GIVING for Thanksgiving
5 ways to incorporate GIVING into your Thanksgiving traditions
In addition to celebrating important days in the lives of kids in foster care, Worthdays strives to increase awareness about our local foster care system! There are so many ways to get involved and we believe Thanksgiving is a great time to get started.
1. Start talking about the foster care system (and our organization)to friends and family!
Much of what we see about the foster care system are the bad things you hear on the news. There is so much more to the foster care system and making other people aware that there are over 5,200 children in foster care in Virginia and over 107,000 children nationally waiting to be adopted is a good place to start. There are tons of opportunities to become involved and it will take us all to make the foster care system succeed! Get folks thinking about their talents or resources they have in front of them that may be able to help. Maybe someone owns a local company that wants to provide an internship to a foster youth. Maybe you have extra time on your hands and would like to learn more about how to be an advocate for a child in foster care. Or maybe you are a tutor and would like to volunteer to improve the educational opportunities for a child in foster care. The ideas are endless!
2. Have a Worthdays information card at each of your place settings this holiday.
Shoot us an email at caroline@worthdays.org and tell me how many information cards I can send you along with your address. This will lead to positive discussion about GIVING and kindness at your holiday dinner. These are also great to give out at your work place or other community groups you are involved with!
3. Invite someone to join you at your Thanksgiving meal.
‘When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence’. We love this quote and only hope for a world where every single person has someone to share Thanksgiving with. The reality is that many youth that have aged out of foster care have no where to go on Thanksgiving which only perpetuates their loneliness. Another idea is to support foster families on Thanksgiving by simply bringing by a pumpkin pie or other tasty treat! It is paramount that we support foster families so they are best able to thrive as foster parents!
4. Find a local organization that is serving Thanksgiving dinner and take your family to volunteer!
Did you know that the statistics show that upwards of 50% of the homeless population were at some point in foster care? You will not regret serving others and the lessons you may take away from this opportunity!
5. Use your holiday dinner as a time to support Worthdays directly!
Be creative! This a great way to involve children and teenagers. Encourage family members to bring a gift card to your Thanksgiving meal that can be used for birthday boxes. Or have people find an inspirational item that can be donated to us for boxes (think motivational quotes, books, journals, etc). Or divvy up the essential items of a birthday box amongst family members and create a box for us to have on hand in emergencies (pick a tenraged who likes sports or one that likes fashion and just go with it! We will certainly be able to us it!). And monetary donations are always accepted too – challenge your family to donate and see how much you can raise collectively!
As you can see there are so many ways to incorporate GIVING into your holiday meal. Please be in touch with us with any questions you might have. We are grateful to have the opportunity to be surrounded by this amazing community who have helped us tell the world that kids in foster care matter!
– Caroline Neal, Founder