Free nonprofit and PSA scripts

Giving blood takes about an hour. Most of that is juice and cookies. The Commonwealth Blood Alliance needs donors of every blood type this month. Book a time near you online. Roll up a sleeve.

When the clocks change, test your smoke alarms. Press the button. Hear the beep. No beep? Change the battery now. Go on, we'll wait. A message from the Emberline Fire Safety Council.

You know that text that just came in? It can wait. Every single time. Put the phone in the glovebox, set it to do not disturb, and drive. Eyes Up Road Safety Coalition. Nothing on your screen is worth it.

Election Day is Tuesday, November third. Check your registration, find your polling place and see your sample ballot at the Ashvale County Elections Office website. Whatever you decide, decide. Vote.

Ten minutes. One book. Every night. Reading aloud with your child is one of the simplest gifts there is. Even if you do the dragon badly. Free books and tips at the Dog-Ear Literacy Trust.

His name is Pickles. He's four, he snores, and he's convinced every sock is his. He's been waiting at Spare Collar Animal Shelter for a while now. Meet him this weekend. Adopt a friend.

Two winters ago, my hours were cut, and the fridge got very empty very fast. Loaf and Ladle Food Bank didn't ask me a lot of questions. They just handed me a bag and said, 'Come back next week.' Now I volunteer there on Saturdays. Any family can hit a hard month. Donate food, give online, or give an hour. Loaf and Ladle Food Bank. Nobody eats alone.

If today feels too heavy, you don't have to carry it alone. You don't need the right words. You don't need to be in crisis. You can just say, 'I'm not okay.' Call or text your local crisis line, any time, day or night, and someone will listen. If you're worried about someone else, you can call too. A message from The Still Here Project.

We had a spare room with a treadmill in it. Mostly it held laundry. Now it's Maya's room. The first night, she asked if she could paint it. We said yes. It's very, very purple. Kids in our state need foster families right now. You don't need a big house. You need a bed and some patience. Open Porch Foster Network. Info sessions every month.

Every spring, the little terns come back to Saltmarsh Point. They nest right on the sand, in plain sight, and they need a bit of help. Tidewrack Seabird Rescue volunteers fence off the nests, keep the dogs on leads, chase off the gulls and count every single fluffy chick. For twenty dollars, you can adopt a nest this season and get updates all spring. Tidewrack Seabird Rescue. Give them room.

If there's a fire in your home, you may have only a couple of minutes to get out. So make a plan tonight. Two ways out of every room. A meeting spot outside, like the mailbox or the big oak tree. Then practise it with the kids. Make it a game. Time it. Because in a real emergency, nobody should be figuring it out for the first time. A message from the Emberline Fire Safety Council.

Thirty-one years I've been the crossing guard on Elm Street. I know every kid's name. Most of their parents' names too, because I crossed them as well. Here's all I ask. When you see the school zone sign, slow down. Twenty means twenty. And put the phone away. They're small. They're fast. And they don't look both ways as often as they should. Eyes Up Road Safety Coalition.

After my husband passed, the house was very quiet. Then Kettle Call rang. Every Thursday at eleven, a lovely young man called Tomás phones me. We talk about the garden, the football, and whatever nonsense is on the telly. He's terrible at quizzes. I tell him so. Kettle Call Befriending Service needs volunteers who can spare half an hour a week. Kettle Call. Put the kettle on for someone.

For thirty years, I ordered whatever the guy before me ordered. It was easier than admitting I couldn't read the menu. Last year, I called the Dog-Ear Literacy Trust. Free, private, one-to-one lessons with a volunteer tutor, at the library, once a week. Nobody else had to know. Last Friday, I read the whole menu. Then I ordered something totally different. It's never too late. Dog-Ear Literacy Trust.

Good news. This autumn, you're allowed to be a bit lazy in the garden. Leave a corner of fallen leaves. Let a patch of lawn grow long. Stack a few old logs by the fence. Hedgehogs, beetles and bees will move right in, and they'll pay you back in spring. The Brackenfold Wildlife Trust. Find more easy ideas on our website. Leave the leaves. Wildlife will thank you.

I met Jada when she was twelve. We went bowling. She beat me by eighty points and never let me forget it. Since then: a science fair, a very bad driving lesson, and a college essay we rewrote six times. Next Door Mentors matches young people with adult volunteers for a few hours a month. That's all it takes to be somebody's person. Next Door Mentors. Show up.

If you see an adult suddenly collapse, you can help. Call emergency services. Put the phone on speaker. Then push hard and fast in the centre of the chest, to the beat of a song you know. Keep going until help arrives. You won't get it perfect, and you don't need to. Take a free two-hour class with the Steady Hands First Aid Council. Learn it once. Keep it forever.

Turned eighteen this year? Just moved? Changed your name? Then it's time to check your voter registration. It takes about five minutes online, and the deadline comes sooner than you think. You'll need your driver's license or the last four digits of your social security number. Visit the Ashvale County Elections Office website to register or check your status. Your vote. Your choice. Just make sure you can make it.

It's one little box on a form. Most of us skip right past it. But saying yes to organ and tissue donation could one day help people you'll never meet. Signing up takes about two minutes online, and you can change your mind at any time. Then do the most important part: tell your family what you've decided, over dinner, tonight. The Tallgrass Donor Registry. Say yes on the form.

