“the most improtant hour of your week may be the one you give away”
Currently we are running our first-ever Au Pair Community Service Contest. The deadline is February 15th. We have gone out to the au pairs a few times but if you have an au pair in your cluster who has been volunteering in the community please give her a nudge to apply! All of the information is right here http://www.aupairinamerica.com/communityservice/2013.asp
Enjoy this excerpt from Ela Sebrek’s submission. She’s a Croatian au pair living in Denver, CO.
“When I first came here six months ago I felt really homesick and I almost went back home. Since kids I’m taking care of are in school half a day, I was alone at home a lot. Getting out of the house and go help others really helped me feel better. People where I’m volunteering are treating me so nice. I know that I can count on their help if something happens. Especially I enjoy to volunteer in Children’s Center! Kids are so sweet. Sometimes we have to be very persistent to make them cooperate, but most of the time we’re having a great time. When we can’t go out, we stay in the gym and there is this little guy that’s always next to me. He doesn’t want to play with anyone else but me. Then we usually pick his favorite book and I’m reading it to him. In no time other kids join us. That’s the most special moment for me. Of course that doesn’t last long because there is always something that “catches their eyes”, but it’s nice to have their attention for couple of minutes. I never thought that people in the USA are volunteering that much. Back in my country that’s not such a common situation. I also discovered lots of new interesting books and my language skills improved a lot. Volunteering become very important for me because it keeps my mind busy, I’m meeting a lot of great people here and I don’t feel that lonely anymore!”