0207SheDidYouCan

Jenny Friedman began her works of goodness when her children
were little. She had a three month old and a six year old.   She was
free lance writing at the time and felt that her life was very blessed
and very fortunate. She wanted to give back some how.

Jenny started looking for opportunities to volunteer and help doing
good organizations i her community, but she had to be able to take
her kids with her. She didn't want to give up her time with her children
just to help out somewhere else. So her search began for place that
would let her volunteer with her kids.

Meals On Wheels said they would be happy to have hers and the kids
help. Jenny then recruited her friend, who was a stay at home with a
three year old. The whole thing turned out to be a remarkably
rewarding experience.

The older people weren't particularly interested in seeing Jenny or her
friend, but they were excited about seeing the children   Their faces
would light up when the kids would walk up to the door and hand them
their meal. Jenny says "I realized we could do a much better job of
serving just by having our kids with us. The kids brought so much joy
in to the lives of people who probably didn't see anyone else all day.
Our kids got so much out of it too. They thrived on all the kindness
and attention these older people gave to them."

Soon preschool and Kindergarten got in the way, so they started to
look for other volunteer opportunities. "It was pretty difficult to find
organizations that would welcome families as volunteers" says Jenny.

Jenny started to do some research."I thought family volunteering is
such a great idea, I wanted to find out more, and write about what a
valuable experience this is for kids, for families and for communities.
I wrote several free lance articles and eventually wrote the book
'The Busy Families Guide To Volunteering".

"After the book was published, I still felt like I wanted to do
more to encourage families to serve others. That's why we
started the nonprofit Doing Good Together."

"I had no experience in non-profits, but my friend did, so she helped
get it started. Unfortunately shortly after the organization was
launched, my friend Karen Pritz passed away from leukemia. She
was a remarkable woman and it would have been fabulous for her to
see all we have accomplished."

"This certainly wasn't anything I did all by myself. We have developed
a wonderful board of directors and have numerous volunteers. "
When asked how did you find your volunteers jenny said "Once we
started we found that there were so many families who were
interested in volunteering too.   They just didn't have the time or the
resources to find out where they could volunteer as a family. People
would be so excited when they heard what we were doing, they would
just all kind of hop on board.   We had a lot of help. So many people
were willing to give of their time to help get this thing started."

"I think people are concerned about the messages that their children
are getting and they want to find ways to encourage the values of
compassion, kindness, good citizenship and caring about their
community, and this is a good hands on way for them to do this.
I have met some incredible people in the course of doing this.
You run in to some really great people doing this type of work."

Maybe you would be interested in partnering with
Doing Good Together to bring family service
opportunities to your community.

You don't need any experience,
just an interest in doing good.
Doing Good Together can partner with you and give you anything you
need to know to get this started where you live.

No one wants another thing on their to do list, but we can make such
a huge difference by just giving an hour a month, or a few minutes
here or there. Doing Good doesn't mean it has to be something that
takes over your life. A little bit of good goes a long way.

This is a great way to start an epidemic of kindness and caring.

* * * Editor's Note:

This is one of those interviews I walked away from humbled, grateful,
and infinitely hopeful.   Jenny Friedman is just so earnest in what she
is trying to do for others, and to make the world a better place.
I am so glad there is someone like her walking around this earth.

Would you care to visit our Kid Stuff pages for volunteering ideas and
activities?