Valley ripe with volunteer options

After volunteering at the Cedar Bend Humane Society with their youth group from St. Patricks Church, an unidentified NU High student and sophomores Alesha Rettenmeier and Adam Mackey fulfilled part of their obligations for confirmation. Kayla Micu Photo.

Whether it’s required for a class, for church or just because you want to, volunteering is a fun way to get involved in your community and help out.

There are many opportunities to volunteer in the Cedar Valley and here are just a few.

The Cedar Bend Humane Society provides care to all sorts of pets who don’t have a home and they need many volunteers to keep the work ethic up. They need volunteers to exercise the pets, do desk work, show pets for adoption and help with community outreach.

Also, you can volunteer to provide a temporary home to animals in need. Animals that need this special care are ones who are recovering from abuse or illness or a new litter of kittens or puppies that need extra care.

To volunteer at the Humane Society, you can go to their website and fill out an application.

Another good volunteer opportunity for those who like to work with animals is helping out at ASPIRE.

ASPIRE is a therapeutic horse riding program for individuals with disabilities. They only have two paid staff workers so they need all the volunteers they can get.

Volunteers are needed to assist in office work, be side walkers for horses and be barn assistants. It is recommended that you have good people skills and training is provided for those volunteering.

A volunteer form can be printed off of their website.

If you love the outdoors, you might consider volunteering at the Hartman Reserve.

Some opportunities to help out there would be trail maintenance, controlled burning, gift shop attendant and administrative jobs.

Also, they have a lot of yearly events that they need help with, like the Earth Fair and the Maple Syrup Festival. Applications are available on the website.

One more idea to help out in the community would be volunteering at the Lutheran Home.

The Lutheran Home is just one of many nursing homes in the Cedar Valley that needs volunteers. They need wellness assistants, manicure and makeover specialists, baking group assistants and recreation assistants to name a few jobs.

For more information and an application you can go on the website of any group homes in the area.

These are just a few volunteering suggestions to help out in the Cedar Valley. There are many other organizations that need your help, so think about what you could offer your community.