Community Service Ideas

Below is a list of possible service projects your club may wish to participate in during a normal calendar (a few each year are fine). Please make sure that the projects you choose are appropriate to the age of your kids.

September:

Organize a coat drive in which old coats are donated for use by needy people.
Make “I Care” kits with combs, toothbrushes, shampoo, etc. for the homeless.
Paint a mural over graffiti.
Donate books to your local library.
Make cards for soldiers overseas or who are in hospitals

October

Conduct a community service project during the Big Help Day in October.
Offer safety tips for youngsters during Halloween. Create a campaign to encourage biking and walking.
Conduct a clothing repair or sewing workshop for needy people.
Distribute leaf bags during the fall encouraging residents to clean leaves from their streets and yards.

November

Recognize veterans in your community.
This is military family month – support a military family with meals, yard work, babysitting, etc.
Adopt a “grand friend” and write them letters and visit them.
Donate toys or suitcases to foster children.
Adopt a pothole and raise funds to repair it.

December

Trim a mitten Christmas tree to donate mittens to local schools and homeless shelters.
Decorate a Christmas tree at a nursing home, hospital, school or homeless shelter.
Ring the bell for Salvation Army during the holidays.
Serve Christmas dinner at you local veteran’s hall.

January

Help cook and/or serve a meal at a homeless shelter.
Clean up a vacant lot or park.
Start a recycling campaign.
Collect unused make-up, perfume and other cosmetics for a center for abused women.

February

Volunteer to return shopping carts during National Supermarkets Month in February.
Raise money for Braille books for visually impaired people.
Make quilts or baby clothes for low-income families.
Make a cancer or aids quilt or mural to remember people of who have died from these diseases and remind others of their life. Donate it to the community for display.

March

Conduct an Easter Egg Hunt for needy children.
On St. Patrick’s Day, don’t only wear something green, care for something green! Plant flowers in public areas that could use some color.
Collect aluminum cans and donate the money to a favorite charity.

April

Participate in National Youth Service Day in April.
Make Spring baskets for seniors’ residential facility, neighbors or homeless shelters.
Bring toys to children in the cancer ward of a hospital.
Rake leaves, shovel snow, clean gutter or wash windows for a senior citizen.

May

Plan a Memorial Day program
Deliver May Day baskets to women in your community or at nursing homes
Participate in a marathon or relay for your favorite charity.
Organize a campaign to paint storm drains to prevent dumping of hazardous materials.
Plan a special awareness event during Be Kind to Animals Week in May.

June

Visit senior citizens at a nursing home.
Organize a canned goods drive.
Volunteer to help at a Special Olympics event.
Bake cookies and bring them to your local fire or police station.
Volunteer to help with Vacation Bible School.

Making Service Projects Fun

Below are few ideas to show how you can make doing community service fun for your kids. Use your imagination to create a fun activity around the service project you have chosen.

Rake and Run

On a give day the kids should each bring a rake and gather to rake leaves. Make sure you have enough drivers for everyone. Drive up and down streets in your neighborhood looking for yards that need to be raked. When one is found, two kids go up to the door and ask if the people wish to have their leaves raked for free. If the answer is yes, all the kids rake the lawn.

Kids should be reminded that they are on other people’s property and that they should be careful not to damage anything. When the job is finished the club can leave a “calling card” that offers best wishes and lets the people know who you are. During the spring you could have a similar event called “Splash and Split” where you wash windows. The idea behind this project is simply to show an unexpected act of kindness to others.

Bigger or Better

This is a scavenger hunt. Divide your kids into teams, one team per car. Each team starts with a paperclip. They then drive to different areas of town and try to trade their paperclip for something “bigger or better.” Once they make a trade, they then try to trade the new item for something even bigger or better than that. Each team has one hour to trade up as well as they can. At the end of the game, all teams meet at a specified thrift shop to donate the items. (One group managed to trade all the way up to a working vacuum cleaner while another ended up with 5 gallons of ice cream that they donated to the local homeless shelter.)

Canned Food Scavenger Hunt

Create a scavenger hunt list of canned food and prepackaged items. Divide your kids into teams (one team per car) and have them go around town trying to collect everything on the list. Make sure you include harder to find items like mandarin oranges or artichoke hearts. At each house have the kids ask if the family would like to donate any extra canned food in addition to the scavenger hunt items. At the end of the event, donate all canned goods to your local food bank .

Valentines for Vets

At your meeting just before Valentine’s Day, have a Valentine’s Party. Have each of the kids bring enough Valentines for each member of your troop plus 3 extras. At the party have the kids make Valentine Cards to attach to one giant card. Then give the giant card and all of the extra Valentines to your local veterans group.