Pushing Pencils

Age: Over 2

Type: Collection/Donation

This Valentine's Day my girls were lucky enough to receive several small gifts from grandparents and family members. Included amongst the little trinkets were several glittery, shiny, hearty, pinky (you get the girly idea) pencils. While they did have instant appeal, I mean who doesn't love pretty little things, they were soon relegated to a box in our playroom of other unsharpened pencils.

When I sat down at my computer this morning I remembered an article that I had read awhile ago about donating pencils - so I thought I would look into it for our little hearts. Turns out the The Pencil Project was just what I was looking for! A small grass roots effort which matches up students in need of pencils with kids looking to donate. By contacting Maria the founder, you can get the information required to make any size donation. Sound good to you? I think it would make the perfect project for a preschool class, Daisy troop or Sunday school class. As always, would love to hear if you decide to try out this idea and I will feature your success story here! Thanks for reading!

Making a Million Meals

Age: Over 5

Type: Organized Activity

A couple weeks ago I posted here about my daughter and her 'chores' to raise money for a project our church was undertaking - A Million Meal project. This weekend I had the privilege of serving as a key volunteer while this task was undertaken. Let me start by saying the at the end of the weekend, after 5000+ volunteers had filtered through the gym of a local high school, our mission was accomplished. And what an amazing a sight it was!

This event was produced in partnership with Feed My Starving Children - an organization out of Minnesota that is dedicated to serving children around the world. Our church, Northridge, was lead under the direction of FMSC staff to utilize both our time and our money in order to reach this monumental goal of making a million meals. I could fill a page with unbelievable statistics about what this means, but here is one that really stuck with me. At the conclusion of 1 two hour shift, enough meals were made to feel 260 children for an entire YEAR!!! It is hard to wrap your head around just what kind of impact that is, for just taking 2 hours out of your day to serve others.

One of the coolest parts of this entire experience, however, was that it was created to involve the entire family. I was able to work the registration table for part of the event and let me tell you how much my heart exploded when I saw entire families checking in to help serve others. Walking around the gym floor watching the packing teams I saw kids as young as 5, working side by side with parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends, helping out in a really meaningful way to achieve a common goal. It was inspiring!!!

Feed My Starving Children has grown in leaps and bounds in the last several years, and chances are they may be organizing an event near you. I encourage you to check it out - it is amazing what you and your little hearts can accomplish!

Emailing some Valentine's Love!

Type: Computer/Email

Age: Any

It doesn't get any easier than this to show someone you care! The Children's National Medical Center is offering visitors the chance to email Valentine's to their special patients. Our little hearts can pick a valentine card, add a little message and post it to the Children's Center wall. Hard copies of the cards will be displayed on the playroom wall to show the children how many other kids are thinking about them.

So take a minute with your kids to send the love!

A Little Cross Promotion!

And now a break from the service project ideas for a little shameless self promotion. I am thrilled to announce the release of my first children's book, Perfect You! Here is a quick synopsis of it:

In this letter from God, children will discover that He has blessed them with gifts and talents that make them totally unique and able to serve the world in a very special way! Could the gift of bravery make you a police officer or firefighter, or could your compassion help you to be a great doctor or teacher? The possibilities are endless! Perfect You is a story for parents to share with their children to encourage them to discover their talents so that they can live a life of purpose and happiness.

As you can see, the book and this blog go hand in hand; the first encouraging you to find your gifts and the latter to help you use them!

The official release of the book will not be until April, but you can get signed copies from me starting the end of the month! More info. is sure to follow. Until then, please considering 'Like'ing Perfect You on Facebook!