Community Service Ideas

Below is a list of possible service projects to participate in during a normal school calendar (a few each year are fine). Please make sure that the projects you choose are appropriate to the age of your members.  Keep track of your hours to earn a Servant’s Heart Award, but make sure to understand the difference between community service and simple acts of kindness.

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.