Almost everything about the 2020-21 school year is different, and that includes earning community service hours. Usually around this time the fall sessions of the Do Gooders, the Library’s teen community service group, would be well underway. With library services restricted by safety concerns, we’re offering a different opportunity for teens to earn volunteer hours directly through us.

We’re collecting book reviews written by teens, to be featured on our website. Teens can submit a book review by filling out this online form; each review is worth one hour, with a cap of 8 hours per person per month. I’d appreciate hearing from parents and teens about what your volunteering situation looks like in this new school year; please don’t hesitate to reach out by emailing me at kcarroll@whiteplainslibrary.org!

In addition, I’d like to highlight a wonderful resource that teens can use to find safe volunteer opportunities to help out in other areas of our community: Volunteer New York! This website allows you to search opportunities by the age of the volunteer and the location of the opportunity (local or virtual), making it easy to find teen-specific activities. While Volunteer New York! does a great job of collecting volunteer opportunities, I would recommend that, to be on the safe side, parents remain aware of their teen’s use of the site. In the future, as I come across interesting opportunities, I will share them here.