“The past is never dead,” William Faulkner hauntingly reminds us of the South, “It’s not even past.” Black History Month is an important time for reflecting upon our past and present, dedicating time to explore aspects of Denton history both praiseworthy and shameful as we together strive towards the betterment of our community. Yet remembrance and public memory are never without struggle, which has been true since back in the day.
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THE DEN10: JANUARY 21
It’s going to be balls to the wall from here until graduation so get ready for all sorts of house shows, celebrations, mixers, coffee meetings, and the like. With so much going on, we expect to see a bunch of your best pictures tagged #WDDI to be featured in our Monday’s “What We Did” post. Here's what's going on this week...
Questions and comments are to be sent post haste to glen@wedentondoit.com
Read MoreBACK TO SCHOOL: VOLUNTEERING IN DENTON
Sara Button
““We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.””
It is that time of year again, y’all. Students are moving in, kiddos are loading busses, teachers are stressing out, and local bars are filling up again (well, on Thirsty Thursday’s at least..wait, is that really a thing?). Denton will soon wake up from its summer slumber and resume normal speed as it is Back to School time yet again. I can hear the townies crying from miles away... With all of that said, we wanted to highlight some ways that you and your friends can get involved in the Denton Community or be charitable without dumping ice water on your head. These are all different entities that will allow you to help out and give back to our community in the form of volunteering.
Volunteering is not only a great way to feel good about your place in life, but it's also a great way to meet people, network and learn about the community in which you are currently residing. Denton has plenty of opportunities for you to volunteer. Below, we've highlighted a few of our favorite Denton organizations that are in need of able bodies, but there are several more beyond this list and we encourage you to do your research and find one that speaks directly to you.
A poster for Mentor Denton
Mentor Denton – One kid. One hour a week. One year. This organization is one of my favorites in town. You can sign up, get trained & really impact an at-risk student in Denton ISD. If you are not a fit for the hours needed, that is ok! You can donate monetarily to sponsor a child. For more information and the sign up forms, check this out.
Bank On Denton County – Are you good with math? What about finances? Do you like helping people? If you answered yes to the aforementioned questions, Bank on Denton County seems like a good match for your volunteerism. Volunteer for a few hours a month conducting financial workshops for low income families in Denton County. To sign up, click here.
Denton Community Food Center – Did you know that 19% of our community population lives in poverty? That is 1 in 5 families in Denton County. Denton Community Food Center actively seeks donations year round to help feed our families. The top 3 items they ask for are: peanut butter, breakfast cereal, and canned fruits. They ask that you try to avoid glass containers when possible. If you choose to donate monetarily, you can find can click here for info. DCFC feed approximately 35-50 families a day and provided 240 TONS of food to local families last year.
Keep Denton Beautiful – You can join the KDB organization for dues as low as $10 (for students) and help out in an array of beautiful ways. Help our community stay clean by volunteering for a litter pickup day, gardening at different places around town, or you could even be a yard of the month judge! To learn more, check out their website here.
The volunteer photography crew from Help-Portrait: Denton 2013.
Help-Portrait: Denton – Denton’s second annual Help-Portrait event is just right around the corner! We posted a video earlier this year that shares more information and takes you behind the scenes at the first annual event that was actually held earlier this year (no thanks to Icemageddon 2k13). We here the volunteer application will open up very soon, and hope to see you all on December 6, 2014 at Calhoun Middle School. Follow Help-Portrait: Denton on facebook to stay up-to-date on what is happening this year! If you are able to donate photo paper, food, make up, or hair products please contact Sara Button.
Festivals - While you may not be serving the needy, we always love having festivals around town and in order to keep them going, they need help! Oaktopia, 35 Denton, Thin Line and more (we have a lot of festivals in town if you didn't already know) all need volunteers. The best part is that volunteering with these festivals normally gets you a free pass. Check out their various websites for more info.
If you want to stay hip on other volunteer opportunities in Denton, check out the sites below:
Denton Animal Shelter Foundation
Volunteerism is cool. It’s what all of the cool kids in Denton are doing this year. Tell us about your favorite volunteer experience in the comments below!
Sara Button would best be described as a professional homebody. She has been involved in an on again/off again love affair with Denton since the fall of '04, with her most recent choice to be "on again." When she is not adventure thrifting around the metroplex, she can most likely be found giggling to the goings-on of her two small chiweenies, Stevie Butts, and Lindsey Buttingham.
MENTOR DENTON: SPRING SEMESTER
Mentor Denton is an ambitious endeavor put on by several local organizations whose goal is to put 10,000 mentors in Denton ISD schools by 2015. So far, they have over 700 volunteers that have been placed in the program, but they need more!
If you've been holding off from signing up and going through the training because of whatever reason, now is the time to go through with it. There are thousands of kids out there currently without mentors who need the guidance and assistance that they can only get through this program. Be a part of what drives Denton forward.
One kid, one hour a week, for one year. Sign up now to help be a part of the change.
MENTOR DENTON: VIDEO
We were sitting in a dark booth in the bar section of The Greenhouse, when we first heard about an ambitious endeavor being made by a large group of Denton entities (namely: United Way Denton, Communities in Schools, UNT, Denton ISD, and the City of Denton). We were there with District 1 City Councilman, Kevin Roden, and he was talking about speaking with Denton ISD Superintendent, Jamie Wilson, and what he would do if he had a large army of volunteers at his disposal.
"You get me 10,000 volunteers, and we'll make a difference in our schools," Wilson reportedly said.
That caught our ear and we were immediately on board. We're in and out of Denton ISD schools all the time. Heck, some of us even work there. We're invested in those kids and we don't want them dropping out, failing or even getting that faux-hawk haircut, if it can be prevented. We want to help. You probably do, too. What's stopping us at this point? That's where Mentor Denton comes in.
Mentor Denton is a new entity dedicated to bringing volunteers into our schools in the City of Denton. Through Mentor Denton, you'll learn just what it is to be a mentor, why you're needed and how you can go ahead and get started.
That brings us to that fairly large-seeming number Wilson said earlier. Ten thousand may seem like a lot of volunteers. It's 10x the grains of rice that are in any given bowl according to deceased comedian Mitch Hedberg, but when you consider the fact that UNT has over 36,000 students, TWU has 13,000 and there's a bunch of us just trying to hang out and live here, that number starts to look a little more paltry.
By fall of 2015, Mentor Denton hopes to have 10,000 volunteers signed up to dedicate an hour of their time, once a week for a year to partner with a Denton ISD student and change their life for the better.
Maybe you think you're not "mentor" material. While interviewing local comedian Ron Lechler the other week, we discussed this very subject. He shared his concern that he might not make the greatest role model for kids. He's wrong. There is no set mold for what a mentor is or can be. Different kids need different things. There is most certainly a child out there - maybe he's a Newton Razyor Elementary 5th grader, maybe he's a Guyer High School freshman - who is into stand up comedy. Maybe he's a bit of a jerk, like Lechler. Maybe he's having a hard time at school due to circumstances at home. Hanging out with someone for an hour a week would be a boon to this young mind, and we're sure there's someone there who needs you, too.
The fall of 2015 may seem like a ways off, but it will be here before you know it, and aside from that, Denton ISD needs mentors NOW. We're hoping to gather at least 1,000 volunteers through Mentor Denton this fall in the ramp up to the big number in two years. Go ahead and watch the video embedded above to see how former mentor, Britni Chehayeb's, life was changed by being a mentor for the Denton Independent School District and click through to Mentor Denton to get more information on how you can help.