Opportunities From: Volunteer Wisconsin

Help a child shop and/or wrap and bag their perfect gifts for a special person or persons in their life. It's a heart warming experience! Please note: As part of our Child Protection Policies we will ask Individual Volunteers to complete a background check and volunteer application prior to volunteering.

ABOUT THE ANGEL SHOP: 

Purpose:  To allow children to be part of and develop the spirit of giving. Students in programs like these gain a true sense of pride and accomplishment from choosing a gift for another person independently from their family. 

How it works: SJA will collect donations of small gift items year around.

Our Early Childhood & K4-8th students will come in during a scheduled shopping time in December to shop for a gift for someone special in their life. Very young children will be assigned an angel helper to help them find just the right item.

Items will be priced at $1-$3. This allows children to be part of the process and spirit of giving and learn how to purchase items while keeping it very low cost to them.

They will also have the opportunity to wrap their gift on site with a volunteer.

We are excited to have 10 raised garden beds that definitely have lots of growing going on, however, we need some help in caring for the garden and controlling the weeds. We are currently seeking volunteers interest in weekly watering, weeding and tending to the plants. As our garden program grows, there may be additional opportunities to garden with our students. If interested in guiding lessons, sharing talents, possible experience teaching children in the gardens, please reach out. We are looking for a volunteer who loves working with plants and would be interested in helping in our gardens at least 1-2 hours a week during the months of April - October. Even better would be a volunteer who is also interested in gardening with our students. Hours and days are flexible. Join our Green Guardians in developing our Garden program. Background Check & Volunteer Application required for this opportunity.

Are you looking to help a great organization? Do you have some time to give on a weekly basis? Our Fund Development department is looking for some weekly office help. Tasks may include computer entry, filing, addressing envelopes, going through donations that have come in, stuffing mailings, event assistance, etc.

The ideal volunteer would be interested in coming in a minimum of 1-2 hours a week for 4 weeks or longer. Flexible days and hours, Monday - Friday, between 8:30 am - 2:00 pm. Background Check and Volunteer Application required. Be part of a team that is faith based and committed to educating children to be successful life long learners and problem solvers.

St. Joseph Academy offers an Early Childhood Education Childcare program for children 6 weeks - 4 years old. The costs of childcare for both families and our organization continue to rise at an alarming rate. One of the ways that would help relieve some financial burden for our families is through provision of diapers and baby wipes. Over 60% of our families are facing significant economic stress. Providing diapers and wipes would help to eliminate some of the financial stress for families. We are in need of diapers size 1 - 5 and unscented baby wipes.  

Kids go through supplies like you wouldn't believe and many of our family's struggle with the financial challenge of keeping their children fully supplied and ready to learn. If you can help provide supplies, we will make sure that every child has the supplies they need to be ready to learn. Supplies that we need include: 2 pocket folders w/ prong, Notebooks, Loose Leap Paper, Copy Ream Paper, pencils, markers, crayons, colored pencils, pink erasers, glue sticks, earbuds or headphones, index cards with lines, highlighters, dry erase markers.

Our Early Childhood & School programs strongly believe in the need to play outside and get fresh air. However, many of our families struggle to provide appropriate outdoor clothing during our cold winter months. 

We are seeking donations of hats, mittens, boots, snow pants and winter jackets.

Sizes needed for boots: Children's Size 3-11.

Sizes need for Snow pants & Jackets: 2T - Adult M.

Sizes needed for Hats & Mittens - 2T - Adult M.

Contact Kim Schubring, kschubring@sjamilwaukee.org or (414) 645-5337 ext. 247 for more information.

St. Joseph Academy has a very large landscaping footprint. Our plants left unchecked grow out of control with weeds.

We need help on a monthly basis weeding, trimming, raking and collecting garbage around the facility to beautify the space for our children and community.

This is a monthly opportunity - April, May, June, July, August, September and October.

Materials Provided:  Garbage bags, rakes, shovels, etc.

Materials to Bring:  Gloves, wear old clothes, etc.

Do you sometimes receive little odds and ends that you don't want, can't use and usually throw into a closet to collect dust? Did you purchase something on clearance, but now it's sitting in a closet collecting dust? Are you or do you know a business who would be willing to donate their final clearance items to us? Or do you just have some new or gently used items you're clearing out of the house? Please consider donating those new or gently used items to us.

In December 2025 we will hold our 5th Annual Angel Shop where Early Childhood & K4-8th students can shop for family members at $1-$5 a gift for that special someone in their lives. This allows them to be part of the process and spirit of giving. Students learn financial literacy skills, learn to independently shop, and they gain a true sense of pride and accomplishment from participating. We will be collecting items year round for children, teens, adult, and older adults (even Pets!).

So please start putting those bags together with that candle you didn't want or hand soap you can't use or the extra screwdriver set you have lying around, that too small wallet, ties, men's cologne, women's perfume, the adult coloring book that was supposed to be calming, but just isn't, soccer and sports items, baseball hats, etc. Additionally, we are also accepting donations of wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, scotch tape, gift tags and bows and ribbons.

Donations are being accepted until Friday, December 5.  Help us to make this an amazing experience for our kids. Please contact Kim Schubring, Director of Resource Development for drop-off instructions or for more information at (414) 645-5337 ext. 247 or email kschubring@sjamilwaukee.org.

Want to volunteer to help kids shop during our Angel Shop? Contact Kim in November - December for more details.