Giving Back

Out & About offers participants a chance to give back to their community through Stepping Stones.  The program includes opportunities to volunteer in the kitchen at the Boulder Homeless Shelter, cleaning up local parks, making cat toys and dog biscuits to donate to local Humane Societies and more!  Also several times over the last couple months these groups have collaborated with an organization called A Soldier’s Wish List.  A Soldier’s Wish List is a non-profit organization established to support American troops serving in combat zones around the world in order to let them know how grateful we are for what they do on a daily basis.  They ask for care package donations which include the items most requested by troops like toiletries, batteries, socks, playing cards and homemade sweets & snacks.  Out & About’s Stepping Stones programs chose to help out the troops by baking cookies and writing cards!  These activities are a great opportunity for our participants to practice their cooking skills (following a recipe, measuring and mixing ingredients, using an oven safely, etc).  Making the care packages also gives Out & About’s participants an opportunity to help others and gain a broader perspective of the world.  One of the participants in Stepping Stones was creating a card after baking a batch of cookies when she stated her uncle was in the Army.  She said to her instructor that she wished either he or someone like him could receive the cookies and card she had made! Here is a picture of some of the kiddos with our finished product.