Volunteer Your Time!

Spring is here and with warmer days and sunshine lasting further into the evening I am starting to feel the excitement of the opportunities in the community. One of my favorite parts of Grimes is the amount of people willing to pitch in to help others within our town. There are many great ways to volunteer here locally and I want to put the spotlight on those this month.

Grimes Volunteer Support Service is a tremendous organization located right in the heart of the Governors District. GVSS helps residents stay in their home by providing transportation and other services free of charge. They have been around since early 2011 and provide around 300 trips per month to individuals for various reasons including medical appointments, grocery shopping and senior lunches. The best part of GVSS is that it is 100% volunteer run. One of their main needs as spring rolls around is volunteers to mow lawns within the community. You don't need your own lawn mower as they have the resident you're helping supply it. They just need you to show up a couple times a week and keep their grass maintained. It's an easy way to give back and be outside enjoying the warmer weather! They are also looking for volunteers within the office to help with scheduling trips for residents. If you have interest in pitching in at GVSS please reach out to them at 515-986-5355.

Another organization which has a large impact on our community is the Grimes Storehouse. The Storehouse is the only food pantry located in Grimes. With the support of volunteers in the community they are able to provide food and personal hygiene items to those in need. The Grimes Storehouse serves 60-70 Grimes families per month. As you start to work on your spring cleaning and find items in your home that you might not use, you should consider if they might be a good fit to donate to the Storehouse. On their website they have a list of most needed food, personal and household items. They also accept monetary donations and participate in the Amazon Smile program which donates 0.5% of each purchase to them when designated as your charity of choice. If you have more questions about the opportunities to volunteer or donate to Grimes Storehouse you can contact them at 515-986-4191.

There are many opportunities to give back within Grimes. I hope if you have the time you will look at one of the above organizations. Within the Grimes Chamber and Economic Development we also need volunteers. With our upcoming Governor's Days celebration we look within the community to have people help us make our event run smoothly. If you have interest in assisting with Governor's Days contact Madison Taiber at 515-986-5770. Enjoy the nicer weather heading our way and I look forward to seeing you out and about in the coming months!