Your World, Your Hug, Your Way.

November 11, 2021

The November when my daughter Madison was 5, she and I were talking about the upcoming holidays, and I mentioned how this is also a time of year when we try to find ways to be generous toward people we don't know in person.

Madison: “What does "generous" mean?”

Me: “It means taking some of what we have that is extra, stuff that we don't really need, and finding a way to make that extra stuff do good in the world."

Madison: “Why do we do that?”

Me: “It feels really good to watch what happens when a little bit of our time or effort or money goes a long way beyond just ourselves. We want to live in the kind of world where people look out for each other. Being generous seems like it’s for others, but it’s really for you.”

Madison: “Just like...a HUG?”

Me: Yes. Just exactly like a hug.

Here at KidsOutAndAbout.com, we try to make it easy for your family to give the world a hug, your way: Our Communications Director, Katie Beltramo, did some research and put together an article with tips for Volunteering With Children, which is useful all year round: It's filled with practical ideas for teaching kids gratitude and generosity, and embedded in the bottom is a list of local places that have indicated that they have volunteer opportunities available. And if you know of places that are not on that list but should be, email me back and I'll send them an invite to post. I live for that stuff.

—Deb