Rise Community Services and the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) work with a couple Hightstown churches to provide weekly community dinners to patrons regardless of income level. My early years included helping set up tables, chairs and other items; unload food from delivery van; clean tables, put away tables and chairs, dry-mop, take out trash or recycling; design print materials as needed for announcements, information, etc. More recently, I deliver extra meals to people in need throughout the community.
The NJ Envirothon is a hands-on environmental problem solving competition for high school students. In early 2014, I was asked to assist the volunteers transition to a new website. What I thought would be a brief meeting and some light assistance turned into several meetings with their dedicated volunteers and a completely redesigned website. I added my own custom coded HTML/PHP forms to greatly improve their registration process. I continue to help them maintain their website to this day. We conducted the competition virtually in 2021 and 2022.
Assist seniors with their Android smartphones during one-on-one half-hour appointments.
Farmers Against Hunger (FAH) is a program of the NJ Agricultural Society (NJAS) that maintains relationships with farms all over New Jersey as well as food banks & pantries, soup kitchens and a pool of volunteer "gleaners." When a farm has crops it plans to donate, FAH coordinates a small group of volunteers to glean the excess crops which are trucked by FAH to food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and other organizations around the state. In addition to picking a large variety of fruits & vegetables I have: assisted loading/unloading pallets of produce; navigate & assist delivery of topsoil & garden supplies to schools around NJ as part of their Learning Through Gardening Program; stuffing envelopes for mass mailings; assist driver to or from the truck repair shop in Hightstown.
Clean and replenish cat cages and adoption room, socialize with each cat at the PetSmart in Hamilton Marketplace.
Assist coaches during a 5‑week summer basketball camp for local area kids at the First United Methodist Church of Hightstown. Help out with set up, clean up, graphic/print material, etc.