There are more ways to volunteer now than ever before. With an ever-increasing number of service organizations springing up to meet the needs of an ever-increasing population, an expansion of interest in and action on our environment, and a NonProfit community nationally recognized for the depth and scope of its involvement, if you care about anything in the Twin Cities, there is a way to volunteer your time to help that thing.

But with such a variety of ways to volunteer in our communities (like some kind of all-you-can-serve lunch buffet of civic engagement), where is an active citizen to go in order to find out about all of these opportunities? Where is this lunch buffet?

Well, the closest thing out there is: us! At www.handsontwincities.org you can find volunteer listings from over 300 local non-profits on our easy-to-use volunteer search database. There is also a Project Calendar, featuring one-time volunteer service projects all over the Twin Cities that you can sign up for online! There are a few similar web-based services out there, such as volunteermatch, The United Way, and 1800 Volunteer, but Hands On Twin Cities is the only searchable database designed for Minnesotans by Minnesotans, and exclusively featuring volunteer opportunities in the Twin Cities and surrounding area. Also, our blog is more entertaining than anything you'll find on those other sites.

Unfortunately, even Hands On Twin Cities cannot know all there is to know about volunteerism in the Twin Cities - there are just too many ways to get involved. Another great place to look for volunteer opportunities is the land of print media, or - as they used to say back in the days of the telegraph - newspapers!

The Pioneer Press and Star Tribune each run weekly segments (Thursday and Saturday, respectively) on ways to get involved in your community, featuring ads for specific volunteer opportunities and events. The City Pages and The Rake each feature listings of volunteer opportunities in their classified sections (Hands On Twin Cities helps assemble these listings). Neighborhood newpapers can be a good bet, too. In this week's issue of The Northeaster, there is a 1 1/2 page spread featuring numerous volunteer opportunities and organizations in Northeast Minneapolis.

Newspapers cannot, by their physical nature, include a snazzy searchable volunteer databse with over 2,000 volunteer opportunities (like ours), but sometimes this is a good thing. If you have no idea what kind of volunteer opportunity you're looking for, it might be more tedious to cruise a database than to look at a selected sample of current volunteer needs.

The bottom line is, there are lots and lots of places to look for volunteer opportunities. They range in difficutly from pretty easy (clicking a mouse), to also pretty easy (opening a newspaper), so there's really no excuse for not finding an opportunity that works for you. Log onto www.handsontwincities.org today, or pick up any one of the fine newspapers discussed in this article.

In my day, we read the 'ol village chalkboard to find out about Volunteer Opportunities. And we liked it!

As we mentioned not so long ago, we're working with the Office of Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak to put on a series of 4 community forums designed to give you, the individual citizen, some great ways to help make your neighborhood an even better place to live. It's called the Great City Take Action Series, and it's based on the premise that most people would engage in some kind of community service for a few hours a month if they thought it would do any good. And the thing is, it can! Every neighborhood can be a great place to live - all it takes is pride and action.

The first forum in this series is called "Reweaving the Urban Fabric", and it's happening tommorrow night (April 17) at the Capri Theatre from 6-8 pm! (Click here for directions and more info). This forum will focus on the role of environmentalism in neighborhood improvement. From composting to organized litter cleanup, building birdhouses, and planting community gardens, thinking about neighborhoods not just in terms of a collection of houses, but in terms of an ecosystem, can bring neighbors together and improve the immediate environment in which we live.

There are numerous organizations throughout the Twin Cities who specialize in "green" Urban Revitalization of one form or another, including the Tree Trust, Rebuilding Together Twin Cities, and Friends of the Mississippi River. All of these organizations rely on the efforts of volunteers and concerned citizens like you. There are just so many ways to get involved!

You don't have to be Minneapolis resident to get a lot of valuable information from this free event. Come join representatives from these organizations as well as city officials tommorrow night at the Capri Theatre to learn how you can help Reweave the Urban Fabric!

(Remember - and we cannot mention this enough - there will be snacks!)

Yeah, Baltimore -

having that much trash in the first place isn't exactly something to be proud of...

Among the many other achievements of his administration (and there were many), President R. Milhous Nixon signed an executive order in 1974 creating National Volunteer Week - a weeklong celebration of volunteerism in America (which will be April 15-21 of 2007).

