Service Club--Ten Club

Friends at work and play.

There are times in our lives when we feel overwhelmed with all the responsibilities and challenges facing us. It is times like this when we wish there would be someone to intervene and help us. There are other times when everything is going well, we feel good, we have energy and we want to help make someone else's burden lighter. We have all experienced each of these times. Often the added benefit of giving to others is that we feel our burdens less as well.

Recently our local TV news program had a segment about a service club called the Ten club. Each member puts in $10.00 a month and then that money is used the next month on a community service need. Friends of mine thought it was a great idea and so we began our own Ten Club. The first month we met and organized ourselves into teams of two. Each team is responsible for finding a need and getting any supplies needed to fill that need when we meet as a group for their month.
We had seven women at our first meeting. Each person was asked to bring a winter coat. We collected 11 coats the first meeting. The coats were given to a homeless shelter afterward. As we investigated further we found so many needs in our community that we will never run out of ways to help and in our little ways we hope to help even if it is a drop in the bucket. We are enjoying our time together as an added benefit.
The next month we decorated 116 boxes that would hold the monthly food for Senior Citizen of the local Food Bank. We thought that by putting this bright paper on the boxes, that it might also brighten the day for these Seniors.
We also made 150 cards to go with the food in those boxes to give a little cheer to those sweet older faces who would receive them. We put a personal message on each one too.

The next month we sorted medical supplies which were then packaged and sent to a disaster afflicted area in Florida.We worked along this long table as quickly as we could before another box was dumped out for us to sort. We were able to sort through 2 pallets of supplies. As you can see there are lots of boxes needing attention.
Next month we will be assembling activity kits for children who are staying long term at a local hospital. One never knows when a need will be your own so it is nice to give when you can. We know it is only a small way to help another but we feel we have been given so much that we, too, must give any way we can. We also like knowing that when we help others, when our turn comes around, our own needs may be met by someone else. Here is a short clip with that same message.