SHARE will hold their annual Care Fair for the first time in two years on Tuesday, Aug. 31 during seminar.
Unlike last year’s virtual web page featuring project videos, this year’s Care Fair will be fully in-person. They will have different tables featuring information about the various projects SHARE has to offer.
“The Care Fair is a way for us to show off all of the different volunteer projects that are available for the upcoming school year,” SHARE sponsor Sheryl Kaplan said. “You have about 30 minutes to browse around and sign up for different projects.”
To sign up for a project, students will scan the QR code at the project’s table. From there, they’ll be directed to a Google Form to fill out their information. Finally, the project’s chairs will add them to a GroupMe where they’ll receive details about volunteer opportunities for that project.
In order to make your project-browsing experience a little bit easier, here’s a preview of five different projects you’ll see when you make your trip to the aux gym on Tuesday.
Unleashed Pet Rescue
Unleashed Pet Rescue is the perfect project for any animal lover looking to help shelter animals.
This project meets about every two months to help take care of pets around the shelter. From walking dogs, to taking care of cats in the cat corner and helping with grooming animals, each visit is unique from the last, according to project chair senior Isabella Marquez.
“Animals can really be something that helps a lot with stress,” Marquez said. “It’s nice to just relax after school and just spend time with dogs and cats in need.”
Participating in this project requires attending an orientation and filling out permission forms but once the details are completed, all that’s needed is a love for animals to be successful — according to Marquez.
SME Camp
SME Camp is a babysitting opportunity that meets in October and February during parent-teacher conferences.
While teachers are in conferences, volunteers babysit and entertain teachers’ children, as well as feed them dinner.
Teachers drop their children off and volunteers watch them for one to two hours. Chairs are planning to make each event themed in order for a more engaging experience for the kids, according to project chair, junior Sneha Thomas.
Since the first conference falls right around Halloween, Thomas is planning on putting a Halloween theme to the activities.
If you enjoy kids and you want to find out if babysitting is your true calling, this project is a great fit.
“It’s nice to help the teachers out,” Thomas said. “They won’t have to worry about things, like where they are going to take their kids for the night.”
Brighton Gardens
Brighton Gardens meets several times a year to engage with nursing home residents through games, baked treats and anything else to lift their spirits.
“It’s important for people with not as many close family members to get to have interaction with others,” project chair junior Mia Walters said. “If I were older and I didn’t have as much close family, I would enjoy stuff like this.”
With no previous experience required to join this project, students are able to jump right into spending quality time with the home’s residents.
“It’s not super complicated, it’s a pretty structured project,” Walters said. “You’ll probably have multiple opportunities to go and help. So if you can’t make it one day, you can probably come another day.”
BackSnacks
BackSnacks provides 1,200 bags of food every week for underprivileged kids in 19 different schools around Kansas City.
This project meets often to package food in grocery bags and send it off to kids who can’t always anticipate three meals a day. Volunteers can jam to music while actively filling bags with non-perishable food items. It’s a great project that keeps you active the entire time, according to project chair and sophomore Maddie Doyle.
Each bag is filled with foods such as soups, cereals and granola bars. The food is provided in Ziploc bags by BackSnacks, then put in paper bags by the volunteers and sent out to schools all around KC.
“Joining BackSnacks does not only benefit you by making you feel great,” Doyle said. “But it also benefits the kids who can’t afford food and who are relying on us and the organization to give it to them.”
It’s Elementary!
This project helps the East feeder elementary schools with any events they need. From talent shows to fairs and PTA babysitting, this project is a great way to help out the local schools according to project chair and senior Jamisen Ferren.
It’s Elementary! helps by assisting with event setup, clean up and engaging with the kids. They meet every month to help schools out with their events.
“I remember going to those kinds of cheesy school things, and I always had a good time,” Ferren said. “And I think being able to give back and help kids also have a good time, it’s kind of important.”
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