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GIVING BACK, CONTINUED ...Published: November, 2009

McGlinn suggests that when parents take their children shopping, the kids can fill up a separate bag of groceries for needy families and give those to agencies like Share Our Selves, or to the church. At Thanksgiving dinner, children can set an empty table setting where other adults can leave things like cash for food or canned goods.
   
“Kids could ask their parents to have a food drive at work or church or temple, and we would supply all the barrels necessary, deliver them, and pick them up,” McGlinn adds.  
   
She says Share Our Selves has many opportunities for children, teens or adults to help year round, such as the agency’s Back to School Back Pack program, where this year, teens distributed some 1,700 backpacks filled with goods to the less fortunate, and the Adopt a Family program.
   
“The program allows for information about the family and is really an opportunity for children to shop for presents, plan the Christmas meal, etc.,” McGlinn says.  
   
Besides SOS, there are a number of other ways to help out the poor or homeless. The Volunteer Center of Orange County has a whole raft of activities that kids can do. And Disney just announced a new program called Give a Day, Get a Disney Day. Children who volunteer to help serve others can get a free pass to Disneyland or Disney World.
   
This Thanksgiving, I’m going to ensure that my kids know how much they should be thankful for. And they will also know how thankful I am to be their dad.

Tony Dodero is a longtime Orange County journalist and former editor of the Daily Pilot. Contact him at doderocommunications.com.

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