Family Volunteer Day Kicks Off Holiday Season with Giving and Service on November 17

Disney Friends for Change and Points of Light Sponsor National Day of Service

ATLANTA, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Children are holding bake sales and penny drives. Teens are loading heavy supplies on an assembly line. Families are adopting families through virtual volunteering. People of all ages are working hard to help those hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy.

Families across the country can join efforts to help those most in need on Family Volunteer Day, taking place Nov. 17. For more than two decades, Family Volunteer Day has been held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season with giving and service.

The day of service is sponsored by Disney Friends for Change, a global initiative that inspires kids and families to take action to help people, communities and the planet, and powered by generationOn, Points of Light's youth service program. 

"Family volunteering is a hands-on way for children to learn the values of kindness, compassion, tolerance, community responsibility and good citizenship," said Concetta Bencivenga, executive director of generationOn. "It's also a meaningful way for families to spend time together, have fun and help shape a lifelong value of service."

Hundreds of projects will take place across the country on Family Volunteer Day, including:

In Washington, D.C., families will spend the day at the Armed Forces Retirement home visiting with residents and helping them prepare for the holidays with a host of hands-on projects including raking leaves, cleaning up the grounds and hosting a "Wheelchair Wash."

In Glendale, Ariz., families will help with a neighborhood beautification project by cleaning up yards and painting the homes of veterans, the elderly and those with disabilities.

In Dallas, at the Volunteer Center of North Texas, families will support eight local nonprofit agencies by making holiday gift bags for Meals on Wheels, cooking and packaging healthy lunches with the American Diabetes Association and transplanting saplings through the Texas Trees Foundation. 

In Covington, Ga., youth and family volunteers will make "no sew" blankets that will be donated to Project Linus, an organization that collects and distributes blankets to critically ill children in hospitals, shelters and social service agencies.

In Los Angeles, more than 100 Disney VoluntEARS and community volunteers will come together to participate in a day of service at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to sort and box food for people in need in the local community.

As part of Disney's Friends for Change support, Radio Disney local stations in multiple markets will also be on site at the events as part of the network's Project Family initiative, which inspires families to spend time together in an effort to make lasting, positive change at home, in their community and the world at large.

Families that would like to join Family Volunteer Day activities can search online for a volunteer project near them. Families can also find online information, project ideas and resources for their own service projects at http://www.generationon.org/parents/family-volunteer-resources.

About Points of Light
Points of Light – the world's largest organization dedicated to volunteer service – mobilizes millions of people to take action that is changing the world. Through affiliates in 250 cities and partnerships with thousands of nonprofits and corporations, Points of Light engages more than four million volunteers in 30 million hours of service each year. We put people at the center of change. For more information, go to www.pointsoflight.org. 

About generationOn
generationOn is the global youth service movement igniting the power of all kids to make their mark on the world. As Points of Light's youth service enterprise, generationOn inspires, equips and mobilizes youth to take action through generationOn service clubs, schools, youth organizations, campaigns and youth leadership initiatives. It also provides tools and resources to youth, families and educators to help kids change the world and themselves through service. To learn more about how to get involved, visit www.generationon.org.

About Disney Friends for Change
Disney Friends for Change is a global initiative that inspires kids and their families to make lasting, positive change by helping people, communities, and the planet. Through on-air interstitials, online action kits, and over $5 million in grants to support projects in neighborhoods around the world, Friends for Change provides useful resources to encourage kids and families to take action and make a difference. To date, Friends for Change kids in fifty-five countries around the world have taken almost five million actions. For more information, go to www.Disney.com/friends.

Contact:
Anne O'Neill, Points of Light
404.844.5360
[email protected]

SOURCE Points of Light