As school teachers we are blessed with having a few more holidays than many in the business world. Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his message is something I want to be able to leave to our two boys. I remember my father reading Dr. King's, "I have a dream" speech to me on at least a couple occasions. His message of love, tolerance and forgiveness is one I hope to pass on to both Nathan and Andrew.
MLK day has now been turned into a day of service around the country, with public officials and others advocating to not take a day off, but rather to volunteer for a worthy cause. Volunteerism is something I want to ensure my boys see us do, and something I want to be sure we can do as a family together. It is important that we give back to our community, serve others and show Christ's through our actions.
As teachers it is often easy to not volunteer and to rationalize the lack of action because of the long hours and generosity inherit in the profession. Both Erin and I work with low income students so often our everyday work can be justified as worthy work. However, despite choosing careers specifically because they have large societal impact, volunteering and serving others outside of that is still very important to us.
Over the years we have found many ways to give back. We volunteered with a wonderful group in Seattle called Community for Youth that helped inspire us to become teachers (great organization that I would happily tell you about anytime if you like working with youth, having a real impact and learning and growing in your own personal life as well). I also helped coach various youth basketball teams while we lived in Seattle.
Since moving to the Portland area we have mostly volunteered in conjunction with our church. We have spent a couple days on Habitat for Humanity builds which I always really enjoy. I always have a great time, and usually learn something new. It is also a great organization of which we gladly support. In fact I should sign up for another day once the weather clears up (anyone want to join me?). When we were attending Mosaic we monthly would volunteer at Northwest Children's Outreach . While I admit this was not always the most enjoyable of volunteer opportunities it had many good qualities: it was easy and low key, very social and was something we could do with Nathan (and now Andrew too).
However, in the last year since we moved to Battle Ground we have not really done much volunteering. This is partly because it has been a busy year, partly due to having a new baby, and of course partly just being lazy. Being that it is January and you know resolutions and all, coupled with MLK weekend I have really been thinking about what we can do for our community. How can we give back? How can we be sure we are serving others and doing so with Nathan and Andrew so we are passing those values on to them as well? It is more challenging to find service projects appropriate for a 2 year old and a newborn, but it can be done. I did discover that Northwest Children's Outreach has a location in Vancouver and perhaps we could volunteer there on a regular basis.
While I wish I could conclude this blog with a proclamation of what our next service project will be, we will be searching for something as local as possible that allows us to serve others as a family and I hope you too are so inspired to give back, serve others and show love in general. Have a great MLK day weekend and serve others whenever possible.
I get goosebumps from this speech. I used to play it over the intercom at Ross each holiday. My employees always thought I was kinda strange, when I would do such things but they were appreciative as well.
As teachers it is often easy to not volunteer and to rationalize the lack of action because of the long hours and generosity inherit in the profession. Both Erin and I work with low income students so often our everyday work can be justified as worthy work. However, despite choosing careers specifically because they have large societal impact, volunteering and serving others outside of that is still very important to us.
Over the years we have found many ways to give back. We volunteered with a wonderful group in Seattle called Community for Youth that helped inspire us to become teachers (great organization that I would happily tell you about anytime if you like working with youth, having a real impact and learning and growing in your own personal life as well). I also helped coach various youth basketball teams while we lived in Seattle.
Since moving to the Portland area we have mostly volunteered in conjunction with our church. We have spent a couple days on Habitat for Humanity builds which I always really enjoy. I always have a great time, and usually learn something new. It is also a great organization of which we gladly support. In fact I should sign up for another day once the weather clears up (anyone want to join me?). When we were attending Mosaic we monthly would volunteer at Northwest Children's Outreach . While I admit this was not always the most enjoyable of volunteer opportunities it had many good qualities: it was easy and low key, very social and was something we could do with Nathan (and now Andrew too).
However, in the last year since we moved to Battle Ground we have not really done much volunteering. This is partly because it has been a busy year, partly due to having a new baby, and of course partly just being lazy. Being that it is January and you know resolutions and all, coupled with MLK weekend I have really been thinking about what we can do for our community. How can we give back? How can we be sure we are serving others and doing so with Nathan and Andrew so we are passing those values on to them as well? It is more challenging to find service projects appropriate for a 2 year old and a newborn, but it can be done. I did discover that Northwest Children's Outreach has a location in Vancouver and perhaps we could volunteer there on a regular basis.
While I wish I could conclude this blog with a proclamation of what our next service project will be, we will be searching for something as local as possible that allows us to serve others as a family and I hope you too are so inspired to give back, serve others and show love in general. Have a great MLK day weekend and serve others whenever possible.
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