Become a Volunteer
Volunteering with Normal Moments is one of the most rewarding experiences you can find
Why volunteer?
Normal Moments relies on volunteers to support our families. What you give with your generous support is much more time for families to spend with their loved ones during new and ongoing medical treatments, diagnoses and emergencies.
We urgently seek volunteers to donate their time to help families with household tasks so they can focus on what matters - spending time together and healing.
Who are you helping?
As a volunteer, you give direct support to families in Northern Illinois who are dealing with a child’s stressful medical diagnosis or illness. With your support, parents, caregivers and family members can focus on giving their children the support they need.
“You’re so exhausted, you haven’t gotten enough sleep. And sometimes it’s like, can somebody just come sit in my house so I can go lay down on the couch for 30 minutes because I’ve been up for 24 hours in the hospital and I need a break”
How can you help?
There are many volunteer opportunities to choose from. Please explore the opportunities below. If any opportunity fits your schedule, reach out - your help could give families extra time to unite during a child’s medical crisis.
Family Volunteer
Volunteers work one-on-one with families and help with a variety of household tasks including pet walking, housekeeping, gardening/landscaping, etc. They also provide bi-monthly support to families dealing with the everyday struggles of caring for a sick child.
The unique part of being a volunteer is that there are no grand, dramatic gestures. Simply helping families with small tasks offers them relief and, most importantly, more time together.
Tasker
Not quite ready to commit yourself to a family for the long haul? A tasker is a short-term volunteer who accomplishes one-off tasks needed by families. Let us know what time you have available, what distance you are willing to travel, and what kind of tasks you’d like to do. We’ll connect you up as best we can. This can include last minute errands, short tasks or lending an extra pair of hands. Great for limited time availability. Every time we can use a volunteer instead of a paid provider, that’s more families we are able to serve! We do appreciate as much notice as you can provide so that we can make the best use of your shared time.
*There is also an option to be a Tasker for one of our seasonal programs, such as our Spring/Fall Cleanup program. Please note this in your application if you are interested in a seasonal program.
Ambassador
There are two types of ambassadors at Normal Moments:
Are you a current or former Normal Moments family interested in helping move our mission forward and helping more families find our services? You would be an excellent Hospital Ambassador. A hospital ambassador engages and educates hospital staff, social workers and nurses about Normal Moments’ mission. When you are at the hospital, clinic, Ronald McDonald House, etc., please tell the staff about Normal Moments and what we do. Encourage them to visit www.normalmoments.org to learn more and/or to help families connect to our organization. You show hospital staff where to go to download our Family Contract so they can assist families with enrollment via our website.
A social media ambassador helps maintain the Facebook page, blog and other social media accounts. They create and distribute impact stories for Facebook, social media and the Normal Moments newsletter.
Requirements:
18 or older
Background check
Valid driver’s license
Schedule:
Once every 2 weeks, or in alignment with your family’s needs
Application process:
Fill out our online application (click the “Apply” button)
Download, sign and send the volunteer contract to info@normalmoments.org. Download the volunteer contract here.
Event Helper
Although we stopped having in-person events due to COVID, we are excited to start gathering our friends, families, volunteers, and supporters again to help raise awareness of our organization and funds for paid service providers. We always need volunteers to help with set-up and tear-down plus to help with things like raffle tickets, silent auctions, etc. We also need people to help entertain the kids who attend our events as well. If you’re a face painter, clown, juggler, or have any other talents that would engage our attendees, please let us know and we will figure out the best way to incorporate you in our events!
Adopt-A-Family Volunteer
DESCRIPTION NEEDED
What is a family volunteer?
A volunteer is a personal helper or team of helpers who takes care of the household needs for a family while they are staying in the hospital with their ill child or while their child needs significant in-home care.
Watch the story of our founder’s family volunteer, David, below:
Above, volunteers build a swingset for one of our families.
Requirements:
18 or older
Background check
Automobile insurance
Schedule:
Flexible
Application process:
Fill out our online application (click the “Apply” button) or reach out to us through our Contact page.
Hospital Ambassador
Requirements:
Chicago-area resident with transportation
Schedule:
Flexible, when you are at a clinic or hospital
Application process:
Call and schedule an in-service with hospital staff.
Plan a visit to the hospital where you will engage staff in the Normal Moments mission.
Social Media Ambassador
Requirements:
Able to work under short deadlines
Good communicator
Schedule:
As needed
Application process:
Fill out our online application (click the “Apply” button) or reach out to us through our Contact page.
Requirements:
18 or older
Valid driver’s license
Schedule:
Able to attend event as established by Normal Moments team
Application process:
Fill out our online application (click the “Apply” button) or reach out to us through our Contact page.
Administrative Helper
There are many times of the year when assistance in administrative tasks would be extremely helpful. This would be work that you can do from home helping to set up paid service providers as needed, coordinate volunteers, and/or helping to maintain our contact management system.
Requirements:
18 or older
Schedule:
As needed
Application process:
Fill out our online application (click the “Apply” button) or reach out to us through our Contact page.
Requirements:
18 or older
Schedule:
As needed
Application process:
Fill out our online application (click the “Apply” button) or reach out to us through our Contact page.