There are so many different stages in our lives. There are times when all your friends are getting married and conversations swirl around planning the bachelor/bachelorette parties and bridesmaid dresses. Or you find yourself in the midst of the baby boom when you are bombarded with baby showers and diaper-changing conversations.
Or maybe it’s the time for possibly 50% of your friends to get divorced and learn how to “get back out there.” How about empty nesters and learning to provide care for elderly parents? Or a close friend or relative is struck with a health problem that puts the rest of those things in life in perspective and on hold.
No matter where you are on that spectrum, life brings the highs of celebrations and the lows of needing support. Or maybe it’s a combination of both! For example, having a baby is a call for celebration and a life-changing event when people can sometimes only get by with a little help from their friends.
Recently two of my friends had babies and two different experiences on how to partake in both the celebration and support aspects of it. The idea for both was to bring the parents dinner. You get a chance to see the baby and tell the proud parents how absolutely beautiful and perfect the baby is. And the sleep-deprived parents get a decent meal and no dishes to wash. Everyone wins! Well, sort of.
For the first friend, someone sent an e-mail to a long list of people asking them to sign up for a day to bring the proud parents dinner. In this case, everyone was asked to “Reply to All” so we could see which days were available. Did it work? Yes. Was it efficient? Absolutely not! There were e-mails coming in for days with people adding their name to the baby help list.
A few weeks later, the other friend had a baby and I started thinking, “Hmmmm, we should do something to help them out.” Just as the thought crossed my mind, I got an e-mail asking for people to sign up and bring them food. While I wanted to help, I have to admit my first thought was “here we go again…”
To my surprise and delight, the organizer of this group had set up a Help Calendar using CareCalendar. It’s a great Web site for people to easily sign up for a slot to bring food or run errands or schedule visits or do just about anything someone requires in a time of need. CareCalendar is donor supported but free for individuals and non-profit organizations when used to provide help for people in need.
Check it out! It’s easy to use and keeps everyone organized without filling up their inbox. Everyone truly wins.
Now if only someone one could set up a site to help with clearing out all the other e-mails in my Inbox…
September 5th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Hi there, I wanted to share another site with you that organizes meal schedules for friends and loved ones in need. It’s http://www.foodtidings.com. It’s very simple to use, and is free also. It’s been very helpful for me, and many friends I know. Thanks!