Volunteer Hawaii

With the giving spirit in mind, why not give yourself? That’s one of the best gifts you can offer. You can find multiple local volunteering slots with Volunteer Hawaii (http://volunteerhawaii.org), a virtual volunteer center to link your interests with what’s available. It’s also a service recently added to United Ways in Hawaii.

When you first click on the website, you’ll see links to the different volunteer opportunities available. The link to pay attention to if you’re looking to volunteer for this Christmas season, is the Holiday Opportunities link. There you’ll find a variety of requests such as toy drive helpers, gift wrappers, receptionists or Santa’s helpers.

Throughout the rest of the year, consider other chances . . . there are so many to choose from! You can search for a specific event you want to help with, browse for all openings or make donations. To narrow the search down, you can enter in your zip code, category of interest or age group (if applicable). Just about anything you can think of is on there from domestic violence (my personal interest as a survivor) to substance abuse to homelessness and yes, even technology (people looking for webmasters, etc.).

If you’re on the other side of the fence, representing an agency that needs people, you can easily sign up and post your request on the website for prospective volunteers to see.

Volunteer Hawaii is a free service provided statewide to our community. The organization energizes and inspires people to actively create a stronger, safer and healthier environment that we want to live in.

This website is unique, and makes volunteering extremely easy and very accessible to everyone. You should definitely take advantage of it. However, if you have no computer, and still living in the dark ages of no Internet access, you can dial 2-1-1 from your home phone, and it will automatically ring a Volunteer Hawaii specialist to search the database for you.