Things to do this weekend and beyond 12/14....

Well, with Hanukkah in full swing and Christmas around the corner, it can feel like there's not much time on hand to squeeze in community activities, but it seems important to me to keep the needs of others and the challenges in the world all around us present in the midst of our celebrations (without being the dour doomsayer in a room full of carolers).  Going to set an example by not prattling on about that but providing (I hope) some opportunities for this coming week.

• Sunday, we're going to volunteer to help with food preparation at the Masbia Soup Kitchen on Coney Island Ave., in an event organized by the social action committee at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School.  There is still room for more volunteers - if you're interested, send an email here.  I will post about the experience afterwards and get a sense of how well this works with kids.
• As I mentioned last week, Occupy Sandy is organizing a day of action on Saturday, with community rallies in the Rockaways and Staten Island at noon, and a citywide convergence on the Mayor's house on the Upper East Side at 5 (bring flashlights!).  You can get details here.  As with many Occupy events, you have to be a bit tolerant of some vagueness around the edges of the message, but the events themselves seem clearly defined.
• Last week I posted about an effort by queensmamas.com, called Family-to-Family which is looking to connect volunteer families with individual families in need, to provide support, help connect them with resources in the community and generally make the holidays a little easier, with the larger aim of bringing families from different parts of the city closer together.  If this is something you think your family might like to do, check out the information on the website - you can do as much as you're able, and it's a way of volunteering as a family that's very personal (which also may be why it scares some folks off, but different approaches appeal to different folks so....).
• If your time is limited and can't get somewhere to volunteer right now, New York Cares has started a Winter Wishes project which allows you to purchase items from Amazon in answer to wish registries for lots of different social service agencies serving kids, seniors and others.  What I like about this is that the range of options is large and for those of us with kids who still believe in Santa and don't understand why we need to buy gifts for other children ("Doesn't Santa bring them?"), buying lamps and canes and gift cards are easier to explain.  While it's not as active as going and doing something, having the kids help pick out gifts is a nice indoor, cold weather activity.
• On Saturday, there appears to be a work project at Added Value farm in Red Hook from 1 to 4pm.  It's not up on their calendar but there is sign up for it through New York Cares here.

Not a volunteer activity but a different kind of opportunity: Disney Friends for Change Grants are $1000 grants to kids ages 5 to 18 to support youth projects to help meet the needs of others.  Proposals are due February 10th.  If the child applying is under 13, an adult has to submit the application.

 Got any other ideas?  Share 'em!