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Young Grandchildren with
Grandparents
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Call weekly (even daily!) to discuss and share
what you've done
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Shabbat Service Club - get together once a month,
have challah and juice together, and make something to give to the
needy (food baskets, flower pots, stuffed animals, etc.)
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Do grocery shopping for an elderly or sick neighbor
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Share your stories! Story time can be a
great time for instilling philanthropic values!
Middle Grade
Grandchildren with Grandparents
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Visit a shelter
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Visit a nursing home, and develop a relationship
with someone who lives there
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Take seniors or children to concerts, a botanic
garden, the zoo — a ball game!
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Set up a regular volunteer time to help with a
local social action group or charity
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Shovel snow for senior citizens
Older Children with
Grandparents
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Help out at an animal shelter
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Make books on tape for a children’s hospital
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Sing/recite prayer for healing for someone in the
hospital and bring them a teddy bear or a pretty blanket
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Make a contribution to a “charity of the month” in
honor of Grandparents or Grandchildren — or maybe do it together in
honor of Mom & Dad!
Long-Distance
Grandparents and Grandchildren
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Send “gifts of giving” once a month and share what
you’ve done. (If you'd like some excellent examples of "gifts
of giving", visit heifer.org.)
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E-mail “Kindness Act” of the week. Send letters to
others asking them to join.
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Have an annual “helping others” visit/trip
together. Is there a cause you’d like to march for together?
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Adopt a child long-distance in another country
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Go on a retreat together — maybe a week together at
a Jewish camp during the summer?
Gift of the Month for
Social Action
Newsletters for
Grandparents and/or Grandchildren
Grandparents (&
Other Elders) Only
What’s something I can do
with my own grandkids to get started?
We’re glad you asked! A GREAT idea is to
start a philanthropy club for your grandchildren. That’s a
big word for young grandchildren, but boiled down to basics it’s a way
to teach them about sharing what they have with others who are in need,
and to encourage them to become “junior philanthropists” themselves.
Take your grandchild or grandchildren on a special
outing and make a celebration out their becoming
philanthropists. Here’s a sample of a simple certificate that
can make your grandkids feel that becoming a philanthropist is an
extra-special thing to do! You can make the certificate with
any word-processing program, or even print it by hand on fancy
parchment. Put a gold seal or cool sticker on it, and before
you know it you’ll have your very own Junior Philanthropist, and you
can watch his or her Tzedakah box fill up!
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