Hi there! I would love to involve my young children and nieces into helping those in need this holiday season. Either donating toys, delivering goods, helping soldiers overseas or here, helping the homeless, helping kids have a nice christmas, etc. I cannot find anything online! Does anyone know of a special place or do anything special with their children that can suggest somewhere in the suburbs to help out? Looking to give some meaning to this holiday season!
There is the People's Resource Center in Westmont and Loaves and Fishes in Naperville - Both are food bank type places that I know accept volunteers. I'm not sure if there is a minimum age. There's always Toys for Tots.
If you happen to be downtown Chicago, the main post office on Canal and Harrison has bins of "Dear Santa" letters/adopt a child/family. You can read through the letters and chose one that you like. You may want to call your local high school and see if one of the student groups has adopt a family program also ( I work in a high school and we do this). Many food kitchens would love help serving on Christmas.
We do the Sun-times Season of Sharing every year. You get a letter from a kid in a CPS school and buy them a gift that's around $25 in value. (I think I got the value right. I'm waiting for my letters.)
You can request as many letters as you'd like from the sun-times website. It's a great way to get the kids involved because they can relate to the gifts you purchase.
Check out your local churches. Christ Church of Oak Brook has several www.ccob.org (31st & York)
