One Year Later Volunteering At The Red Cross Homeless Shelter

Today marks my one year anniversary of volunteering at the Red Cross Homeless Shelter in Levittown.  I always wanted to do something that I felt helped other members of our community, but always made excuses for why I didn't have the time.  I'm a Realtor so I work long & unpredictable hours, I have 3 boys I need to spend time with, I need to find time to get back in shape, start reading more etc.  Last year I realized I'll always find a reason not to do something & finally decided that I was either going to help out or not.  Thankfully I decided to help serve dinners on Fridays and the decision has changed alot about my life.  It's amazing once you find time to do something how you start to find time to do more and more things.  So, I started off by holding a Thanksgiving Food Drive and asked all of my friends, family, clients & co-workers if they could donate any items to the shelter such as paper products, cleaning supplies, non-perishable food, baby supplies etc.  We ended up gathering nearly $3,000 worth of goods to donate and completely filled my mini van.

We even had a local pre-school who were learning all about Thanksgiving gather a ton of supplies.

So now it's been a full year and I've learned a lot over that time.  I've leaned to be thankful for what I've got because I see so many families down on their luck but not down on their spirits fighting the good fight to get back on their feet.  I've learned how one good decision can lead to more good decisions.  After finding the time to help out at the shelter each week I realized I could find more time and get back into shape.  30 lbs. later I'm feeling even better about myself.  Recently, my sons soccer league reached out to say they were short on coaches for the season so I decided again I could find this time and it's been a great experience.  I love helping the kids come out of their shells a bit, learn something new & most importantly just enjoy running around with other kids a couple of times a week.  So it's been an eventful year that started with one decision to find some time to help someone else out, but at the end of the day it helped me out tremendously.  I have a better outlook on life, enjoy my free time more, and live a more satisfying life overall.  I've made some great friends at the shelter and some more while coaching.

The shelter is currently looking for new volunteers to help out so if you can find a couple of hours a week I promise you'll gain a lot from it. 

Please contact: Kathi Ambrogi, Shelter Volunteer Coordinator, sheltervolunteer2@redcrosslbcc.org or checkout the website to learn about all of the areas the Red Cross helps the community. http://www.redcrosslbcc.org/

My Team & I are starting this years Food Drive again this month so if you have any items you can donate such as non-perishable food, paper products (towels, plates, cups etc) cleaning supplies, baby supplies etc. please reach out to the Red Cross, or let me know & I'll deliver the items if you can't.  We'll gather all of the items throughout the next two months and deliver them prior to Thanksgiving.