33 years later, Volunteerism in America is stronger than ever! This may or may not be related to the establishment of National Volunteer Week (we'll go with "it probably helped"), but the record number of volunteers in America means we have a record number of people to thank. According to a study by the Corporation for National & Community Service, 65.4 million Americans (28.8% of the population) volunteered in 2005. Even more exciting (for us) are the study's state rankings - we are 3rd in the nation with 40.7% of Minnesotans engaging in community service!

Since 4 out of 10 Minnesotans volunteer in one way or another, it would be impossible for Hands On Twin Cities to bake a delicious cupcake for each one of them (unless someone wants to volunteer 3,000 pounds of cupcake mix). But we will be sure to thank the many volunteers that grace us with their presence, just as we encourage you to recognize and thank the volunteers in your life. If you have friends or family who volunteer, tell 'em what a great job they're doing! Volunteer ushers at a concert or volunteer guides at the zoo? Say thanks! If you work for an organization that relys on the efforts of volunteers, thank them even more than you already do (our suggestions: cards, cupcakes).

And if you are a volunteer yourself, fish for compliments! Also, let other volunteers know how much you appreciate working with them to make your community a better place.

For more information on National Volunteer Week, check out the Points of Light Foundation website.

Milhous smiles upon you, volunteers

Does flying stress you out?

One-half of this blog becomes very irate and confused when exposed to airports and/or airport culture - CNN's The Situation Room, Skymall Magazine, pre-recorded messages telling you never to accept and transport packages from strangers (as if that's something you would do anyway?), etc. Not to mention that the half of this blog in question is much taller than the person airlines had in mind when designing their freakishly small interiors. And don't even get him started about the apparent ban on delicious peanuts - the only part of air travel that he genuinely liked.

Stressful! And yet, within the MSP Aiport there is a beacon of hope. Many beacons, really - each staffed by one or more cheerful volunteers wearing snazzy blue vests. Yes, the volunteers from the Airport Foundation are here to answer questions, calm fears, and more! The 250+ volunteers who make up this elite team come from many walks of life - from high school students to retired air traffic controllers - but they all have one thing in common: they love to help people!

The half of this blog who hates airports was very grateful to the Volunteer who helped him find his United Airlines Gate (note to readers: Concourse E - you won't find your United flights on any of the monitors because they don't want you to find it). Airport Foundation volunteers are never very far away if you're lost, looking for a specific restaurant or store, unable to communicate with airport staff (they have a phone-in translation service at their fingertips!), or your service dog requires a much-needed bathroom break.

The Airport Foundation asks that volunteers make a commitment of at least 4 hours per week. Interested? Check out their website!

***

Later on his trip, one half of this blog was stuck overnight in Cleveland, where there were no helpful volunteers to be found. However, he did find wild sparrows running all over the place!

Now, we're not saying that the Airport Foundation Volunteers are directly responsible for the lack of wildlife inside MSP, but we think that the coincidence is worth noting. C'mon, Cleveland...get on the ball.

The worst part was watching them budge to the front of the line with their first-class tickets

Ah, the historic Capri Theatre - where you can spend a rainy/snowy Saturday afternoon catching a double feature, some cartoons, and an action-packed serial (such as Don Winslow of the Navy) for just 9 cents! Sometimes we really miss the early 1940's...

But wait! The historic Capri Theatre still has a lot to offer to residents of the Twin Cities. Just last year, Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak delivered his annual State of the City address from its' stage - the same stage on which Twin Cities musical superhero Prince played his first concert (at least according to this site, which, for the sake of trivia, we really hope is accurate)! And coming on April 17th, the Capri will be the location of our first Great City Take Action Forum!

These forums, developed in partnership with the Office of Mayor RT Rybak, are designed to bring Minneapolis residents together to learn about community issues, share their experiences, and hear from local government and nonprofit organizations about what can be done to make our city an even better place to live! The first forum, "Reweaving the Urban Fabric", will focus on urban environmentalism and how we, as citizens, can make our city a cleaner, greener place, starting in our own neighborhoods.

We'll be posting more about this forum as we get closer to the event, but you should probably start getting excited now. For more info on the Great City Take Action Forum series, including a helpful map to the Capri Theatre, click here!

(And, yes - there will be snacks.)