The Little Store

And

HMEA’s Autism Resource Central

Any men interested in volunteering: Big Brothers Big Sisters has like a year plus long waitlist for male volunteers.

Abby’s House! https://abbyshouse.org/get-involved/volunteer/

Be like Brit

66 Pullman Street Worcester Mass

WHY ME

About Why Me Why Me is a grass roots non-profit organization dedicated to providing love and support services to families with childhood cancer. Created and run in part by parents that lived this experience first-hand, the dedicated staff and volunteers understand what families with a pediatric cancer patient need and are passionate about services provided. Our support begins the moment your child is diagnosed and is available throughout every step of your child’s treatment and beyond. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts, Why Me is the vision of thirteen year old Sherry Shepherd, and the promise by those who loved her to keep her dream alive.

This one means a lot to me they sent my cousin to the Red Sox training camp when he was battling leukemia up to the day he died it was one of his favorite memories.

The waitlist is sooooo long. I know a couple of kids in Worcester who have been waiting for over a year. There’s a lot of need for big brothers - and it’s a perfect volunteering opportunity for college students. Play basketball, video games, help with math homework…there are kids in Worcester who don’t have older siblings or parents with spare time to do these things with them. I was a big sister in Boston, sometimes I spent a little money on a treat or special outing, but mostly all you have to give is your time and attention. It really does mean is everything to them.

I love Community Harvest in North Grafton! You get to volunteer at a farm who’s sole purpose is to provide food for the needy

earn-a-bike

Yes!! I second this! Janette (sp) is such a wonderful lady, well all the staff are great! My husband and I try to donate food regularly. They are so appreciative! I am so happy they were able to give that gift to your cousin. I am so so sorry for your loss.

At south high in worcester there is a clothing bank called Andy’s attic. It is one of my favorite places to volunteer. You fill orders, sort new clothing and you can go with a group of you want

Open Sky Community Services is a pretty big non-profit of central Mass that does a lot of work with mental health or disabilities or addiction or homelessness and so on.

One Worcester - if you have business skills you can volunteer to help local non-profit orgs: https://www.1worcester.org/

Love this one! Great opportunity to work with your hands and give back!

CASA - https://www.thecasaproject.org/

CASA Project Worcester County recruits, screens, and trains community volunteers to be appointed advocates for children that have been abused and neglected in Worcester County!

Investigate and fact-find, helping a judge learn the nuances of each child’s prospective caregiver situations.

Advocate for any medical, mental health, and educational services that a child may need while in foster care.

Monitor case progress and well-being of the child to aid in obtaining a safe and permanent home as quickly as possible.

If volunteering is too big an ask, they regularly have toy drives or collections for things to help out the kids they advocate for! Currently they have a holiday drive: https://www.amazon.com/registries/custom/owner-view?registryId=TSE0OW2Z61SZ&ref_=gr_universal_landing

Partial to Rise Above and Stand Up for Kids, but there are lots of great non-profits doing amazing work in Worcester!

SPIN!

I was just saved by this wonderful organization.

This is kind of long, and I'm sorry, but I'm emotional since this just happened.

A little backstory: I've been out of work for months due to COVID taking a toll on me. My 12 year old son was also horribly affected after taking the vaccine.* It killed his pancreas, and his thyroid. Because of the pancreatic damage, it no longer produces insulin. 9 hours after taking the vaccine, my son was diagnosed with pediatric sudden-onset type-1 diabetes and Hashimoto's disease because of the Thyroid damage. He's now a lifelong diabetic, and has to take insulin and thyroid hormone for life.

I also take care of my 23 year old son who has cerebral palsy. He's quite active though, and mentally, he's as sharp as a tack, his physical ailments limit the kind of work he can do, but he did just get his first job at a grocery store, and I couldn't be more proud of him.

I just started working again on the 10th, and received my first paycheck this past Wednesday, the 26th. As one might imagine it didn't go far, and just enough was left over to get to the next paycheck 2 weeks from now.

To top it off, yesterday I was driving down Park Ave near WPI. There's construction happening there, and there's a bunch of exposed manholes. If you happen to get in the wrong lane, you'll have to dodge and weave to get through a minefield of manholes. Because I had a car right next to me in the next lane over, I couldn't dodge and one of the manholes tore the tire right off of one of my wheels. It destroyed the rim as well, and I'm driving on a spare.

The point of the last few paragraphs was to some of the difficulties we faced over the past year. It was exceedingly difficult at times, but we made it by sticking together and toughing it out!

SO... On Thursday, my 1 year-old cat began to show signs of illness. We were concerned and called a vet immediately, but that was first call of many just trying to find a vet that had time to see my ailing cat. In the end, I took him to VEG in Shrewsbury - where the most amazing animal hospital I've ever seen exists!

They gave me an estimate just to find out what was wrong with him, and I applied for and was denied care credit. My out of work status has seen my credit suffer alongside everything else. As sad as it was, they couldn't care for my cat, and we were sent home. I called the shelter we received our cat from, and told them the situation. Evidently, she knew a person who started an organization called Stray Pets In Need - SPIN! The lady who runs SPIN called me and offered to pay for my cat's entire hospital bill.

This bill totaled $5,480. There's NO WAY I could've paid for that. Not now, not even in a few months. We were going to lose our cat - very loved member of our family, and there was nothing I could do about it. The people at SPIN are angels, and I've dedicated a $1,000 gift to them myself as soon as I'm able to do so. It will be sooner, rather than later because I'd like them to be able to continue to do for others, as they did for me.

I'd urge anyone to check out Stray Pets In Need, and let them know how special and appreciated they really are by giving them the help they need, so that they can continue to help others in times of crisis!

Thanks for reading, reddit!

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*Note: Despite my son's injury, I am not an antivaxxer. Not at all.