News

Volunteer Opportunities Around The Woodlands

By: Brittany Aubert

| Published 07/05/2009

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- There is no doubt in 2009, people are extremely busy. There is also no doubt that the people in The Woodlands are among the busiest. But what are people doing in their free time? Watching television? Mindlessly surfing the Internet? Playing video games? These things, while they fill time, are not time-fulfilling. Five years from now, no one will remember having “so much fun” while they stared at their Facebook screen or read the latest celebrity gossip in People Magazine. Filling time with these unmemorable moments will simply make life unmemorable.

However, what if people filled their time changing other people’s lives for the better?

Volunteer work can be fun and you can find an organization to get involved with that is compatible with your interests. Below are some examples of various ways you can easily get involved in your community and help others.

How you can get involved in the community

Diamond Star Ranch

The main goal of the Diamond Star Ranch is to help underprivileged children. But they do so with a twist. Instead of the normal activities that many other organizations use to help kids, the Diamond Star Ranch uses horses. The underprivileged children involved in this program are kids considered homeless. They are primarily brought to the program by the Interfaith hospitality networks. The networks provide clients for one Saturday each month. They also accept children from broken or hurting families. The group has been to four different ranches within The Woodlands and Magnolia. So far, they have taken 45 kids (and their respective parents) out to a ranch for a great day of fun-filled horseback riding. Currently, the group has four to six volunteers each ranch visit. However, they actually need about eight to ten. This means that volunteers are greatly needed.

“We’re by the community, for the community,” CEO and founder Jim Stiffler said.

Volunteering for the Diamond Star Ranch is not hard. They simply meet at the parking lot of The Woodlands United Methodist Church, head to the ranch, conduct lessons for a few hours, cook or prepare something and then return home that afternoon.The Diamond Star Ranch currently has a watch listed in the jewelry section of Woodlands Online to benefit the organization. They are also hosting a barrel race on August 8 at the Magnolia Horse Club. Saturday, July 4, they participated in The Woodlands 4th of July parade.

“There’s not enough services like this out there and more needs to be done," Stiffler said. "These kids that are living in these homeless shelters are basically shut in each week...this is like a complete breath of fresh air for them. We hope to impact a child’s life with horses and good people."

Dispute Resolution Center

At the Dispute Resolution Center, volunteer mediators provide helpful services to the people of The Woodlands.

Mediation, in their terms, is meeting with a third neutral party that allows people a more creative way to communicate and organize their dispute. Becoming a mediator requires specific training, but helping neighbors with their burdening problems makes this work worth it in the end. Thirty hour training is required for family mediation and 40 hours is required for basic mediation. People can be ordered to mediation by a judge or parties can call and request mediation themselves. There are about 800 volunteers a year, but the organization could always use more. The next training session begins on July 16.

One might wonder why they should help others with their problems when they are sure to have problems of their own. However, director Dayna Harper has an answer for this.

"Being a volunteer mediator is a very rewarding experience. You not only are helping people, but you are enhancing your own communication skills,” Harper said.

Education for Tomorrow Alliance

The Education for Tomorrow Alliance partners schools, businesses and groups together to enhance education. All programs are volunteer business solicited by professionals. There are many different programs and opportunities for volunteers in this organization. Volunteering is usually seasonal--you can volunteer all year or you can volunteer part of the year. This is nice because it fits around your busy schedule.

Examples of activities volunteers participate in include volunteering for an hour or two, acting as a volunteer judge in the science fair in the winter, and bringing in unpaid summer interns to bring in business. The Education for Tomorrow Alliance is unique because many groups do not offer similar opportunities. Over the course of a year, there are over 800 volunteers, but the average number of volunteers changes from season to season depending on what activities are taking place. For example, 500 volunteers participate in the science fair because there is a great need for a lot of people in a short amount of time. The Education for Tomorrow Alliance was created through the South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber over 20 years ago, so it is a reputable group. The group works throughout Conroe ISD and other private schools, so everything they do is conveniently nearby.

“It’s a way for volunteers to directly connect with youth and make a difference in their life,” Dirctor Sheryl Sitts said.

Girls Run

Recently, Woodlands Online discovered an organization that was not well-known around the community. Girls Run shared information about their cause in a story that can be found on WOL. Girls Run consists of older girls and pre-teenage girls and their aim is to raise money to help cancer patients (and hopefully one day end cancer).

To learn more about Girls Run and the mission of director Brooke Baugh, click on the link to the Woodlands Online story Girls Run to Fight Cancer.

Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center

When you visit the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center’s Web site, you can find the statement: “Commit For Life” written boldly at the top. Why? Because committing for life helps save lives.

The organization collects blood for the Greater Houston Area and counties surrounding the area (which contains over 170 hospitals). There are about 14 neighborhood donor centers, one in Conroe and one in The Woodlands. To help, all you have to do is donate blood. You can do this once or you can do this for the rest of your life. Either way, it is helping others live. People can also volunteer to be a “community advocate” at each center. These advocates commit to volunteer 10 hours per quarter and spread the word.

Just remember, one donation saves up to three lives.

Committing for life does not mean you must give blood for the rest of your life. Committing for life means that one donation helps others survive, which will stay with you for the rest of your life. Be somebody else’s resource for blood, because all we have is each other.

Interfaith of The Woodlands

Interfaith is one of the more commonly-known non-profit organizations in The Woodlands.

“We’re able to do what we do because of all the volunteers (and of course the incredible staff),” Director Ann Snyder said. “Volunteers give the most valuable gift -- their time.”

