Founder Marissa Vogel with daughters Gracie and Elle

Dear Families,

Thank you for taking the time to visit our website today!  Our organization was created to give you and your children the opportunity to not only give back to our community, but to help build a tradition of volunteering within your family.

It’s about starting early.

When my young child started coming home from preschool and showing me schoolwork, which included some amazing examples of comprehension, it dawned on me that I wasn’t giving her enough credit – she could understand much more than I thought she could and had a skill set to match.  She was so eager to learn and wanted constant exposure to work; I decided that it was time to start teaching her about compassion and social responsibility through community service activities.

A community need uncovered.

I spent hours on the Internet trying to find meaningful volunteer opportunities with no luck.  My wish was to go to a single online resource to find volunteer opportunities appropriate for her age and to be able to sign up for them easily.  After surveying parents last summer, I confirmed that I wasn’t alone.  100% indicated an online resource such as this would be considered either very valuable or valuable.  Moreover, over 70% indicated that this online resource would likely encourage parents to volunteer with their children more often.  So at the end of June 2009, we launched Little Helping Hands to meet this need.

Inspire generations of volunteers.

Research indicates that people are much more likely to volunteer throughout their lifetimes if they volunteer as a child. This likelihood increases when children volunteer with their family.  Our hope is that by making it easier for families to find and sign-up for volunteer activities, we are fostering community service for generations to come.

Make the time.

Reality is that our lives are busy, especially as parents of young children. But making volunteerism part of our regular routine is how we can best ensure we not only instill within our children the values of giving back and helping others, but get the added benefit of spending quality time together as a family. Educating children on volunteerism starts with conversations in the home and the learning starts by doing.

This resource is for you.  I welcome your input and feedback to make it a valuable one for your family and ask for your support through participation and donations to help us grow our programs and organization.  I look forward to seeing you often at our activities throughout the year!

Kind regards,

Marissa Vogel
Founder & Executive Director
Little Helping Hands