What is Bunny Aid and who is Floyd??
February 23, 2012
There is something whimsical about a visit from the Easter Bunny. Children wake up to see where he hid their presents and once they find them they start to eagerly unwrap brightly colored baskets filled with chocolate eggs, jellybeans, and soft and cuddly stuffed bunnies or chicks. But what about the children in need that the Easter Bunny had a hard time finding?
This was a community need that Angela Stancil, a Hands On Birmingham Junior Board Member, recognized 10 years ago when she started Bunny Aid. Bunny Aid is a Do-It-Yourself Project that allows volutneers to be creative with filling Easter Baskets for children in need. Angela formed the group E.B.A.T (Easter Basket Assembly Team) and created 20 East Baskets in its first year! Over the years the project has only grown and Angela is now up to her not-so-bunny-ears in plastic Easter eggs and she is still finding fake basket grass in her car and home. In 2011, E.B.A.T assembled 889 baskets for local children!!!!
Angela said, “It’s amazing how year after year we continue to sustain the project with only individual donations! It’s such a fun project that folks keep coming back year after year and telling their friends.”
You don’t have to be in E.B.A.T to make a difference! Hands On Birmingham offers Bunny Aid as a Do-It-Yourself project to allow friends, family, coworkers, church members, and classmates to get together and celebrate the season by giving back to the community through a Bunny.
It is very easy to volunteer for Bunny Aid! All you have to do is get with your friends, families, coworkers etc. and fill some Easter Baskets with treats like fake grass, plastic Easter eggs, individually wrapped candy, small stuffed animals or toys, and or coloring books and crayons! These are just examples of what *might* go into a basket! Please use your imagination!
All baskets need to be dropped off or picked up by MARCH 30th! Drop off days are Monday-Friday from 8:00am to 4:30pm to HOB’s office located at 3600 8th Ave South Birmingham, AL 35232!
Floyd the Hands On Birmingham Bunny and Bunny Aid mascot (pictured below) will be hopping over to agency partners, like (but not limited to) YWCA, Pathways, The Salvation Army and Birmingham Aids Outreach, to deliver the volunteer made baskets.
Follow his trail via Facebook all through March and up until Easter to see his Bunny Aid travels! 
MLK Volunteer Success!!
February 17, 2012
Hands On Birmingham would like to extend a HUGE thank you to all of our MLK VOLUNTEERS! Thank you for making such an incredible impact in just ONE day!
12th Annual MLK Day of Service
January 10, 2012
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Anyone can be great because everybody can serve.” It can be easy for a volunteer to question the difference they can make. What can really change in an afternoon of volunteering? A lot.
Hands On Birmingham’s 12th Annual MLK Day of Service is just one example of how the community can change in one afternoon. On Monday, January 16th hundreds of volunteers of all ages, races, ethnicity, religion and gender will band together to make one movement that will leave a huge impact. This year we have around 35 projects in the community that will cover a wide range of impact areas such as environment, education, homelessness and hunger, and disaster relief efforts (just to name a few..)
With the declining economy and the community still on the long road to recovery from the April 27th tornadoes the need for volunteers is greater than ever. MLK Day of Service engages over 1,000 volunteers in just one day. One hour of volunteer labor is worth $17.70 in the state of Alabama. This MLK Day of Service, HOB volunteers will be worth around $70,000 but that is just a number.
The impact that our volunteers will make on Monday will mean more than just money. It will mean a warm meal in an empty stomach, a more beautiful park for our children to enjoy, smiling senior citizens at a retirement home, a new home for a family that dreamed of one, a day of fun for children, and a community that came together to help one another.
That is exactly what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said anybody can be great. It is easy to look at an afternoon of volunteering as just one afternoon, but that one afternoon could mean the world to someone in need.
If you are interested in being a part of MLK Day, please visit http://www.handsonbirmingham.org/MLK and sign up for one of our many great projects.
HOB would love to thank all of our amazing sponsors for making this MLK Day of Service a possibility!
What does Hands On Birmingham Do?
November 17, 2011
Whenever Hands On Birmingham’s staff is out in the field, at an agency fair, or just in general, they commonly get asked, “What does Hands On Birmingham do”?. It isn’t an easy question to answer! It helps people make the community a better place. Hands On Birmingham makes volunteering easier. It inspires change and brings about awareness on issues in the community. Hands On Birmingham lets the community know major needs in the area. It works with over 200 agencies in five counties find volunteers who cares about their missions. Hands On Birmingham brings strangers together to help people get back on their feet, a community space more beautiful, serve a hot meal to the hungry, or befriend and provide guidance to children. It was a first responder when the April 27th tornado hit. Hands On Birmingham is hope, change, and community.
The staff, board and junior board members could talk about the organization endlessly and everyone has a fond memory of Hands On Birmingham, whether they have been around since its inception in 1998, or if they have only been connected to the organization for a month. You will read about those stories as this blog continues, but for our first post we would love to just tell you about what makes Hands On Birmingham so hands on.
Volunteers making a difference
You can look at Hands On Birmingham as an organization that provides three different types of volunteer opportunities; every day, annual events, and corporate days of service. At Hands On Birmingham, we believe that every day is volunteer day. Times are tough and as the economy continues to suffer, the community’s needs rise Nonprofits often cannot receive enough monetary support to fund an increase in programs. In the state of Alabama, the worth of one hour of volunteer work is worth $17.17 and that hour is priceless to the organization that the volunteer is helping as well as the people receiving services.
That is why volunteers play such a vital role in the success of a nonprofit organization! Hands On Birmingham lists daily volunteer projects with agencies that would love to have you be a part of their mission! There are a variety of opportunities such as: serving a meal to the hungry, visiting the elderly, spending time taking care of animals, making a community garden more beautiful, office work, and working events! All these opportunities can be viewed and signed up for at the website: www.handsonbirmingham.org
Skill based volunteering has become very important. If you have a skill or talent you would like to share, let us know. There is probably a nonprofit that needs you! If you can’t find anything that works with your schedule or that you are interested in, let us know and we can help you find something!
Two girls cleaning up a creek during HOB's Family Volunteer Day
Hands On Birmingham has annual events where we ask for an extra push from our volunteers, both old and new. We have four days of service, which includes: MLK Day of Service, Family Day of Service, 9/11 Week of Service and Remembrance, and Project Homeless Connect. You can find out more details about these days of service on our website as well as see pictures of our amazing volunteers hard at work!
In addition, we have Do-It-Yourself At Home Projects that volunteers can participate in with school groups, friends, family, faith based groups, coworkers, or even individually. Volunteers can put together Easter baskets for Bunny Aid, care kits for Project Homeless Connect or backpacks our Back-To-School Backpack Drive. All products of these projects go to agencies that support and house those in need.
Lastly, Hands On Birmingham can organize corporate days of service for companies or other groups! Give us a call so we can get some details on the specifics of what project you want and can plan it within three weeks time!
Everyone at HOB can talk at great lengths about what the organization does, how it helps people and moving stories about volunteers and the people that they help, but we really just want to get one simple point across: We love our community and we love the volunteers that make it the best community that it can be. We believe even the smallest action can make a huge impact. We would love for all of you to be a part of the action! Help us make a change! Visit our website to see what you can do at www.handsonbirmingham.org
