Get your hands on a better planet: Volunteer in the spirit of Earth Day

HandsOn Greater Richmond tells us how we can volunteer our way to a happier Earth.

April 13, 2015; 12:00 PM • by Susan Howson

Earth Day is finally within spitting distance! In the upcoming week and a half, you may feel inspired to take your team, your family, your friends, your paramour, or your neighbor (hey, you never know) on a volunteering mission on behalf of Mother Nature.

Wonder of wonders, this is also National Volunteer Week! That means the folks over at HandsOn Greater Richmond have been busy.

We talked to Vanessa Diamond, Director and Co-Founder of HandsOn and Holly Gordon, Programs and Operations Manager. And we have passed on the Earth Day advice of Richmond’s resident volunteering experts for all of your do-gooding needs.

Global Youth Service Day

This Saturday, April 18th is not just the Saturday before Earth Day, it’s Global Youth Service Day. This means we’re all in luck–there are even more volunteering activities (many environment-related). The HandsOn Opportunity Calendar for Saturday is a great starting place if you’re looking for something to do with kids and families.

One Fell Swoop

Help Renew Richmond expand their community gardens to more sites–thanks to the special funding they just received–this Saturday, April 18th. Two options are available.

• Garden Build at the Library
• Armstrong HS Earth Day Garden

From the HandsOn description:

The mission of Renew Richmond is to empower individuals across all walks of life to cultivate healthier lifestyles through the growth of food, nutrition instruction and agricultural education. This will be achieved through production and sale of organically grown produce and implementation of holistic urban agriculture instructional programs and curriculum-based activities. This is a special project at a local library in the Warwick area.

Volunteers will be doing various garden tasks like watering, planting, weeding, harvesting, composting, and building structures. It is Renew Richmond’s plan that projects like these will become models for progressive urban sustainability efforts in the City of Richmond and provide fresh, healthy, locally grown fruit, vegetables and flowers to those individuals who have little to no access.

All volunteers who attend must be registered.

Ongoing Volunteering

Says Holly Gordon: “In addition to dozens of ways to narrow by interest, ZIP code, or activity, try finding an opportunity by looking for your specific skills.”

Perform a search, and under Additional Filters click the + sign next to What would you like to do? and choose a skill under Use these skills.

DIY Volunteering

Want to be of help in a different, don’t-have-to-leave-home way? Check out HandsOn’s DIY Volunteering, which helps you make something at home on your own time, and then they’ll deliver it all for you to the nonprofit.

April’s DIY Volunteer activity is, uncoincidentally, environmentally themed! Seed bombs are a great group activity. Think scout troop. Sorority or fraternity. Book club that’s tired of this month’s book. So many opportunities!

Power of Good

To honor local volunteers, HandsOn Greater Richmond has teamed up with The Spark Mill to present their annual Power of Good event. Devotees of both organizations have been nominating people since February, all of which will be featured at the event, with the top 10 immortalized in a Patience Salgado documentary!

Plus, a silent auction of cool art pieces by talents like Ed Trask and Tiffany Glass Ferreira and a bunch of other things. It’s free to attend but HandsOn would be forever grateful for a $5 donation. Money that goes to HandsOn goes towards managing hundreds of volunteer opportunities a year, which helps scores of nonprofits, which help thousands of people across the state, including you and me, whether or not we know it. Just attending Power of Good, participating in their silent auction, and making a tiny donation will do a lot towards helping us all help the Earth.

Photo by: CIFOR

April 13, 2015 12:00 PM 0