Parents who are passionate about volunteering have likely found out that it can be a challenge to involve young children in this meaningful experience. That’s one of the reasons why Ellen Nolan, Katy Medley and Melissa Bilikam, all moms who raised their kids in Medina, founded the nonprofit SPARK Medina in 2022.
The organization’s goal is to connect youth, families and Medina county nonprofits with meaningful service learning opportunities to expand awareness, engagement and commitment to community—all at a hyper-local level.
“We were familiar with ways in which different nonprofits in our community were making an impact, but we realized the missing link was how kids could do that,” Nolan says. “You really had to hunt to find places that were able to have kids on site and create those opportunities. We wanted to create change in the community, something that we could present to kids and their grown-ups that becomes a family bonding time and allows them to see their role in change, while connecting them to nonprofits in the community.”
To date, SPARK Medina has led 85 service learning projects in Medina County with 736 adults and 2,940 kids (ages 2-18) participating. A few examples include creating snack packs to fight food insecurity; building welcome baskets in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity Medina County; donating books to Free Little Libraries in the county; and tackling period poverty by providing period products for area schools.
“We pride ourselves on tackling tough topics,” Medley says. “We think parents want to talk to their kids about problems in the community, but don’t necessarily know how to do it.”
Each program—whether it follows SPARK Medina’s at-home, in-person or group project model—includes a story and reflection questions relevant to the topic to engage kids and parents.
“We incorporate fun as much as we do learning, and it’s a nice bonding experience,” Bilikam says. “A lot of our programs include things families can take with them, so maybe they deliver items on a different day; it’s not just that one-time experience.”
SPARK Medina’s projects have benefited 21 different nonprofits in Medina County, according to Nolan, who adds that adult volunteers often learn as much as their kids, thanks to the use of hyper-localized statistics.
“They’re learning about the county and our community, and I think it’s eye-opening for the parents. We really provide an entree for further conversation and deeper learning,” she says. “Part of our goal is that people continue to serve. Some of the best feedback we’ve received is that people become volunteers at the agencies we’re highlighting, which is reinvesting in the wheel of our community. It makes us so proud.”
For more information on SPARK Medina, visit sparkmedina.org or find the group on Instagram and Facebook.