Volunteering this month: Week for Good 2019

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Many of you may remember in May 2018, hosts and Airbnb staff across the world came together to give back to their local communities, as part of Week for Good 2018. 

This month, Week for Good is back (23rd -27th Sept) and we would love to invite you to get involved. We know many of you volunteer in your local area already, which is amazing, so do let us know if you are doing anything during this month. If you would like to get involved here are some pointers:

You can collaborate with other Airbnb hosts on a group project or simply get out and volunteer on your own.

• Reach out to contacts at organizations where you have already volunteered to see if they accept groups and can help you coordinate an event.

• Ask friends, family members, or colleagues who volunteer if the organization they support takes groups and if they can help you make a connection.

• Organizations such as food banks, soup kitchens, shelters, community gardens, or a parks department often take volunteer groups on a one-time basis. Check their websites for a contact or online calendar where you can can pre-register a group visit.

• Got stuck? Let us know or reach out to your local Airbnb Community Organiser for additional ideas.

We would love to hear from you if you decide to volunteer. Please share stories and photos below.

Lizzie

[Lizzie]

Hey everyone,

I took part in my own Week for Good litter pick on Sunday. 

I regularly go litter picking in my local area, so I guess I may have slightly cheated, but I put on my Airbnb top and headed out along the same path I normally do! I thought I would give you a little overview of my couple of hours litter picking by the river....

Activity: Litter picking

Group/Solo: Solo picker

Duration: 2 1/2 hours

Location: Thames River, Greater London

Weather: Rainy drizzle (rather damp)...with sunny patches! 

Music playlist highlights: Queen, CHIC...

Interesting finds: a little lego figure, a plastic horse figure, a lime green children's beach rake,  a medical ice pack bag ...I feel like I could open a very random shop! hehe

Memorable moments: several people stopped to speak with me and actually thanked me. I always feel a little embarrassed by this because it's not like I am doing anything massive, but it was lovely people feel it's a good thing and want to keep our area clean. For me, I just think this is one less bag of rubbish going into the ocean.

One person even tried to give we some money for my lunch, which was super sweet, but I recommended he give it to a charity called Surfers Against Sewage who are trying to reduce plastic and organise big clean up events in the UK. 🙂 

Next time, I would love to organise a little group of litter picker enthusiasts to get together for Week for Good or generally, it's nice to get out into the fresh morning air and although I very much enjoyed my music playlist and the rain, sometimes it's nice to do these things with others...this way you can make sure there are some important tea breaks scheduled in! 🙂 

It would be great to hear if you volunteered this month.

Thanks for listening. 

Lizzie

[Clara116]

@Lizzie  Our group in Pensacola Florida was busy with 2 events:

First we went to The Residence - A Memory Care Center as part of Covenant Care -We called the event; The Kookie Korner -  we baked cookies, we sang and danced with the 20 wonderful residents. These precious folks have memory issues, some dementia, Alzheimer Disease and other things that impact their memories and abilities to live in their homes. Seems cookies, baking, mixing and the smells involved all trigger many memories of the past and that's such a joy to be part of. Like when we smell a fragrance and suddenly we are flooded with remembering someone or an exact moment. We weren't allowed to take photos due to medical laws and regulations !

Second event: Was a wonderful clean up at Ft. Pickens - part of our Pensacola Beach - there were folks from an awesome diving organization 3rd Coast Divers and it was my first underwater clean up.....so the divers pulled up all the debris, metal, glass, weights, lures, plastic and lots of it...........and we sorted through that...throwing back any live creatures in the debris...........it was over 765 lbs. -- 347 kg. (alot) 

there were many organizations besides Ocean Hour which we were part of (I volunteer each week with them) and it was refreshing to see Airbnb Hosts bring their children and teach them the value and importance of not littering, and keeping our coast and waters free of litter. Here's just a few pics.

We were so grateful to all that participatedwatermelon reward at the end!