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We are getting the ball rolling for our Mother’s Day Project in April – a day where our volunteers make gifts to give women staying in local shelters.  
It would be awesome for these gifts to include a variety of travel size hygiene products…. Wouldn’t it be nice if these women received their gifts inside of a gently used purse, tote or bag? If you’re doing any spring cleaning and come across any bags or products, we would love it if you could donate them to our project! Our hope is to collect 50 bags!! You can drop donations off at Cowork FL or Ed’s Tavern

We had quite the SUGAR Volunteers weekend! Our Kindness Day Event was full of excited volunteers who were eager to get to work doing their share of Random Acts of Kindness. Volunteers painted 75 bowls for Meals On Wheels, write letters to soldiers overseas who were receiving amazing packages from MOTS, make bookmarks to put in the bookbags filled with food for FELT kids, make toys for the kittens at Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue, paint rocks and make little goodie bags to keep spreading the kindness all over town. In addition to our own volunteers, we were able to share this day of kindness with two dozen kids staying in group foster care homes.
SUGAR Volunteers were also at Bayside Church participating in their Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack Monday. Over 30 volunteers came out with our group to be a part of this amazing event. The kids were able to help fill bags of food that would be shipped out all over the world. In our two hour shift, all of the volunteers at the Mobile Pack were able to make enough meals to feed 86 kids once a day for a whole year!
Thank you so much for making time to come to these events and helping kids learn that volunteering can be fun! 

Nick Boccaccio, of Paradise Palms  Lakewood Ranch, generously dropped off 200 rocks for us to use at our Kindness Day Event. The event is scheduled for this afternoon, which happens to be National Random Acts of Kindness Day. We are celebrating by giving our volunteers plenty of ways to do some random acts of kindness
– drop a kindness rock off at a friend’s house or leave it at a park for a stranger to discover
– make a goody bag for a friend
– Play with a new friend
– paint a bowl for Meals On Wheels
– make a kitten toy for a shelter pet
– make bookmarks to put on FELT’s backpacks
– write letters to soldiers serving overseas
and so much more!!!

We are so grateful to Spotlight Amusements for their generous contribution to our Kindness Day Event. When we decided to do an event to show some kindness to the kids who are staying in some local group homes, we brainstormed ways to make that happen. Melanie and Lazarus Fernandez have been so generous with their time and equipment to help make the event super fun. Thanks to them, our event will have an inflatable slide, games and even sno-cones!
In addition to having fun with new friends on the equipment Spotlight Amusements is providing, volunteers who participate in our event have the opportunity to do tons of things to celebrate National Random Act of Kindness Day:
-drop a kindness rock off at a friend’s house or leave it at a park for a stranger to discover
– make a goody bag for a friend
– Play in a kickball game with new friends
– paint a bowl for Meals On Wheels
– make a kitten toy for a shelter pet
– make bookmarks to put on FELT’s backpacks
– write letters to soldiers serving overseas
and so much more!!!

The event is scheduled for February 17th. Make sure to reserve your spot so we have enough supplies. Links to the sign up are on our website.

Our next “in-house” event is this weekend and we have been working hard to get all the moving pieces lined up to make for a great event. Volunteers that participate will have lots of great ways to participate in National Random Acts of Kindness Day! From making cat toys for kittens at Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue to learning some new techniques for painting rocks from the Sarasota Rocks group, there will be so many fun ways to give back!
We are thankful to have some dads on hand ready to grill out and make some yummy hot dog lunches to help us raise funds to support future events. We can’t wait to see you there! Sign up to join us by visiting our website.

Girls Inc. was founded in 1864 to serve girls and young women who were experiencing upheaval in the aftermath of the Civil War. Across the decades, the organization adapted to meet the specific environmental challenges facing girls and young women, always working in partnership with schools and communities, and guided by their founders’ fundamental belief in the inherent potential of each girl.

A simple way to get involved and earn some volunteer hours is to share their messages across social media by becoming one of their Social Ambassadors. Learn more on how to help by visiting their website!

Cat Depot works daily to rescue abandoned, abused, injured, relinquished, and free-roaming community/feral cats and kittens. In 2017, Cat Depot rescued 1,430 cats and assisted with local and national rescues. 

You can be a volunteer at Cat Depot starting at age 8. The youngest volunteers visit the facility with their parent or caregiver and help socialize the cats. Cat Depot does require that volunteers be regular visitors and commit to twice a month for six months at a minimum, but if you love cats this may be the right fit for you! Find out more on their website!

Several of our volunteers headed out to Manatee Charter School to participate in a service project that FAPA (Foster and Adopted Parent Association) initiated. Our volunteers were on hand to build bikes, fill gift bags and help make the event fun for lots of local FAPA families. 

2019 is here, and we are starting the year off on a great foot. This month, we have already completed three volunteer opportunities, logged 114 hours and supported three organizations with our efforts. 
Our SUGAR Cubes program volunteers headed to Daybreak Adult Day Center and worked on some crafts with the folks there. Another group did some sorting at Mothers Helping Mothers to get the store ready for the next set of customers. 
We also completed our Fresh Start Event last weekend where our volunteers filled laundry baskets with essential items for 31 women and their children leaving HOPE Family Services and transitioning to a home of her own.