The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are the highest times for charitable donations and for charitable volunteering. There are a vast number of opportunities in virtually every community where you can choose to volunteer. In Fishers and Hamilton County, one of the largest charitable organizations helping our community is Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton County. This is an organization that will help thousands of families over the holidays. To do that, they need well over a thousand volunteers to handle nearly 3,000 volunteer tasks.
There are four main events where volunteers are needed this holiday season. This includes events on Thanksgiving Day as well as Christmas Eve which require additional prep as well. The four events and their dates are:
- Thanksgiving Distribution / Nov. 21-23
- Thanksgiving Day / Nov. 25-28
- Christmas Distribution / Dec. 8-14
- Christmas Eve / Dec. 24
Christmas Distribution/Assistance Event: December 14th with Prep starting December 8th
The biggest of these events is the Christmas distribution, which occurs on December 14th at the Hamilton County 4H Fair Grounds. While the main event is on the 14th, the preceding six days require volunteers to prepare for the massive distribution of toys, clothes, housing goods, and food. Volunteers are generally needed between 10:00am and 5:00pm each day, particularly from Monday the 9th through Friday the 13th. The most volunteers are needed on Saturday the 14th between 8:00am and 4:00pm. On most of these days you can sign up to volunteer for as little as 2 hours.
To see what is available for this event, you can go to https://ivolunteer-gsn.ivolunteer.com/christmas_holiday_assistance_2024. You can then click on one of the days to see open time slots for the various roles. During the week, you are volunteering for general support. This often involves sorting items for the event. On Saturday the 14th, the volunteer roles are more specific ranging from general client assistance with toys, assistance with food, doing deliveries, cleanup, cleanup, crowd control, and more.
This event alone has slots for 1,902 volunteers.
Note that the forms say that you need to be 16 in order to volunteer. I know younger volunteers are allowed as long as they are accompanied by a parent, guardian, or other responsible adult.
Thanksgiving Day Meals Event: November 28th
The second largest event is the November 28th Thanksgiving meal event. This event has 494 volunteer slots and while it is on the 28th, preparations happen starting on November 25th. For this event, Good Samaritan provides drive-through meals at various sites in Hamilton County. This includes Noblesville, Fishers, and Sheridan. Volunteers are needed to help prepare the food and make the ready meals. A number of volunteers are also needed to help deliver the meals to shut-ins who have signed up. You can find the signup page for this event at https://ivolunteer-gsn.ivolunteer.com/thanksgiving_day_assistance_2024.
Thanksgiving Distribution/Assistance Event: November 23rd
Prior to Thanksgiving, Good Samaritan provides food boxes for Hamilton County families. These boxes contain canned and packaged foods including meets and other essentials. Volunteers are needed to help with food preparation as well as sorting and boxing the items. A lot of this work occurs on the 21st and 22nd. On the day of the event giveaway (the 23rd), volunteers are also needed to help clients. This event has 341 volunteer slots. Currently the slots on the 21st are full, but help is still needed on the 22nd and 23rd of November. You can find the volunteer signup page for this event at https://ivolunteer-gsn.ivolunteer.com/thanksgiving_holiday_food_distrb_2024.
Christmas Eve Meal Deliveries Event: December 24th
The fourth event where Good Samaritan can use volunteers is on December 24th. For this event Good Samaritan has meals prepared and delivered to people who are unable to leave their homes. Volunteers help prepare and pack the food as well as do the deliveries.
This is the smallest of the event, but equally important. It has 130 volunteer slots. While many of these slots are already filled, there is still a need for “volunteer greeters/line support control support” as well as deliverers. You can volunteer for this specific event at https://ivolunteer-gsn.ivolunteer.com/christmas_eve_meal_2024.
Some of the Details
There are a number of things to be aware of regarding these events. These include:
- These events are serving people in the Hamilton County who have signed up in advance with Good Samaritan to indicate the need.
- You can volunteer as an individual or as a group. Lots of groups volunteer including scouting troops, church groups, and even political groups.
- You can sign up for specific jobs, times, or tasks.
- You volunteer online. They use an ivolunteer system found at https://www.gsnlive.org/ivolunteer.
- Most of the events take place at the Noblesville County 4H Fairgrounds, but not all of them. Construction has moved some to other locations. for example, Nobleville High School’s parking lot and White River Christian Church in Noblesville re used this year for the Thanksgiving and Christmas distributions. This information is available with the signup pages.
There are people who volunteer each year that will be at these events as well. They are happy to help and guide those that are new, so don’t fret if some of this sound overwhelming. Good Samaritan has been helping our community for years in this manner, so there will be people to help guide you if you are new to helping at any of these events.
In the end, this is about community helping community. These events help our neighbors here in Hamilton county. If you have the time, volunteer.
One Last Thing…. Donations
While this post is primarily about volunteering, I’d be remiss in not mentioning the need for donations. These events are serving thousand in our community. They require a large number of food items, toys, and more. Good Samaritan accepts donations of food, toys, clothing, and household items, and much more. You can drop them off at their warehouse near 131st and SR 37 most weekdays between. You can find more information on what donations are accepted by going to their site at GSNLive.org. New toys are always needed for the Christmas event – especially for teens.