Twin Cities volunteers rock

Once again the Twin Cities reported the highest rate of volunteerism of all urban areas in the US, as surveyed by the Corporation of National and Community Service. We had a 37% rate of people volunteering, with an average of 44 volunteer hours/year per Capita.

As a nation in 2009, 63.4 million of us volunteered to help their communities.
This is an additional 1.6 million volunteers compared to 2008, making 2009 the largest single-year increase in the number of volunteers since 2003. Volunteers also provided 8.1 billion hours of service in 2009, which has an estimated dollar value of $169 billion.

A pretty impressive rate of volunteerism during this difficult economic downturn.

Let's see if we can get even more of us to volunteer in 2010. One of the great benefits of volunteering is that through giving we in turn are blessed!

Elders as mentors

One of our Kinship mentors, Bruce Westphal, soon to be 70, recently noted how much he and his wife have enjoyed starting up their friendship with a 7 year old boy from their community. He's discovered that it is a wonderful way for them to share of their wealth of wisdom and experience, supplementing the relationships they already have with grandchildren. They are encouraging others from their church, Westwood Lutheran in St. Louis Park, to befriend children from a couple of neighboring public elementary schools, Cedar Manor and Aquila.

You can read Pastor Bruce Westphal's story on page two of the Westwood Lutheran's Celebration publication.

Civic Ventures is an organization dedicated to actively engaging people in the second half of life in tackling serious social problems. Their studies of Americans age 50 to 70 indicate:

• Most see retirement as a time to begin a new chapter in life by being active and involved, starting new activities, and setting new goals.


• Two-thirds of those age 50 to 54 are interested in taking jobs now or in the future to help improve the quality of life in their communities.


• More than three-quarters of those who say they'll work in retirement are interested in working to help the poor, the elderly, and people in need.

http://www.civicventures.org/the_facts.cfm

Nationally MENTOR has just produced a study guide "The wisdom of age" for mentoring programs utilizing older Americans as mentors, and is available for download at the following website, http://www.mentoring.org/news/136/.

Kinship mentoring is an outstanding opportunity to enjoy the benefits of grandparenting without having to go through the much more challenging role of parenting. As our mentors can attest, it also keeps you young!

Support for kids from father absent homes

"We fathers need to step up" was the rally cry this past Father's Day from president Barack Obama. He noted the hole in his life that came as the result of his father walking out on his family at age two. Thankfully he had two wonderful grandparents who poured everything they had into helping his mom rear he and his sister.

Kinship's mentoring program works with a great abundance of father absent homes, serving kids with holes in their hearts. Thankfully there are also many caring folk who have chosen to help plug at least a portion of that hole by reaching out and becoming a friend. These individuals, couples and families might help them learn how to ride a bike, play tennis or get their first job. But more important than anything they might teach is the love that is felt by kids who realize that someone cares enough about them to want to volunteer their time with them, simply to be a friend.

While mentors can't replace missing dads, I know that there are scores of kids who's lives have been significantly enhanced by kin relationships - perhaps formal mentors, grandparents, or simply caring neighbors or church members. Thanks to these relationships many kids like Barack Obama, coming from adverse circumstances are able to thrive.

Thanks to all dad's who are doing their best to be their physically, emotionally and spiritually for their children. And a special thanks to all who are able to reach out and include a child from a father absent home. Who knows, you might just be helping to develop a scientist, teacher, preacher, or even president of the United States!