Make Lasting Holiday Memories With These 5 Volunteer Opportunities In Hillsborough

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — Volunteering is a meaningful way to connect with neighbors in Hillsborough and make lasting holiday memories for both yourself and the people you help.

Volunteering also fosters a sense of shared responsibility and purpose, leading to a more vibrant, resilient, and engaged community with a higher quality of life.

Many of the organizations that make life better in Hillsborough depend on volunteers, including food banks, supporting local families facing a medical crisis, and others.

Here are five ways to volunteer in Hillsborough:

Dance For The Cure

Kathleen Cirioli of Hillsborough, a three-time cancer survivor, and Joanne Liscovitz are co-founders of Dance for the Cure, a non-profit organization that has helped local families impacted by breast cancer.

Dance for the Cure is a 100 percent volunteer organization supporting breast cancer patients in Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset counties.

Dance for the Cure volunteers help in a variety of ways undertaking many jobs that arise both simple and complex. These include working on the Pink Bow Project by helping to create and distribute bows to local businesses for the month of October, Tying the Town Pink in October to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, helping at our annual Ribbons of Hope event, implementing ideas for local fundraisers, holding their own fundraiser with proceeds to DFC, assisting with mailings, and generally jumping onboard and supporting Dance for the Cure by promoting this organization to their family and friends.

For more information, visit danceforthecure.org/volunteers.

Feeding Hands

The nonprofit food pantry, which opened at 186 Route 206 South in Hillsborough, distributes more than 100,000 pounds of food to feed close to 900 families each month. That number of food-insecure families continues to grow in Somerset County due to circumstances related to the pandemic and inflation.

Along with food, Feeding Hands offers basic necessities to people such as cleaning products, health and beauty products, personal care items, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.

To volunteer, visit feedinghandspantry.org/join-the-mission/volunteer.

Steps Together

Steps Together is a Hillsborough based 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to inspiring our community to pay their blessings forward and support local families facing a medical crisis.

Formed in 2013, the incredible support of the community has allowed Steps Together to assist more families, provide them with greater financial relief and bring awareness to the conditions that impact them. Grants provided by Steps Together range from one-time assistance to ongoing support for a maximum duration of 24 months.

The organization is made up of caring people who help in anyway they can and it makes an impact on their beneciaries. For more information visit, steps-together.org.

GiGi's Playhouse

The nonprofit's lifetime commitment is to changing lives and providing hope through the consistent delivery of free educational, therapeutic, and career development programs for individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and the community, using a replicable playhouse model.

GiGi's Playhouse is a volunteer-run organization and we rely on the passion and dedication of volunteers to keep our programs vibrant, educational, fun and free. For more information, visit gigisplayhouse.org/hillsborough.

Safe + Sound Somerset helps survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence with compassionate, trained professional help. Assistance is offered 24 hours a day – 7 days a week – 365 days a year at 866-685-1122. Their Helpline is the gateway to survivor-centered services that provide safety, hope and healing from the trauma of abuse and violence. They offer a number of different volunteer opportunities. For more information, visit safe-sound.org/get-involved/volunteer/volunteer-opportunities.

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