofJesusChrist.org/topics/service/create
CITIZEN SCIENCE: WhatsInYourBackyard.org “The key to the next life-saving biomedical discovery might be living right below your feet. Dozens of fungi can occupy a single handful of soil, and many of them are adept at making new compounds that hold tremendous promise for treating human diseases. The Citizen Science Soil Collection Program is asking you for your dirt.”
CITIZEN METEOROLOGIST: mPING.nssl.noaa.gov “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is collecting public weather reports through a free app called ‘mPING,’ for Meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground. Citizen scientists around the world can anonymously submit weather observations as frequently as once a minute.”
COMPUTER SKILLS:
• Be a citizen archivist/historian! Transcribe or tag documents and images for the National Archives archives.gov/citizen-archivist
• Index genealogical records: FamilySearch.org/indexing
• Transcribe Smithsonian historical documents and biodiversity data: transcription.si.edu
• Transcribe books for enjoyment and education into digital form for Project Gutenberg: gutenberg.org
SEW/KNIT/CROCHET/QUILT SKILLS:
- Sew face masks. Check with your local health care facility to find out if they want these, and if so, the size and fabric they prefer. Online patterns are proliferating, along with conflicting information. Some health care facilities are requesting these hand sewn masks, not for COVID-19 prevention, but for standard medical professional usage in order to preserve the N95 masks for use with patients who have tested positive. For example, see the Facebook group Face Masks for Health Care: The Seamsters
- Sew menstrual pads for girls and women in 140+ countries: DaysforGirls.com
- Threads of Love San Antonio accepts clothing and care items for premature babies (living and deceased) serviced by local San Antonio hospitals, crisis pregnancy care centers, and Any Baby Can. Patterns for quilts, afghans, hats and infant burial outfits are at ThreadsofLoveSA.org
SMOOTH READING VOICE: Read books in any language for LibriVox: librivox.org/pages/volunteer-for-librivox “No auditions, no prior experience needed. All you need is your voice, some free software, your computer, and maybe an inexpensive microphone.”
NOT AT HOME BUT CRITICAL: Giving blood is needed more than ever now due to widespread cancellations of blood drives. You can schedule an appointment to donate, allowing for social distancing. Medical professionals know how to keep people safe from germs. southtexasblood.org
FINAL THOUGHTS:
“Latter-day Saints, as with other followers of Jesus Christ, are always looking for ways to help, to lift, and to love others,” President Russell M. Nelson reminded us in the most recent General Conference. “They who are willing to be called the Lord’s people ‘are willing to bear one another’s burdens, . . . to mourn with those that mourn; . . . and [to] comfort those that stand in need of comfort’ (Mosiah 18:8-9). Our greatest joy comes as we help our brothers and sisters.” “The Second Great Commandment,” October 2019, emphasis in the original.
Paraphrasing Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my church, we will serve the Lord” by serving His children. Even when a worldwide pandemic comes – we will continue to serve safely from home.
Some of these service ideas are adapted from @byu Twitter, and “Pint-sized Service Projects,” Sunday Lessons and Activities for Kids, by Marci McPhee (Walnut Springs Press, 2015), 29-31