Lotsa Blog

By The National Health Council

Communities come in all shapes and sizes. There are friends who get together around a common interest, such as playing soccer, working on a community garden, or discussing a new book. Then there are more formal communities based on geographical neighborhoods or places of worship.

Judging from the fact that you’re on the Lotsa Helping Hands website, it’s safe to say you’ve taken a step toward joining or establishing a community of your own – one that revolves around your health needs or caring for a family member or friend.

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

As family and friends of the victims of the Aurora tragedy began their unbearable journey dealing with the impossible suddenly becoming reality, the rest of the country looked on with horror, sadness, and anger. We were all unexpectedly united, simply as human beings distraught, appalled, and without answers to so many questions such shock evokes.  Many of us wanted desperately to do something, anything, to help those immediately affected by this terror, to let them know they were not alone.  But of course, what could we really do?

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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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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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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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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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Contributed by Brooks Kenny, Lead Strategist at Lotsa Helping Hands

I’ve been lucky enough to be selected two years in a row to speak at the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit where leading investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, analysts and marketers gathered to address the needs and wants of the 50+ demographic. On the agenda? The power that comes when nonprofit organizations team up with companies. As consumers, we look to companies to support social causes, to put their marketing muscle to good use. Here at Lotsa, our commitment to “doing good” is embedded in the fabric of our vision. So, you can imagine my delight to have been able to share the stage with John Feather, CEO of Grantmakers in Aging and our moderator, Sherri Snelling, CEO of the Caregiving Club to share strategies in forging these great relationships for good.

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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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Contributed by Guest Blogger, Sherri Snelling

I recently celebrated my birthday and it got me to thinking about our “real age.”  Whenever I meet a friend for coffee the conversation now turns to our latest health issue (we are at that age) – hurt knees from running, migraines from changing hormones, sun spots on our face, wrinkles on our foreheads, and intestinal rumblings from last night’s Mexican food.  And, when the bill comes, we all hold the check back about 12 inches so we can read it (always forgetting the reading glasses which are now common among my friends).  However, we marvel at how we don’t see ourselves as our real age – and as friends we even comfort each other that we certainly don’t look our real age either.

As we grow older and start to care for aging parents, what is our risk as caregivers for being “older” than our real age because we often neglect our own health and wellness needs?

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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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