SRIV EVENTS

Some early arrivals for the costume contest 2024. Not the older one—-that’s just me enjoying the amazing poses as they ready for the contest!

The Countdown is on! This is the week—on Saturday, October 4, 2025 we will be in beautiful Ninigret Park in Charlestown Rhode Island to celebrate our families from grandparents to grandchildren and everyone in between and all around! The 5th Annual Applumpkin Fall Festival will open at 9 am on Saturday morning.

You can expect an affordable fun day for the family. Games like ladder ball, scarecrow ring toss, football pumpkin toss, corn hole, bocce, giant jenga, giant connect 4, golf putting and more; Activities such as pumpkin painting, sand art, coloring table, face painting, sticker art and more. Children’s costume contest 11 am for those in costume and 10 or under; Mini Scarecrow build and bring contest. Build your scarecrow under 3 ft tall, bring it to the festival to register between 9 and 10 am. At 10 am the attendees to the festival will vote for their favorites. At 2:30 prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and honorable mention will be announced. There’s also a tractor/truck contest for some of our favorite antique tractors. Attendees will vote for their favorite the top 4 vote getters will receive a prize package (must be 21 or older).

Don’t miss the amazing raffles available. We have 12 great baskets to choose from. We have baskets representing Block Island, Newport, Charlestown, Narragansett and Providence. We have a great fall theme, a Belmont RI products theme, a pizza theme, PC theme, Dinosaur Place and Dino theme, Rhode Trip with area gift cards and a lottery scratch ticket scarecrow (must be of legal age to win any prize from this basket). So many chances to win a great prize.

Don’t forget some of the most exciting components including an appearance by RI’s Shrine Clowns, East Coast Karate Demo Team and food trucks Sunset Farms with a large, diverse and yummy menu, Vinny’s Mobile a new food truck to us with some fair favorites and coming from the Joyce Family of Joyce Family Pub fame! Don’t forget Alaina’s truck offering some of their favorites, you can also visit their restaurant on Route 138 in Richmond anytime (after our festival please:), and topping these great trucks off is our favorite dessert and beverage truck Scoop Ts out of Westerly—you’ve got to get some ice cream, it’s going to be 75 degrees on Saturday!

Maybe you’ll do some gift shopping for yourself or others, we have 18 wonderful vendors for you to choose great gifts from. Many are returning from last year—I did some shopping last year and plan to do so again—the items I purchased are fabulous and were great gifts for folks I love to.

So, come on down to Ninigret Park on October 4th, we are sure you’ll have a great time. Don’t forget to take the wagon ride too. Everything is included in your $5 entry fee (proceeds support senior citizen services), 10 and under and 90 and over are free. Extras are tickets for the raffle, purchases from our food trucks or craft vendors. An in anticipation of you enjoying the day with us—Thank you!

Check out some pictures from last year below. Questions, call us Wednesday or Thursday at 401-552-7661 between 9 am and 4 pm.

Kathy, Louise and Natalie at Raffle Tent .JPG

SAVE THE DATE—It’s coming soon. The 5th Annual Applumpkin Fall Festival, Ninigret Park, Charlestown, Rhode Island

Saturday, October 4th, 2025 - Raindate Sunday, October 5th, 2025 - Updates start next week on events of the day, details on attending, special guests, and so much more! Coming soon!!!!!!

Thank you to our generous 2025 sponsors!!

Filtering by: Event

There are no upcoming events at this time.

However, there are always opportunities to help those in need. Begin your fall with one of these great opportunities to share your skills, time and compassion:

Where are our dog lovers? A senior with severe physical limitations needs your help to walk the dog. Walking the dog is shared by a few volunteers for this senior. Current needs are Wednesday and or Thursday afternoon—between 2 and 4 pm; perfect for our teen volunteers! Also there is an opportunity to help for the Thursday morning walk. Not only does the dog get out, but great, easy exercise for you too! Beautiful walking in the pier area of Narragansett.

Call the office at 401-552-7661 to hear more about this great opportunity.

Always needed by our seniors to support independent aging:

Transportation to support healthy aging at SRIV is providing a ride to and from medical appointments including dentists, therapies, and pharmacies to support healthy aging.

This is a very flexible opportunity. You can choose the geographic communities/area you wish to serve, days, times—there’s no schedule that you must follow.

Staff communicates by email and phone calls to let you know current needs available to be a champion for a mature neighbor. You choose to accept the current needs or not based upon your availability and desire to help. You may choose to do one or more or none in any given week—it’s up to you. You’ll be joining a team of volunteers who need flexibility but wish to make a difference. There are between 100 and 130 times each month available to lend a helping hand by providing a ride.

Delivery of groceries and/or food from area pantries to ensure healthy nutrition and food security at SRIV means once a week you may help by delivering groceries to a homebound senior. Thursday mornings is a weekly delivery day from some area markets when our volunteers deliver food between 1 and 3 senior homes, it depends on you the volunteer and what you’d like to do, deliveries are coordinated from our office. At other times there are individual pick-up and delivery opportunities from any market that offers curbside pickup. Days/times vary and are provided as an opportunity the same way that medical transportation scheduling does. Substitute volunteers are always welcome too.

Meals on Wheels SRIV is looking for someone to help count the meals delivered for our volunteer drivers on Tuesday mornings in South Kingstown through the end of December to cover for a volunteer on a leave. There is opportunity for this to become a shared service, a sub service—again, at SRIV we are always flexible to meet the need of our volunteers and our seniors. We are also looking for one additional sub count volunteer for this position to cover Monday through Thursday on an occasional basis. Very flexible, training and more. Call SRIV for details.

RICAN food pantry is looking for volunteers to help in the thrift shop. There is a need especially on Tuesday and Saturday at this time. The thrift shop is open Monday through Saturday 9 am to 5 pm.

Tabitha’s Closet is searching for volunteers to join their team. The openings include Tuesdays 3 to 5 pm to help sort clothing donations; Fridays 3 to 5 pm to help rack those clothing donations; and Saturdays 9 to 1 pm to help with customer service and sales of the clothing. Join us at the Applumpkin event to meet the folks from Tabitha’s Closet—a great community support!

Hoping to meet you soon and welcome you to the team. If you have time and interest in these offerings we look forward to chatting with you. We will also help you find your great volunteer opportunity in southern Rhode Island.

SRIV can be reached at 401-552-7661 Monday through Friday between 9 am and 4 pm or by email at info@southernrivol.org. When you call ask for Jessen, our Americorp RSVP Director.

Events

SRIV EVENTS

Thank you to our generous 2025 sponsors!!

Southern Rhode Island Volunteers

Current

Opportunities

Volunteer Opportunities October 2025

Fall is always a wonderful time in New England with festivals, colorful leaves on our trees, Halloween and Thanksgiving around the corner and more.

However, there are always opportunities to help those in need. Begin your fall with one of these great opportunities to share your skills, time and compassion:

Make a Difference.