SJM: Make it fun, and a kid will do anything...even eat broccoli and volunteer

My daughter’s first exposure to volunteering came at an early age. I used to be a regular volunteer for Inn from the Cold (IFTC), an awesome Calgary charity that provides a place to sleep and warm meals to families without homes.

They have a great permanent space, but different churches and synagogues throughout the city also host Inn nights to meet the need. I volunteered at a church downtown, and eventually my daughter began coming along to play with the kids.

She loved it. Volunteering became synonymous with eating a healthy, hearty meal, playing with a previously unexplored selection of toys and making new friends. “When are we going to volunteer again, mommy?” she’d say in a tone that made it sound like the zoo or the park.

Once she started coming with me, people often mistook us for guests at the Inn. New volunteers would ask us questions that suggested they thought we were spending the night, and then they’d look surprised when I’d help in the kitchen or scoop her up to leave. The Inn is frequently home (for the night, anyway) to single parents like me. So I wasn’t surprised. And it humbled me to be treated like a guest. After all, how many of us – given a few missteps, undesirable circumstances or pure bad luck – could find ourselves in need of IFTC’s services?

My daughter was oblivious to these assumptions people made about us. She just wanted to have fun, and make new friends. Sounds like the perfect volunteer experience to me.