The city of Boise is looking for a few good volunteers and/or groups of volunteers for new Boise Parks & Rec programs Adopt-a-Park and Boise in Bloom.

Volunteers for Adopt-a-Park will help clean up parks, fill mutt mitt dispensers, remove graffiti, paint benches and more in neighborhood parks like Baggley, Catalpa, DeMeyer, Helen B. Lowder and Redwood parks.

Boise in Bloom volunteers will plant and maintain existing flower and planting beds at sites throughout the city. Participants will also get the chance to be creative — proposing new planting beds.

There are a few requirements: Volunteers must make a year-long commitment and complete a training session to learn proper maintenance techniques.

Boise Parks & Recreation will provide materials, tools, staff assistance and oversight.

For information, contact Jerry Pugh, community programs coordinator, at jpugh@cityofboise.org or 608-7617.

STATEWIDE SUICIDE HOTLINE WELCOMES DONATIONS

Idaho’s suicide prevention hotline was shuttered for six years because of lack of money. But it started taking calls again Monday, Nov. 26, thanks to the efforts of volunteers and fundraisers.

The line, available at 1-800-273-TALK, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, still needs donors and volunteers to keep going.

Find the hotline on Facebook to find out how you can help. Find a link in this column at idahostatesman.com.

CITY GRANT TO HELP FEED KIDS

Kids in programs at the city-run Morley Nelson Community Center will get hearty after-school “super snacks” because Boise was one of 11 cities selected by the National League of Cities for the Cities Combating Child Hunger through Afterschool Meal Programs (CHAMP) initiative.

The $14,834 grant is intended to help kids do well in school by taking care of some of their basic nutritional needs. Currently, more than 15 percent of the children in Ada County come from homes where the access to healthy, nutritional food is uncertain.

Morley Nelson serves between 75 and 100 “super snacks” every day — good stuff like meatloaf, chicken stew or burritos, fruit and milk prepared by Life’s Kitchen and served by the Boise Parks & Rec staff.

The “super snack” is served at 4 p.m. weekdays at the center, 7701 W. Northview St. (between Cole and Milwaukee). Organizers hope to expand the program to the Grace Jordan and Whitney Community Centers.

GROUPS HONORED AS TOP NONPROFITS

GreatNonprofits.com is a national site that ranks nonprofits based on reviews and stories posted by people who have been helped or affected by a group.

Four Idaho organizations, First Tee of Idaho, which introduces young players to golf, Genesis World Mission, which serves patients at a Garden City clinic and The Mentoring Network, which helps kids with academic skills in Nampa, all received “Top-Rated” awards. A fourth group, Valley Advocates for Responsible Growth in Driggs received a “Green” award.

NICE STORIES THAT HAVE COME MY WAY:

• Bishop Kelly High School students Therese Murphy and Dani Aravich, working with Catholic Charities of Idaho, have founded the Diaper Depot.

The group will organize diaper drives at schools and service organizations in the Valley, then distribute diapers to Idaho nonprofits that help needy families, including the Women’s & Children Alliance, the Mary Pritchett School, the CARE refugee clinic at St. Alphonsus Hospital and others.

Diapers can cost families as much as $100 a month, but can’t be bought using food stamps.

Companies, service organizations, schools, churches, medical offices are invited to call the Diaper Depot at 938-9128 for information on holding a drive.

• KimAnne Cheek, Meridian, is the mother of Sgt. Joshua Fairchild, who’s serving in the Army in Afghanistan on his second tour. Cheek spent time before the holidays making 34 comforters to send to each member of Josh’s platoon. The good effort hit a snag, though, when eight of the 34 blankets were lost in the mail. She hastily made more to replace them. Luckily, the replacement blankets made it and everyone got a nice present to help ward off winter.

Cheek’s generosity started a few years ago when she sent a quilt to Josh in Iraq, as well as to six wives of his platoon members. When two members of that platoon were injured, Cheek found them and made throws to help during their recuperation.

Anna Webb: 377-6431