As I prepare to enter my seventh season with the New England Revolution, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to witness the club’s charitable efforts firsthand, primarily in the form of covering those efforts in some way for a feature on the website. Rare is the opportunity, however, to actually participate myself.

That’s why it was an absolute pleasure to be part of the club’s efforts last Friday afternoon, when the Revolution’s front office – including president Brian Bilello – visited the Cradles to Crayons Giving Factory warehouse in Boston to help sort, inspect and package donations.

Visit the Cradles to Crayons website  (link to http://www.cradlestocrayons.org/)

Our Revolution group was divided into smaller clusters, each of which was guided to different sections of the Giving Factory to perform our specific duties. Some helped sort books or clothing, while others were tasked with putting together the final packages to be distributed to disadvantaged children in Massachusetts.

My cluster, however, unquestionably had the best task – inspecting toys. Seriously. For two hours, we powered our way through a mountain of children’s toys, inspecting each and every one to make sure they were in proper working order. The only way to do that is to play with the toys, right?

It was an incredibly fun afternoon, but most importantly, the efforts of volunteers at the Cradles to Crayons Giving Factory help benefit countless children in need.

Sound like fun? Anyone age five (5) and above can volunteer at the Giving Factory, and it’s as easy as signing up for a two-hour shift on the website. If you do, you might bump into some members of the Revolution’s front office; many were already setting up plans for a future volunteer visit before leaving on Friday.

Sign up to volunteer with Cradles to Crayons (link to http://www.cradlestocrayons.org/boston/volunteer)