Ways You Can Help:
As a busy mom, it can be challenging to find the time to volunteer. It can also be a challenge to find the perfect volunteer opportunities for moms and tots. Volunteer Oxford is here to help find your fit as a family, and wants to make it easy to volunteer with your child.
Check out these many great programs you can get involved in:
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Beat the heat and take a stand for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society by hosting your very own lemonade stand. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society provides everything needed minus the stand, the location, coolers and ice for the lemonade. The organization provides cans of lemonade (so no messy cleanup), cookies, yard signs, money jug advertising and thank you flyers and a t-shirt for participants. What a fun activity for moms and kids! To register to host your own lemonade stand, call Robin Burns at 601-856-5831.
Memory Makers
Memory Makers is a day program that meets Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is dedicated to older adults dealing with memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia disorders. They provide safe, affordable socialization for anyone in the community who has dementia. Some volunteer opportunities for moms and tots include baking goodies – cupcakes, muffins, cookies, cakes – for their clients. In fact, there are a few mom and tot teams who bake regularly for Memory Makers, but they always welcome others to help, have fun giving back and of course, in visiting with everyone there!
Another exciting opportunity that Memory Makers is interested in launching is baby therapy, where moms and their babies participate in their programming. Memory Makers has one participant who hardly speaks, but talked up a storm when a baby came to visit with her mom, according to staff members. This opportunity provides a good outing for mother and baby and can be done in only 15 minutes at their convenience.
Memory Makers meets behind Applebee’s off West Jackson Avenue. Call 234-3332 to find out how you can help.
Drifters’ Place
Drifters' Place is a no-kill dog rescue facility focusing on rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing dogs and puppies in Lafayette County and surrounding areas. There are several ways that families can help them. For older kids, they can come help clean kennels and feed the dogs. Or take a dog or puppy for a weekend or day and spend time with them at the park, lake or even your back yard!
Talk to businesses and people about Drifters’ Place and help raise money since they rely on monetary donations. You can even plan a small fundraiser, maybe a neighborhood cookout to raise money. The sky is the limit! While you are out and about, purchase a few items for a puppy: toys, treats, a collar or even a food bowl. Every little bit helps Drifters’ Place and the dogs and puppies that rely on their help. Drifters’ Place is willing to work with moms and tots to find ways to volunteer. Email Stephanie Mitchell at [email protected].
Lafayette-Oxford Food Pantry
The Lafayette Oxford Food Pantry serves over 5,000 Lafayette County families every year who need food assistance. The Pantry is always thankful for volunteers. There are several possibilities for moms and older (10-12 years of age) children. Pantry clients shop on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and need someone to help shop with them to make sure they are choosing the right amount and right kinds of food for their family. Volunteers should be comfortable talking with strangers and able to give polite direction to grown-ups. They can also help with taking carts out to cars because many Pantry clients are elderly or physically handicapped.
On Tuesdays, trucks arrive with food to be unpacked and put on shelves or into storage areas. The boxes are heavy, so kids (and moms) should be strong enough to handle this. This might be a perfect opportunity for the father-son duo, as well. Of course, fundraisers and food drives are also helpful. Plan a food drive at your church, school, or Boy or Girl Scout troop to help out with the shelter’s needs. Mary Edith Walker, volunteer coordinator with the Pantry, would love to talk to moms and kids about fun projects to do together: email her at [email protected].
Leap Frog
The mission of Leap Frog is to provide a nurturing environment in which “at-risk” students can develop and enhance necessary skills for academic success, build productive, ongoing relationships with adults, and improve their self-esteem. Leap Frog could use the help of others to help with book donations. A book drive is a perfect way that moms and children could help Leap Frog and the “at-risk” children that they serve during the school year. To schedule a book drive or to learn more about Leap Frog, email Kathryn Shirley at [email protected] for more information.
Leap Frog needs volunteers to donate snacks for 35 first graders on Mondays and Wednesdays during the school year. From 3:00-4:00 the students are tutored,and at 4:00 they are given a snack. We try to encourage healthy eating habits and lifestyles, and use snacktime to reinforce this. Donating snacks is easy, just follow these steps:
1. Go shopping.
We ask that you bring a fruit, a carb, and juice. Any type of crackers, goldfish, cheeze-its, or ritz and cheese cubes, etc., bananas, apples, grapes, or oranges, and 2 Gallons of juice or 35 juice boxes or bags. These are just suggestions, any healthy snack makes them happy! And if you and your tot want to make a snack, we are more than happy to have that too! *Water, apple juice, OJ, HI-C, or any other fruit drink; Please no milk or sodas.
2. Bring your snacks to the kitchen at St. John's Catholic Church by 2:00 p.m. on your designated day.
3. Be sure to label and date the snacks as Leap Frog.
Leap Frog begins on Wednesday, September 5th. We will need donors every Monday and Wednesday until the last
week of November. To become a snack donor for Leap Frog, email Teresa Adams, [email protected].
http://theleapfrogprogram.org/The_Leap_Frog_Program/Snack_Donors.html
The Corps of Engineers
The Corps of Engineers have a few special events each year that welcome volunteers. Help build nest boxes for blue birds, wood ducks and
bats. Beautification projects are also welcome, too. Other events in which volunteers are needed include:
Youth Fishing Rodeo – Volunteers are needed to help cook and serve lunch and acquire prizes for the participants
Clean Up Day – Volunteers are needed to help pick up litter around Sardis Lake.
Fish Habitat Day – Mom and tots would help the Corps strategically place donated Christmas trees and stakes in the lake bottom as fish shelter. Families can also donate their Christmas trees after the holiday season to help with this event.
Contact Shea Staten at[email protected] for more information.
Mississippi Bat Working Group
Bat houses help with the conservation of Mississippi’s outdoor wildlife. The Mississippi Bat Working Group needs help building bat houses. Houses are donated by the group to targeted areas in every county in Mississippi. This is a great project for moms or even dads and younger children to tackle.
Contact Shea Staten at [email protected] to find out more about the Mississippi Bat Working Group.
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat needs volunteers to help with their build this summer and fall. This is actually a great mother/daughter or father/son activity. All
they require is that everyone fills out a waiver, take the safety course located at www.hfvolunteerinsurance.com, and that youth are least 16 years of
age. This is really an opportunity for older children and their parents. For more information on Habitat and how you can plug in, email Oxford Habitat at
[email protected].
More Than a Meal
More Than a Meal needs volunteers to serve food to individuals and tutor children every Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Stone Center.
Families are welcome to help serve food and interact others. Many times families who are served bring their children to be tutored. This is a family-friendly volunteer activity and all are welcome to volunteer. For more information, email Kristy Bridgers at [email protected].
Volunteer Connection (formerly Volunteer Oxford)
Stronger Together Oxford Volunteers – whether you are a stay-at-home mom, young adult, retiree, or senior citizen– are an integral part of our community. The quality of life in the Lafayette-Oxford-University is impacted by the generosity of our citizens. Together, we make a difference and make our community a better place to live. Stronger Together Oxford, Community Volunteer Hub, matches volunteers to service in our community.
Find out about organizations and non-profits that can use your help by visiting their FB @ Stronger Together Oxford You can create your very own Volunteer Account and stay plugged in through emails and other ways about upcoming volunteer opportunities that you and your child might enjoy!
To find out more about volunteering, call today Marlee Carpenter Volunteer Coordinator 662-232-2377 [email protected]
