In our lives dominated by sports practices, AP classes, familial obligations, and more, it’s hard to make time for ourselves—let alone for others. However, as members of our schools and communities, once we have ensured our own physical and mental wellbeing, an incredible way to give back is by promoting the value of community service. The easiest way to do so? Through our schools. Here are two ideas to get you started!
Card-Making for Nursery Homes
A great way to promote a service-oriented school culture is by organizing an event where students can make cards for nursery home residents. One of the greatest advantages of this is that students can complete the cards on their own time. Here’s how you can plan this event at your school.
- Obtain the permission of your school administrators (or whoever is in charge of approving school event ideas).
- Identify a local nursing home that you would like your school to support.
- (Optional) If you need an incentive to get students to participate, you can give them community service hours in return for making cards. However, you must set reasonable guidelines. For example, 1 card = 0.5 hours with a maximum of 4 cards for 2 hours. Make sure your school administrators approve of this plan!
- Set a list of requirements for the cards (this will be more important if you are looking to give students community service hours in exchange for their cards). Some format requirements include: legibly handwritten, school-appropriate, and use of colors, not just lead pencil. Some content requirements/ideas include: introduce yourself; what activities do you participate in; what are your favorite classes, etc.
- Market and outreach. Create posters, flyers, and social media posts that provide details for your event. Make sure to include the card requirements in an accessible location for students (a QR code could work well here).
- Set a deadline for the cards to be completed by and a designated drop-off/collection location. The whole event should span 2-3 weeks, thus giving students sufficient time to create and turn in their cards.
- Set up a reminder system. These can be sent out through email, social media, etc.
- Collect the cards and deliver them to the nursing home!
School-Wide Food Drive
Another way to promote a service-centered school culture is by organizing a school-wide food drive. While this requires more hands-on planning and organization than card-making, it can also create a wider impact on your community. Here are some steps on how to run a food drive at your school.
- Obtain the permission of your school administrators (or whoever is in charge of approving school event ideas).
- Set up collection bins/boxes/bags around your school. If your school utilizes “homerooms,” it could be beneficial to give each homeroom a bin/box/bag.
- Market! Create posters, flyers, and social media posts that provide details for your event.
- (Optional) Make it a competition. Depending on how your school is structured, you can make grade levels, homerooms, or even classes compete against each other to see who can collect the most amount of food. If you choose to do this, you might want to provide a small prize as an incentive—such as donuts!
- Collect and count the food, share your impact (such as on social media), and deliver the food to your local food bank/any other community organization that would benefit!
Please remember that before you begin to tackle any of these ideas for promoting a service-oriented school culture, you must be taking care of yourself and your wellbeing!
Thank you to Rathna M. for editing this article!