Austin Families Give Back: Family Volunteer Day
Family Volunteer Day is a national day of service that celebrates the power of families who volunteer together, supporting their neighborhoods, communities and the world. Family Volunteer Day is held annually on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season with a day of giving and service.

In 2017, Generation SERVE hosted our inaugural event to provide families with the opportunity to learn about giving back to our community while sampling hands-on service activities to benefit 30 local nonprofits in Austin. We welcomed 763 attendees from 220 families at the event with children from ages three to seventeen.

Austin Families Give Back was organized in the style of a family service fair where parents/caregivers and their children were able to learn about our community's needs and sample service projects to support organizations that fell under the categories of Animal Care, Children, Education, Environment, Health & Wellness, Poverty, Refugees and Senior Support. We provided each attendee with a Holiday Giving Guide that included a variety of ways to give back and support the needs of our community during this year's holiday season!

Our Impact

Animal Care
Wrapped 188 books for The Dog Alliance's senior clients
Decorated 100 bags for Meals on Wheels' PALS Program pet food deliveries
Made 75 Foster Family Kits for various dog rescues
Health & Wellness
Stuffed 700 coozies for Mothers' Milk Bank
Assembled 75 welcome bags for the Christi Center's Kids Who Kare Program
Made 60 cards for kids at Ronald McDonald House
Children
Made 500 bag tags for Carrying Hope's Hope Packs for foster kids
Created 180 sensory stress balls for Pop-Up Birthday's foster clients
Made 14 blankets for STARRY to give to kids in foster care
Poverty
Packed 400 lbs of rice and 300 lbs of beans for El Buen Samaritano and Caritas
Made 100 Street Outreach Kits for Caritas
Decorated 100 placemats for Salvation Army
Education
Made 1,500 water guardian bracelets for Colin's Hope
Created 220 felt craft kits for AVANCE's parenting classes
Decorated 150 bookmarks for Bookspring to distribute to children
Refugees
Made 100 flu season kits for patients at Hope Clinic
Packed 75 school welcome kits for child clients of Refugee Services of Texas
Made 50 gifts for refugee clients of GirlForward
Environment
Decorated 220 merchandise tags for Austin Creative ReUse's store
Made 175 bird feeders for families to take home
Made 100 native grass seed ball kits thanks to Keep Austin Beautiful
Senior Support
Created 200 holiday ornaments for clients and donors at Family Eldercare
Decorated 200 delivery bags for Meals on Wheels' HOPE Program
Made 160 door decorations for clients of Westminster Manor
The coozies filled with brochures are a GIANT help to us and will be for months to come, and the Holiday Cards actually brought some staff members to tears. They are perfect. Thank you very much for reaching out to us to be a part of this event, we hope to participate again next year!  "

-  Mothers' Milk Bank
You ALL are so awesome. We can't thank you enough. The wrapped puzzle books for our senior citizens are fabulous and they will be so thrilled when we show up on Christmas Eve to deliver the books. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!  "

​-  The Dog Alliance

Thank you to our generous supporters!

Gold Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

The Asamoah Family
The Chapman Family
​The Terry Family

Partner Sponsors

The Brannen/Dollinger Family
The Bronson Family
​Heather & Jack Nelson
The Townshend/Peña Family

Community Sponsors

Lisa & Jeff Hobbs
​The Neff Family
Mindy Weber & Lowell McRoberts

Thanks To Our Friends At

Interested in sponsoring our 2018 Family Volunteer Day event? Contact our Development Director, Allie Townshend Peña, at allie@generationserve.org for more information.