To the service hour scramblers, student humanitarians, Lenten sacrifice lookers or anyone with some spare time, volunteering at a local organization can help both you and the community. Volunteer work is not only a great way to get your required service hours, but it also looks awesome on a college or job application. Here are some great places nearby that would love people like you and your friends to volunteer.

The Sharing Shed
The Sharing Shed was founded in 2001 out of a garage and has grown to be a major nonprofit charity in O’Fallon. This ministry collects donations of household furniture, appliances and supplies for those in need. Sharing Shed then distributes them to families in need that have been recommended by their parish or local organizations. There are multiple ways to help here: organizing donations, helping with donation drives, fundraising or even donating items yourself.
Contact: thesharingshed.org, (636)-439- 6889, or [email protected]

TREE House of Greater St. Louis
An excellent and unique opportunity for service is TREE House of Greater St. Louis, which implements horses as therapy for people with special needs. You can help by working as a side-walker, leader or horse-handler with no experience necessary. Other things to help with are stable maintenance or even volunteering at a camp. Located in Wentzville, TREE House is a great place to rack up service hours and work with people and horses.
Contact: https://thstl.org, [email protected], or (636)-332- 4940

Humane Society of Missouri
The Humane Society has a few locations, the closest being the Kuehner Center in Chesterfield. Volunteering here requires a six-month commitment of one to three hours a week. Service activities include dog-walking, kennel maintenance and being an “adoption ambassador” by showing visitors to the animals and connecting them to the adoption counselor staff. Volunteering here provides a great service to a well-known organization and allows you to spend time with man’s best friend and friendly felines alike.
Contact: http://hsmo.org/volunteer/ or (314)-951- 1577

St. Vincent DePaul
Food pantries are some of the easiest places to volunteer. Most parishes have a St. Vincent DePaul pantry or connection to one close by. If you want to volunteer at your parish, just talk to a priest. They would happily point you in the right direction. Otherwise, you can volunteer at various St. Vincent DePaul thrift stores in the area through an application process.
Contact: https://svdpstlouis.org/support-our- mission/volunteer or (314)-881- 6000

Local Library
Ever wanted to work somewhere quiet and simple? Any library would be happy to have volunteers. Hours are very flexible and service is simple. By organizing books or handling checkouts and returns, service hours would come easy. Plus, the bonus of access to material for projects or leisure reading adds to the profit of volunteering.
Contact: call or walk in to your local library and ask what you can do to help!

For those in need of service hours or experience in a specific field, volunteer work is a great way get involved in the community. Service to others humbles you while providing relief to those in need. Provide some faith to humanity by volunteering with your friends at one of these extraordinary organizations and find one that fits you best!