Volunteering is an excellent way to spend your time helping others. However, it has become harder to volunteer since the pandemic started. Many volunteering places, such as food kitchens and marathons, are all held outside with multiple people present. This has made it difficult to volunteer at these places. However, there are still many different ways and places to volunteer without having to go in-person.
- Selling Art for a Non-Profit
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A couple of summers ago, I sold handmade embroidery thread bracelets and donated the profits to an organization called Live Your Dream, which is a non-profit that supports women all around the world. I have always been interested in both the arts and empowering women, so this was an amazing opportunity for me as it allowed me to combine both interests! Volunteering this way is bound to make you feel good about helping others while having fun at the same time.
- NASA Citizen Scientist Projects
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Another online volunteering activity that I have done before is the NASA Citizen Scientist Projects. This quick opportunity is online and allows you to collaborate with scientists on projects of great significance. There have been many great scientific discoveries made through these citizen projects. The one that I participated in was called Snapshot Wisconsin. I tracked and documented the presence of wildlife by looking at trail cameras in Wisconsin. From looking at interstellar particles and assessing the health of coral reefs to searching for undiscovered worlds by looking at data from a previous NASA mission, there are many ways for you to help out. This was one of the coolest volunteering opportunities that I have ever done!
- KAN-WIN: Empowering Women in the Asian American Community
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This opportunity is specific to an organization named KAN-WIN, which is based in Chicago. I joined KAN-WIN last year, and it has been an amazing experience so far. This non-profit’s goal is to help and empower women, especially survivors of abuse. The online volunteering that I did with their ELEVATE program is called Get Out the Vote, where I participated in phone banking. This opportunity was through KAN-WIN’s partnership with NAPAWF (National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum). I volunteered to call people and remind them to vote. I also informed them about the different ways that they could vote, in case they did not want to go in person to do so. There are many other volunteering opportunities that KAN-WIN has as well, so I definitely recommend you head to their website to check out more.
Volunteering is one of the best ways to help people in your community or even on the other side of the world. Through volunteering, you are able to positively impact the lives of others. I got a lot out of these amazing volunteering opportunities, and I am sure you will too!