[isabelpak]

My daughter will be on seven grade next year.
The school it's encouraging kids to get involved in their community.
The challenge is a minimum of 30 hours of community service .
It's frustrating that many people wants older kids.
any advice or suggestions?
Thanks

[lms28023]

Have your checked with your church? Maybe a local senior center? I went to Catholic school, and we were encouraged to do different community services. Doing things for seniors is the thing I remember the most.

[vbjrmkfb]

Here the schools have a list of approved places for students to volunteer..she could ask the counselor if they have one.

My kids have done hours at local animal rescue's, library, school sports events and recreation centers activities and ball games.

[juneannloves2shop]

You can go to a senior center, and offer to paint their nails, or something like that. My daughter did that in 8th grade, we went over on Saturdays and spent 2 hours each saturday, the rec leader loved it and the seniors loved my daughter painting there nails even if she didn't paint them that good, they loved the company.

Besides church services, she helped a real estate agent mail flyers, and on community clean up day at the shore.

[isabelpak]

I will check around also good start with senior centers maybe they be able to take some help.
Thanks

[tabasco250]

I have always been a supporter of young people and community service. There is so much need. My girls were always really involved in Relay for Life and raising money for their team. They are grown now, but it was a foundation that has served them well. The community loves to help chilfdren. They did it individually by sending letters out to local businesses and friends and family. It's important for them to have an adult sponsor to run ideas off of and suggestions. We did Krispy Kreme donut sales to raise money and awareness. They had $1 days at school, whereas the teachers could wear jeans on Friday if they paid a dollor, or kids could wear a hat one day if they paid a $1. It got everyone involved. My youngest daughter raised $12,000 dollars one year for the cancer fund.

Other ideas are around the holidays when they would put together Christmas for a needy family. They would choose one of their clubs, or a group of friends and put together Christmas for the family of someone in need. The principal would choose the family and work with the needy family with all correspondence, that way it was anonymous amongst the kids. The principal would simply provide the ages and sizes of children and their needs or wants. It prompted others to do the same and the school tried to help those families who needed a little extra help. In other years we coordinated a quarter sale at school whereas they collected all year items that they could sell for a quarter from friends and family. Then the first week of December they would have one classroom who set up the Tables like a yard sale in their classroom. Each child in the school could do a little Christmas shopping for family members and friends but nothing cost more than a quarter. I loved this program and still support it. My daughter is currently a 5th grade school teacher and she does this every year. Once all the classes have done their shopping, all the proceeds goes to a local homeless shelter that allows children (did you know some shelters don't allow children). The leader of the shelter stops by to pick up the money, and speaks to her classroom(which does all the work throughout the year) and he/she explains what the money does for them and how helpful it is. It has become a yearly tradition! The sponsoring classroom gets to spend the day selling - no academic activities but they truly learn so much more from this experience. Anything remaining at the end of the day goes to goodwill. The kids love to wear sant or elf hats. They take turns playing shopkeeper and a few actually collect quarters. It's a huge success. I have always gone the extra mile and take in $100 in quarters. As the children come from other classrooms, I make sure they all have at least 2 quarters to shop with so no one is ever left out. That's my payback to the community. The years I can't afford it, I will get a local business to help me out.

Good luck and keep encouraging your children.