3 Creative Ways to Help Out Kids in Marin -- Bake with Cake4Kids!

There are a lot more ways to volunteer with the county's young people than you might think

Marin Magazine
Jessica Gliddon
January 7, 2020

Volunteering is one of those things that many of us feel like we should do, but many of us avoid. We already struggle to carve out time in our busy schedules. But what if we could volunteer in a way that we enjoyed? If you like spending time with kids, here are three ways you can help out. You might just end up doing something you like doing in the process.

BAKE A CAKE

If you enjoy baking, why not make it a way to give back? Cake4Kids gives youth who are homeless, exposed to violence or human trafficking, in foster care or living at the poverty line a chance to feel special. Serving 10 different counties in California, volunteers bake and deliver personalized birthday cakes, cupcakes, cookies, bars or brownies to underprivileged kids. Not a master baker? Doesn’t matter, Cake4Kids is happy to accept even the simplest of baked goods – what’s important is that it puts a smile on kids’ faces.

Be a Storyteller

Communicate the joy of reading to kids as a storytelling volunteer with the Marin County Free Library. Volunteers select books that encourage language-building play and read them to children in a laundromat for 20 to 30 minutes. Marin locations include The Wash Tub in Corte Madera and Speed-Dee Wash in San Anselmo.

Tutor Latino Youth

Specifically targeting the cycle of poverty faced by Latino immigrants and their families, Canal Alliance works to educate, empower and lend support to motivated kids. The after-school University Prep program assists 120 low-income Latino young people in completing a four-year college degree, with daily tutoring in core subjects and homework help. So far 100 percent of its graduates have enrolled in four-year state universities.