Community Service
A number of different activities are offered to help different groups of people. All activities are voluntary and by offering a range of activities; there’s bound to be one that a student will gravitate towards.
Food Drives
In my senior year in high school, I was part of a team of students raising awareness of hunger. We hosted World Visions’ 30 hour famine and this is probably one of the very first community-related activity I was involved in terms of the planning and running of an event. Through this event, we hoped to inform fellow peers about the importance of nutrition, food equality, and causes of famine.
Working in a Primary school, I did not feel a famine activity was suitable. A holiday food drive seemed like a reasonable starting point; and fast forward a few years, it has become a regular Spring/Easter community event.
Tap into local resources; reach out to local chapter of World Wide Vision, or UNICEF. These NGOs often conducts school talks on famine. Work with the local food bank, or any organizations that can benefit from the donation.
Work with math teachers and collect some data i.e. set up a weighing station and weigh the donations. Science, Geography teachers can investigate how climate change affects food production…there are many ways community service activities can be integrated into teaching.
Children Around the World
The much-loved annual Box of Hope is a charitable event which we have taken part in for the last seven years or so. It is challenging to find an age appropriate community event for younger students, so this works perfectly. Students fill a gift-wrapped shoe box with educational toys, books, and other daily necessities. Box of Hope sends these gift boxes to local children in need, as well as to children in developing countries.
The KNITTING Project – Caring cushions
Working with younger students one year, the blanket activity was easily changed to cushions. With the leftover knitted squares, parents and staff volunteers stitched up the two sides of the cushion cover leaving one side free. Students stuffed and helped sew close the last side. These cushions were donated to a local refugee centre.
The Bread Run
Once or twice a month, interested families sign up to one or multiple participating bakeries to pick up still fresh, unsold bread. The bread is then dropped off at the local food bank for distribution to various NGOs and charity groups. At the same, time, still good food is being diverted from landfill….a win-win situation! Through this activity, it is hoped students gain a greater appreciation for food, recognize that access to food is not guaranteed for some groups of people.
Mooncake Sharing
The first mooncake is sweet, salty, and delicious with a cup of hot tea. The second ones gets heavy, and the third is where I max out. What to do the with the fourth one? Was happy to find out that one of the local food banks were taking mooncake donations. They in turn will donate them to various elderly centres and organizations. Keeping eyes and ears open on what’s happening in the local community is beneficial. Making connections with them; and there can be great partnership opportunities happening.
The KNITTING Project – Blankets of Love
This is a project which has been well supported by parents and is truly a community effort. It started with inviting the school community to knit a square (8″ X 8″) in any colour, pattern, or yarn. A group of parent volunteers were organized to stitch 40 pieces together to form a blanket. Other parents helped run the lunch time knitting sessions to teach interested students the craft (let’s be honest…as much as the younger ones want to help and learn; this is much more suitable for the older ones). Blankets were then donated to local elderly care centres as holiday gifts. I have been amazed by parents telling me how their grannies and aunties living in other countries, have been knitting year round, and then waiting for summer holidays to pass the completed squares to their grandchildren to take back to school. It is particularly warming to see how one project has touched three generations of a family.
The KNITTING Project – Keep a Granny Warm
Warm beanie hats were made as Chinese New Year gifts to the elderly living in a nearby elderly care centre. Students dropped in during their lunch time recess to work on the hats.
msmonica 