Home from college for the summer, I was delighted to discover that my younger son and his friends had opted to work as volunteers at a neighborhood thrift shop, run by a neighborhood family, to benefit the outreach programs their church supports.
There are as many volunteer opportunities as there are interests, to help others and enrich our community.
Although it’s been a while, I love to play tennis and I work with special needs students, but I’d never heard of Special Populations Tennis, until I started my own search. Tennis pro talent isn’t needed to share your time with this wonderful organization. Its foundation is in the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association, but has stood alone since 2005.
Special Populations Tennis serves special needs high school students in Cobb and North Fulton Counties, as well as seventeen different sites from Peachtree City to Cherokee and Forsyth counties.
The program works with children as young as eight, opening a new dimension of inclusion and allowing for family play.
“Tennis attracts people to our organization, but it’s the life skills and relationships that bring everyone back,” Director Jim Hamm told me.
This month, lessons will be held at East Roswell Park and Harrison Park Tennis Center in Marietta. Special Population Unified Doubles, or SPUD, Saturdays teams a special needs athlete with a volunteer for doubles play, that’s coming up in August. www.specialpopstennis.org
Many local high school students volunteer their time working with younger children in Vacation Bible School classes and at day camps. Zachary Thorman, a rising junior at Lassiter High School in Marietta, spent a recent week working with third and fourth graders, making pancakes and wooden tie racks, and helping build confidence and friendships, as part of the Winshape Day Camp at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
“I started doing this last year and I love it. If I could have gone there when I was young, I would have,” Thorman enthusiastically shared.
For youngsters who enjoy caring for people and feel they may be interested in a medical career, North Fulton Hospital has a student volunteer program during the summer months. You just have to be 21 or younger and have a commitment to help others. Specialized training will be provided. Contact Lisa Delamater at 770-751-2671 for more information.
With school out, over 100,000 children in the six-county metro area who participate in the free and reduced school lunch program will need the support of our community to replace those lunches, over 10,000 children in Cobb County alone.
Every Sunday afternoon in June, the church my family attends will ask volunteers ages 10 and up, to help assemble sack lunches to help meet this need, our goal this summer is four-thousand lunches. As part of the MUST Summer Lunch program, www.mustministries.org, many church and civic organizations will be gathering volunteers to help pack lunches so that children don’t go hungry.
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