Posted December 16th, 2011 under Thirty Before 30
Thirty Before 30: Winter Wishes
I turn 30 on July 24th, 2014. I created a list of thirty things I’d love to accomplish before then. You can read my introductory post about this challenge here.
21. Do 6 volunteer projects (2 per year)
This month I was able to check another volunteer project off my list (see the first one here). A couple of months ago, my job sent an email around asking for volunteers for New York Cares Winter Wishes. Here’s what the website says about the program:
Each year, New York Cares partners with hundreds of our Community Partners, including homeless shelters and other deserving nonprofit organizations, to provide holiday gifts for disadvantaged children, teens and families, many of whom would not otherwise receive gifts during the holidays.
To accomplish this, we collect and screen more than 32,000 gift requests and send them to volunteers who purchase, wrap and send the gifts to our partners.
It looked like a fun, easy way to make a difference this holiday season so I signed up. A few weeks later, I got the information for my recipient. I actually got to choose between a few recipients that were sent for the volunteers at my job.
I decided to buy a gift for a 17-year-old girl, whose winter wish was a deep purple shirt or sweater from either H&M or Urban Outfitters. She had me at purple. It’s my favorite color (if you couldn’t tell from this blog). Obviously this girl has good taste. Plus, in her “about me” section, she wrote that she loves her little brother and enjoys sports and music. She sounds awesome!
So off I went to H&M near my job, on 5th Avenue in NYC. Yes, I braved the holiday tourists and shoppers and survived. Ha. I searched the store, keeping my eye out for deep purple shirts and sweaters. Luckily I found the perfect one. It’s a cute purple cardigan with a black ribbon belt. I could see a teenage girl wearing it with jeans and flats.
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I decided to add something else so I also got her a black beaded necklace that goes perfectly with the sweater. It even came with a purple bow.
The H&M gift box looked festive on its own so all I needed to do was add a red bow and buy a card.
I wrote her a simple holiday message and told her I hoped she enjoyed the gift. Then I packed it all up in a UPS box and sent it on its merry way.
I would definitely participate in Winter Wishes again. It was fun to go shopping for this girl, knowing the gift will make her feel special. This is what the holidays are all about.
Are you giving back in some way this holiday season?