Summer at the lake. Coolers, sunscreen, somebody's uncle cannonballing off the dock. Here's the thing. Drowning is quiet. No splashing, no shouting. So when kids are in the water, pick one grown-up to be the Water Watcher. No phone. No book. Eyes on the water. Swap every fifteen minutes. Lakeshore Water Safety League. Pick up a free Water Watcher tag at any town beach, and have a great summer.

Last month we pulled a shopping trolley, two bikes and one very confused garden gnome out of Cattail Creek. The Cattail Creek Clean-Up Crew meets on the first Saturday of every month. We bring the gloves, the grabbers and the bacon rolls. You bring yourself and some wellies. Two hours, good company, and a cleaner creek. Cattail Creek Clean-Up Crew. See you on the bank.

The river came up faster than anybody expected. By midnight, the water was over the porch steps. By two, we were on the roof with the dog and a flashlight. In the morning, the whole street was a brown lake. Everything we owned was in it. The first people I saw were from Bellwether Relief Corps. They brought blankets, hot coffee and dry socks. A volunteer named Carol sat with my wife on a folding chair for an hour, just listening. Over the next few months, they helped us muck out the house, sort out the paperwork, and find a place to stay while we rebuilt. Every one of them was a volunteer. Every dollar they spent came from folks like you. When the next storm comes, and it will, Bellwether will be there. Help them be ready. Give online or sign up to volunteer. Bellwether Relief Corps. Neighbours, when it matters most.

My grandad needed a lot of blood after his accident. I don't mean a little top-up. I mean a lot. More than any family could give. I never met the people who gave it. They probably went in on a Tuesday lunch break, read a magazine, had a biscuit and went back to work. Because of them, Grandad came home. He's eighty-one now. He still does the crossword in pen. He's still annoying about the thermostat. He still tells the same three jokes at every Sunday lunch. So I give blood now, every few months. It takes about an hour. It barely hurts. And somewhere out there, someone gets to keep their grandad too. The Commonwealth Blood Alliance needs new donors, especially this winter. Book an appointment online, or look for a mobile blood drive near you. Give blood. Somebody's grandad is counting on it.

My son was always the quiet one. So when he got quieter, I didn't notice straight away. He stopped going to practice. He slept a lot. He said he was fine, and I wanted so badly to believe him. One night I just sat on the end of his bed and asked him, straight out, 'Are you okay? Really?' And he said no. I didn't have the right words. I didn't need them. I listened, and the next morning we called for help together. He's doing okay now. Some days are better than others, and that's all right. If you're worried about someone you love, ask them. Asking won't make things worse. And if you or someone you love is struggling, call or text your local crisis line. Any time, day or night. The Still Here Project has free guides for parents and teachers on our website. Ask. Listen. Stay.

I only signed up to volunteer at Loaf and Ladle because I needed service hours for school. I'll be honest. First shift, they put me on canned goods. I sorted beans for three hours. Kidney beans. Black beans. Beans I'd never heard of. I became, briefly, a bean expert. Second shift, I packed produce boxes, and a lady called Marge taught me to stack them so the tomatoes don't get squished. Marge is seventy-four and could out-lift me. Then a little girl came in with her dad, and she saw the fruit table and said, 'We get to take strawberries?' And her dad just kind of looked at the floor and smiled. I got my service hours in about a month. I still go every Saturday. Loaf and Ladle Food Bank needs volunteers for sorting, packing and delivery. No experience needed. Marge will teach you. Sign up online. Loaf and Ladle. Nobody eats alone.

The call came in on a Tuesday. A barn owl, tangled in fencing wire by the old mill. One wing held at a very wrong angle. Our volunteer drove her in wrapped in a towel, in a cardboard box with holes punched in the lid. I remember the first time I opened it. Those enormous dark eyes, looking up, absolutely furious. It took six weeks. Rest, and patience, and more frozen mice than I'd like to think about. Then, on a still evening in May, we took her back to the mill. Opened the box. She sat there for a moment, turned her head all the way round to look at us, as if to say, 'Well?' And then she was gone. Brackenfold Wildlife Trust cares for hundreds of injured animals every year, all funded by donations. Sponsor a rescue on our website. Brackenfold Wildlife Trust. Back where they belong.

When I retired, my wife said I had two choices. Find a hobby, or stop reorganising the garage every Tuesday. So I became a reading volunteer with the Dog-Ear Literacy Trust. Once a week, I sit in a tiny chair at Riverside Elementary and read with a second-grader called Marcus. Marcus has strong opinions. He believes every book is improved by a dog. He believes I read too slowly, which may be true. When we started, he'd skip any word longer than four letters. Last week he read me the word 'extraordinary'. Out loud. First try. Then he looked at me like he'd scored a goal in a cup final. I have not reorganised the garage since. The Dog-Ear Literacy Trust trains volunteers for one hour a week in local schools. No teaching experience needed. Just patience and a tolerance for tiny chairs. Sign up at the Dog-Ear Literacy Trust website.

I've been a poll worker in Ashvale County for twenty-two years. I've seen folks vote in their scrubs after a night shift. In a wedding dress, once. With a baby on one hip and a toddler hanging off the other. Here's what I've learned. Voting is easier than people think, and there's more than one way to do it. You can vote by mail, if you request your ballot in time. You can vote early, at an early-voting location, in the weeks before Election Day. Or you can vote in person on Election Day, Tuesday, November third, from seven in the morning until eight at night. Not sure you're registered? Not sure where to go? The Ashvale County Elections Office website has all of it: your registration, your polling place and your sample ballot. Who you vote for is your business. Just make sure you do. A message from the Ashvale County Elections Office.