Local children ages 5 and up have the chance to participate in fun, family-friendly volunteer activities on the weekends, thanks to the new Tucson-based nonprofit, Crafting Kind Kids.
Since its start six months ago, the organization has helped 150 local kids and 70 families volunteer and complete 600 "kindness give-back projects," according to the organization's founder Victoria Hannley.
Some of the projects have involved bundling 8,400 diapers for babies in need, collecting 10 bags of trash from McCormick Park and making Valentine's Day cards for over 50 residents of the Salvation Army's Hospitality House.
Crafting Kind Kids partners with other local nonprofits, such as the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona, the Southern Arizona Animal Food Bank, Interfaith Community Services and the Ben's Bells Project, to provide volunteer and educational activities for young children.
The organization's mission is to make the community a better place and to "foster joy of giving to others" by allowing kids to participate in "age-appropriate volunteer activities," according to Crafting Kind Kids' website.
A group of kid volunteers pose for a photo at the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona on Nov. 20, 2021. Over the last six months, they have helped bundle 8,400 diapers for the diaper bank.
Most of the events are free to participate in, but some have a family participation fee of $10, which Hannley said goes toward supplies, including snacks for the kids to take home after they finish their activities.
"If we really want to make the world a better place, we really need to be planting those seeds, when they're as young as possible... And I just sort of feel like this is a very small way I can make the world better or even just make Tucson better," Hannley said.
For Hannley, volunteering and giving back to the community have always been important — so important that she decided to instill those values in her three children by having them tag along with her when she volunteered.
But soon after, she realized how hard it was to find volunteer opportunities for young children.
"When she (Hannley's daughter) was about 9 (years old), we would always as a family talk about issues and needs in the community and things going on," Hannley said. "But it sort of hit me that she really wasn't making that connection. And I felt like, 'OK, I've got to change my tactic here.' So it started setting me on this sort of unintentional journey of trying to find opportunities to take her out into the community, to volunteer and expose her to, you know, hands-on service projects."
After her kids participated in a few volunteer opportunities, Hannley noticed how much the trio loved giving back to the community and gradually saw a shift in their outlook on life.
"It took time, but over the last couple of years, I've really seen how their perspective has changed because we're going to different environments and interacting with different people and driving to parts of town that aren't part of our regular, you know, school-sports loop," she said. "So it's really expanded their perspective and gotten them out of their little comfort zone."
Kid volunteers work on making posters to cheer on the Courtney's Courage and TBI Inc cycling team, El Tour for Tots, during the annual El Tour de Tucson.
Witnessing the change in her kids inspired the former stay-at-home mom to start the Crafting Kind Kids organization, so other local kids could have that same experience of gaining a broader perspective of their community and its surrounding issues.
"As parents, our job is to craft these kinds of little humans to put out into the world," Hannley said. "And when I look at my own kids, who are 7, 10 and 12, I see this generation of kids who are our future leaders or future activists. So I feel like it's sort of my job to do all I can to craft this team who is going to hopefully make the world better than it is currently."
'You're never too young to volunteer.'
As the only employee of the foundation, Hannley is responsible for researching, coordinating and creating age-appropriate volunteer opportunities, all while balancing her children's school, sports and extracurricular schedules. Despite all of the hustle and bustle of everyday life, Hannley said the effort has been worth it due to the community's response, which she called "amazing."
Although Crafting Kind Kids is currently a one-woman show, Hannley hopes it doesn't stay that way forever. She intends to find more adult volunteers, so the nonprofit can host multiple volunteer opportunities on the same day and begin to incorporate more empathy-building projects.
While the organization focuses on children ages 5 and up, Hannley wants to arrange a program for children under the age of 5 that helps them learn about completing simple tasks like coloring with crayons or making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
But don't worry, she hasn’t forgotten about Tucson's pre-teens and teens. She aspires to open a six-week summer leadership volunteer program, where the teens can identify an issue within the community and work on ways they can help solve the problem.
Until then, you can find Crafting Kind Kids' upcoming volunteer opportunities on their website's calendar. The next family volunteer event is an unplugged family fitness class on March 5, in collaboration with Telos Strength and Conditioning.
"You're never too young to start volunteering... And we're a kind community," Hannley said. "So why not plant those seeds of kindness as early as we can, by getting kids out there and actually seeing what is happening in our community versus us just, you know, trying to talk about it."
