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| Building Connections, Helping Those in Need October 2011
Diane Carpenter had always been involved with community organizations, but a trip to Guatemala with her daughter, Kathryn, last year re-ignited her passion for involvement. Carpenter, who works in corporate communications and public affairs at MITRE, spent 10 days visiting Fundaninos, a non-profit center that houses orphaned, abandoned, and abused children. "These are kids who are abused and starving and went through all kinds of stuff before they got to Fundaninos, yet they are the most thankful and loving kids I've ever met in my life," she says. "I felt things I'd never felt before-that those children need to know there are mothers in the world who won't abuse them, and that there are nice people who they can trust and who can help them have hope for the future." When Carpenter and Kathryn returned to their home in suburban Washington, they both found they missed the children, as well as the fulfillment they discovered in giving of themselves and their time. Carpenter wanted to become involved in the kind of volunteer work that a church community would do, but she didn't want to limit her volunteer efforts. A single mother, she also was interested in making new single friends. "My friend and I were talking about being single in mid-life. We had tried the online dating thing, but there was also this ongoing conversation about how we wanted to do more," she says. The solution was as easy as opening her laptop. Carpenter and a friend started NOVA 40+ Single Volunteers, a Meetup group that combined volunteering and singles activities. What Carpenter calls a "healing through helping" idea clicked. The first meet-up took place on April 1, and the group has met a few times each month ever since, with its membership growing to more than 200 members. "Our basic philosophy is we want to help some group every weekend," she explains. "We do that by limiting helping to two hours, and then following it with a social event." For example, the volunteers have helped Grace Ministries distribute food and clothing to disadvantaged residents around Herndon, Va., worked in the gardens at River Farm for the American Horticultural Society, and collected and cleaned up bikes for the organization Bikes for the World. The group also regularly helps at local Habitat for Humanity ReStores—centers that sell surplus donated building materials, with proceeds benefitting Habitat. The Meetup group helps established organizations, rather than developing their own efforts. The group swoops in and lets the organization put them to work. If members decide to get more involved with a particular organization, they have that option. Carpenter said that she has yet to learn of a date that's resulted from the meetups, but it provides an opportunity for connection among single adults, many of whom might feel isolated after divorce. "Most of us are just interested in being friends and having a network of friends," Carpenter says. "Some members have told me that this is their new social group. We see each other a few times a month, hang out on a weekend, and then walk away with a good feeling from it because we've helped an organization." —by Molly Manchenton
Page last updated: October 25, 2011 | Top of page |
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