HOW IT ALL STARTED

A Year of Family Service: the who, what & why

So, this is how our whole "year of family service" thing got started.  Our families were together a few weeks ago and the subject came up about how to keep our kids from falling into the selfish, entitled trap that is becoming so prevalent in our society today. Actually Rolf said they were switching from dance to a year of family service (like his girls would ever let them quit dance;)  It's really hard when we are raising our kids in a more affluent lifestyle than we were all raised.  We decided that really the only way was to get them involved in service and it would have to go beyond the occasional church or holiday service project.  It would need to become a part of who they are-- become who our family is.  This really is the best way to truly follow in our Savior's footsteps.  I have always LOVED service (our parents were AMAZING examples) and my kids are always happy and willing to serve whenever we are asked but that has seemed to be the biggest problem to becoming a service family-- we wait until presented with the opportunity instead of seeking it out.  So when the Wuerches said they wanted to start a year of service we immediately jumped at the chance to join them and create a family service group that performed some kind of service every week for an entire year!

     Here is how we decided the group would work:

- Each week we would do some kind of service either together or as individual families depending on the type of service or what our week looked like in terms of other commitments.

- Each person would choose a service project and be in charge that week.  That person would also be charge of documenting the project on our blog.

- We would choose a quartly bigger/global project to contribute to as well.

- We made a list of service ideas and the moms did the research on contacts, what was available, filling out volunteer forms etc.  This list would continue to be added to as we heard of or thought of more ideas.

- We created a name, theme & logo.  We also have t-shirts & bumper stickers in the works :)

- We would have a kick-off to go over everything & calendar out 2-3 months at a time.

- We would meet at the end of each month to go over what we did the past month, make changes for the future & continue to calendar out 2-3 months.  Leadership over our planning meetings would rotate amongst family members.

- It was really important that our kids take ownership of it & it not just turn into something the parents were making them do.

- We would share what we are doing & invite other families to join in any of the service opportunities that will accomodate more people.

- We would set up a blog to document our journey as well as share information to help other families more easily find out about service opportunities in our community, join with us or start their own family service groups.

- We would culminate the year of service with a Humanitarian Service trip.

When we told the kids for the most part they were pretty excited.  As the weeks went by leading to kick off and we started talking and brainstorming ideas, the excitement grew and I was amazed at how service minded they became.  They talked about ideas they had and how they couldn't wait to start!  It was AWESOME!!
                                                                                                                                                                            --  Rebecca