Ways to Give as a Family This Thanksgiving

There are many ways to give as a family this Thanksgiving. Both giving and gratitude has been shown to raise happiness levels, and the best way to teach a value is make it a habit and do it as a family.

Volunteer Opportunities

Check out packing a holiday box or go shopping for Harvest Hope Food Bank’s Thanksgiving Wish List.

Oliver Gospel Mission also feeds the hungry in their soup kitchen downtown. You can sponsor a Thanksgiving dinner for less than $3 and sign up to volunteer as well.

You can also make room for new toys and book by cleaning out the clutter and donating it to Oliver Gospel thrift shop or other charity thrift shops in town.

Pack a Christmas shoebox with gifts for child in need. Drop off locations in Columbia for collection week November 18-25 and instructions are available here.

To help local children, check out Palmetto Place and Epworth Children’s Home.

If you’re less of a people person, donate or volunteer at an animal shelter.

Or, for the Earth, do the Instagram #TrashTag challenge. This involves finding a messy place, picking it up as a family, and posting your before and after pictures using the hashtag.

Walks, Charity Events, Benefits

There are loads more walks, charity events, and benefits around the Midlands to go to as a family.

• November 14 – Dare2Care, 7 p.m.
• November 16 – JDRF One Walk, Columbia, to benefit T1D research, 9 a.m., Segra Park. Ronald McDonald House Charities Columbia’s 13th Annual Sporting Clays Tournament, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., at Heritage Farm in Camden.
• November 19 – a percentage of the proceeds at Village Idiot Pizza goes to Quench, a charity fighting to supply clean drinking water around the world, 4 – 10 p.m.
• November 22 – Jesse Eudy Memorial Charity Golf Classic, noon, Cobblestone Park Golf Club
• November 23 – Barbells for BOOBs benefit for breast cancer, 9 a.m., CrossFit Valor
• November 29 – Come cheer on your favorite local law enforcement agency as they compete in the first BBC Midnight Basketball Charity Game – Law Enforcement Edition, 7 p.m. – 11 p.m., Bethlehem Baptist Church

How does your family volunteer and give back to the community? Know of an opportunity we missed? Tell us about it!