A variety of volunteer opportunities are available at Kids on the Move, a preschool for handicapped children located in Orem.
The children at Kids on the Move are all 3 years old and younger and have handicaps ranging from Down's syndrome to cerebral palsy.Director Karen Hahne said volunteers are needed to help in the classrooms, working one-on-one with the children. Volunteers help the children with eye-hand coordination, language and social skills, as well as cognitive development.
Volunteers are assigned to a class and will work with a trained teacher or therapist. Volunteers are asked to come at least once a week for three hours during the morning or early afternoon hours.
Hahne said the volunteers need no special skills to work with the children, but they must enjoy children, be able to get on the floor to work with them, and be willing to come on a regular basis.
Besides working directly with the children, Kids on the Move has many other volunteer opportunities. People are needed to help create bulletin boards, work on teaching materials, answer incoming phone calls and help with secretarial work.
One-time service opportunities are also available. Hahne said groups of volunteers may offer respite services to the parents of the handicapped children by baby-sitting the children on a Saturday morning while the parents do some Christmas shopping.
Anyone interested in helping the children at Kids on the Move may call the United Way Volunteer Center at 374-8108.
Other community volunteer opportunities include:
-Volunteers are needed to help at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Intensive Care Unit. Work a four-hour shift.
-Christmas sponsors are needed for forgotten patients at the State Training School, State Hospital and various nursing homes in the county.
-A volunteer who knows sign language is needed to help for a short term with a patient at the Eastlake Care Center.
-Volunteers are needed to help with craft and singing days on a regular basis at local rest homes.
For more information on these and other volunteer opportunities, call the United Way volunteer Center at 374-8108.