The most important thing Interfaith does is provide tools and opportunities to help people in a number of different venues such as job training, counseling, senior services, directory phone books, helping businesses with advertisement and more. There are a multitude of different programs which means anybody can find something to get involved in with Interfaith that they are sure to enjoy. Interfaith is a big organization that helps with almost everything. The Woodlands’ chapter provided over 900,000 services just last year. You can volunteer by calling or going to your local Interfaith. Volunteer opportunities include working with senior citizens, helping congregation to provide worship services in long term care facilities, volunteering at food drives, helping in food pantries, working at the Shell Houston Open, acting as a caregiver and much more.

As of June 30, volunteers have given over 13,520 hours to Interfaith in South Montgomery County alone. Those interested in volunteering should contact Andrea Berkley or Jenny Berry. Help Interfaith of The Woodlands add more hours onto their already overwhelming 13,520. There is a reason that this number is so high in the first place--Interfaith is a strong organization with many people strong in different areas providing excellent help.

“With the help from so many different people, we are able to provide these services to the community,” Snyder said. “How can people not get involved with Interfaith? It stands for everything that’s good.”

Montgomery County Women’s Center

The main goal of the Montgomery County Women’s Center is to provide emergency services for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. And while this non-profit organization may seem more grim than others, the benefit of helping women all over the community erases this in the end. Volunteers in the group help in various ways such as working at resale stores and resale warehouses, doing administrative work, going to court with clients when they issue restraining orders, meet women at the hospital after an assault, working the childcare at the shelter, acting as a shelter assistant and manning the 24-hour hotlines. Since this organization requires a lot out of many of it’s volunteers, training is required; however, the length of the training varies from one to three days depending on the job.

The Montgomery County Women’s Center provides a shelter and a residential facility for after women have left the shelter. The number for their hotline is (936) 441-7273. The group is also heavily involved in education (and thus, prevention). They are involved in all schools in Montgomery County and teach people about bullies and date rape. With so many opportunities available to volunteer and so many lives to heal, the Women’s Center is trying its best to help the lives of women all over the community.

“All the services we offer are free,” Director Linda Hardwick said. “We’re an emergency facility to provide safe harbor, crisis intervention, counseling and legal services to the victims."

Nourishment for Needy

Nourishment for Needy is a Christian organization that provides food and clothes to the less-fortunate. The organization has been involved with community for 25 years and has volunteers from the Girl and Boy Scouts, various churches and individuals. And just like the people they help, the group did not start out with much. In fact, they began in a single-car garage with one bag of food and one bag of clothes. Fortunately, they relocated to a larger facility. Unfortunately, this facility still is not large enough. While Nourishment for Needy needs and would love to have many more volunteers, they do not have room for any more. Currently, there is only room for about six volunteers.

You can help this cause by supporting them. Until they find a building, you can still help them though. All you need to do is donate food, clothes and/or cash, but they do not take utilities.

“We just need the community involved to be able to help our community,” Director Diane Knobloch said.

And if you think you do not need to help this organization because none of what they are doing applies to you, think again.

“In the times that we’re in, we’re seeing more people that are out of jobs,” Knobloch said. “They’re having to look to a food pantry because of it. Some of them are used to having a job and providing for their family."

Knobloch makes a good point. The people that Nourishment for Needy are helping are no different than anybody else. Now, more than ever, jobs are not a guaranteed thing. Just imagine, what if you were unable to provide for your family?

Tamina Community Center

At the Tamina Community Center, you have the chance to take care of kids whose parents cannot afford childcare.

Volunteers participate in activities such as reading and playing with the children. Right now, there are about 12 volunteers who come and go. Like the Education for Tomorrow Alliance, volunteering at the Tamina Community Center is seasonal. This flexibility is convenient for people who have extremely busy schedules.

“I think more people should get involved because we are here to help under-privileged children and their families,” Director Shelby Grimes said.

The Mission

The Mission is properly named because it is, in short, a community outreach program. At The Mission, volunteers help provide things such as food, clothing, household items, GED’s, job training and life skills for families in east Montgomery County that are below the poverty level. They also have a summer program called "Mission Possible" and are involved in holiday outreach. Prospective volunteers can visit the Web site to send the directors of The Mission an e-mail letting them know that they want to volunteer and what their commitment level will be. Regular volunteer hours fall on Tuesday through Thursday between 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday morning is a sorting morning, which prepares the group for the upcoming week. Volunteers are also needed for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Volunteers will have chances to do things such as working in the food pantry, filling food bags, distributing housewares to clients, going through incoming donations, sorting clothes into different age groups, working in clothing areas, helping families pick out clothing and more. With so many opportunities, it is hard not to find something to help with at The Mission and Director Lorie Young knows the help of the volunteers makes a huge difference in people’s lives.

“We really are changing lives through one-on-one mentoring, one-on-one interviewing,” Young said. “We do family evaluations. We ask that they enroll in some sort of program. They see life change here. It’s not a food pantry and it’s not a clothes closet.”

Give Back

With so many opportunities to give back in The Woodlands, it is hard to find an excuse not to do so. If none of the ten organizations listed above appeals to you, do not worry--there are many more non-profits you can join. Visit Woodlands Online’s extensive list of non-profit organizations to find the one that is the right fit for you.

What Snyder said about Interfaith applies to every volunteer organization. How can you not join? They “stand for everything that’s good.”

For a complete list of non-profit organizations and their contact information, please visit the Business Directory.