Lotsa Blog

September: The New Beginning for Helping Our Community

As the days of summer draw to a close, adults and children alike begin to feel the anticipation of September’s arrival. September has always been a time of transition and change. For most, it is the actual ‘start of a new year’.  We all remember those feelings of anticipation wondering, who will be in my new class; nervousness about what will 6^th grade be like; apprehension as I can’t believe I’m going to middle school; excitement about meeting up with old friends at church/synagogue; and the joy of picking out clothes after a summer of growth spurts.

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10 Tips for Getting Started with Open Communities at Lotsa

We’ve been talking a lot about our new Open Communities at Lotsa. These are Communities that are created in local towns or neighborhoods, providing a place for people who need help to ask for it and for volunteers to lend a hand. If you want to get started but need some help, we’ve got 10 tips to get your Lotsa Community up and running.

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How to Find Meaning in Volunteering

Contributed by Hal Chapel, CEO and Co-Founder of Lotsa Helping Hands

There is so much written in today’s media about the stress felt by teenagers preparing for college, it almost seems as if there’s no escaping the self-absorption that famously plagues adolescence.

Yet we are witnessing in our time perhaps the greatest numbers of youth volunteering in their communities. The cynics among us may claim this pull to community service is fueled solely by a desire to pad resumes for college applications. But others might argue that the significant increase in business school students focusing on nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship is a testament to the on-going interest in serving and giving back to our communities.

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Girl Scout Dad

Contributed by Barry Katz, Co-Found of Lotsa Helping Hands

At Lotsa Helping Hands, we’ve been super busy with the launch of our new Open Community Model. Open Communities are designed to help more than one family, especially when members of the Community may not always know all the people being helped in the community. Open Communities are searchable using the Lotsa Helping Hands location-based search form and allow for interested volunteers to lend a hand and neighbors in need to request help. Often schools, community groups and religious organizations use the Open Community Model.

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The Barbeque that Changed Everything

Contributed by Greg Ralich, Lotsa Helping Hands Member Services Representative

Here at Lotsa Helping Hands, we often find ourselves talking about the word community. Our vision is a world where everyone can give and receive help through the power of community. For us, community means so much. It’s about sharing one another’s life experiences. We too have our own community of dedicated people who spend much of their time designing and developing the best service possible, and ensuring that our free service gets into the hands of those who need it. On our Blog, we will be sharing reflections from our Team. This second one comes from Greg Ralich, Member Services Representative.

 

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Help On the Homefront: How We Can Help Our Military Families

Hal Chapel, CEO and Co-Founder of Lotsa Helping Hands

This Independence Day week, we are reminded that freedom does not come without sacrifice. So many people before us – citizens of the early American colonies, national leaders, and family ancestors – have all made sacrifices for our freedom. But freedom is not static. Most freedoms we value require constant attention. Even our own personal independence demands we shoulder responsibility – financially, at work, at home, or in our community. Military families, especially, need our help to retain their own independence.

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Power of Community Series: What does Community Mean to You?

Contributed by Hal Chapel, CEO and Co-Founder of Lotsa Helping Hands

Community.  A word that evokes many different images.

Not only are we social creatures, requiring interaction with other people, but historically our species has ultimately survived and thrived by banding together into social groups we call ‘community’.  Community has not only provided protection in collective defense, but in the division and sharing of labor and resources.  But perhaps community has been most significant in offering us fundamental meaning in life.  At the end of the day, do we really judge the value of our lives by how much money we make or how many things we collect, or how much fame we achieve?  Don’t we feel most satisfied when we know we have truly affected another person positively, when we have contributed to our own communities?

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The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

Contributed by Barry Katz, Co-Founder at Lotsa Helping Hands

In 2005 version 1.0 of the Lotsa Helping Hands service was introduced to the world.  While rudimentary in its design and feature set, it did begin to address the needs of caregivers.  This once neglected group now had some building blocks to begin organizing their thoughts and approach to caregiving.  As a Lotsa Co-Founder, and one of the providers of basic support to Community members, three early Communities stand out to me:

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Friends in Common

Contributed by Courtney Allen, Lotsa Helping Hands Marketing Specialist

Here at Lotsa Helping Hands, we often find ourselves talking about the word “community.” Our vision is a world where everyone can give and receive help through the power of community. For us, community means so much. It’s about sharing one another’s life experiences. We too have our own community of dedicated people who spend much of their time designing and developing the best service possible, while ensuring that our free service gets into the hands of those who need it. On our Blog, we will be sharing reflections from our Team. This first one comes from Courtney Allen, our Marketing Specialist.

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When Life Hands You Lemons…

Contributed by Barry Katz, Co-Founder at Lotsa Helping Hands

We have all heard, at some point in our lives, the age-old adage that ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’  I’ll guess that most of us first heard this from either our mothers or grandmothers.  I also suspect that most of us, while remembering hearing it, did not really internalize it or even begin to understand it until faced with a big basket of sour lemons. When life hands you lemons, you have two choices: to give in to the lemony bitterness or sweeten the juice to bring new perspective, renewed strength and the opportunity to share the newly made lemonade.

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