Hands On Greater Richmond

I'm sure y'all have heard me talk about my fried John Sarvay's blog, Buttermilk & Molasses more than once. He's always informing me about such great stuff going on in Richmond, which is why he is one of 2 people that I nominated for Style Weekly'sTop 40 Under 40. (He's 39, so time is running out).
Today, he he posted about Hands On Greater Richmond (and its founders) and why they also should be nominated for Style's Top 40. And rightly so. I mean look at the is organization, it is so simple and yet fills such a need. It "advertises" volunteering opportunities and matches volunteers with local non-profits. What a great idea. Makes me want to get out there right now and volunteer. Well, as soon as I don't have a 2-year-old at home all the time with me.
This week they are publicizing a volunteering opportunity that I've been trying to get to for years and years. In fact, when Redfish was 9 weeks old, I went to the orientation for it. That is how badly I wanted to do it. But I realized for then, it was just to much. One day, not to far from now, I'll go down to Refugee Immigration Services and get them to assign a family that needs getting settled in their new life here in Richmond.
Clicking on a "featured refugee" just reminds me again how important it is to me to help guide a new family get settled in a new culture. So many of the families have had so many hardships that I cannot even imagine.
Yesterday, a dutch family that we befriended went back to their country after a year here in America. At the goodbye party I realized that we were one of only 2 families that they had befriended who was not in some way international. I'm not sure if this says more about us or about America. But I really hope that when my kids grown up they value cultures different from their own and continue to make friends from other countries.