Mary Kay Melvin
PA News Editor
More than once Barbara Abbott cancelled volunteer dates at the food bank last spring due to unsuccessful efforts to recruit San Francisco Day School families.
Several months later, the Community Service Opportunities for Families Committee faces a new problem: too many volunteers.
Thanks to a change in how Barbara and co-chair Wendy Miller enlist volunteers they are generating more interest than available openings.
Starting in January, organizers began offering specific volunteer opportunities to specific grades. They then asked room parents to advertise each opportunity via email and encourage families to participate. Previously, the committee relied on recurring notices in the School’s Week Ahead and other school publications.
“We have had great response with room parents taking it on,” Barbara said. To date, room parents have recruited families to make meals at the Ronald McDonald House as well as package food at the San Francisco Food Bank. Typically, Barbara lets food bank staff know to expect 20 people from SFDS and that they fill in with other volunteers from around the city.
Although she only needed four families, room parent Kristin Glickman said several first-grade families responded to her email promoting the need for volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House. Based on feedback, Kristin said, parents enjoyed sharing the experience with families from the same grade.
“I think it works better because people feel more obligated, but more comfortable at the same time,” she said.
Fif Ghobadian, a fourth-grade room parent, received a fantastic response to her request for volunteers at the food bank.
“What we are asking is doable. It’s spending three hours on a Saturday with their kids. We are not asking them to give up an entire weekend,” she said.
Of course, Fif is impressed by fourth-grade parents in general. “Whenever I send an email, no matter the cause, the response is always beyond the level of expectation. Participation is always close to 100 %,” she said.
Fif said she believes families are willing to do even more.
Barbara and Wendy have their “eyes and ears” open to additional opportunities around the city. “While there are a lot of great organizations, not all can use early elementary kids as volunteers,” Barbara said. “The ones we partner with are well organized and can take young kids.”
In addition to the remaining dates at the food bank and Ronald McDonald House, Barbara is trying to arrange times for families to support Sirona Cares Foundation. Parents and their children will be asked to sort clothing to be donated to people in Haiti.
