PROJECT IDEAS - SADD

PROJECT IDEAS
The POWER
of
Spring Break at Home
The Power of
Teamwork
Service Project Ideas

Project Ideas
Rationale
✔ Helping others makes you feel good.
✔ This is an opportunity to develop an interconnection
to the community and to others working
with you. You can also foster a working relationship
with those whom you help.
✔ This project affords you the opportunity to learn
valuable skills.
✔ People need attention all year long, not just at the
holidays or after a tragedy.
✔ This is a great opportunity to do something “just
because.”
Guidelines
✔ Be sure to read your NYSD Tool Kit carefully. It
offers advice on how to choose a service project,
get the necessary supplies, recruit volunteers,
plan and execute your project.
✔ Since your service project will be an important
part of your spring break, be sure that it will be
challenging and meaningful enough for participants
but also achievable. It will be important for
participants to feel a strong sense of accomplishment
after completing the project.
Cleanup, Restoration, and
Beautification
✔ Clean up local parks, streams, hiking trails, playgrounds,
and beaches
✔ Plant trees, flowers, gardens, or vegetable
gardens at your school, community centers,
senior centers, parks, etc.
✔ Adopt a highway.
✔ Cover graffiti with a mural.
✔ Create a memorial garden.
✔ Help with Habitat for Humanity projects.
✔ Help restore local monuments.
✔ Clean up a neighborhood.
Elderly
✔ Volunteer at a local nursing home or senior center.
Sing to them, bake, read, perform a play, or bring
docile pets for them to play with.
✔ Hold a “Senior Prom” at a local senior center.
✔ Record an oral or video history of the seniors in
your community and then donate it to your
library.
✔ Organize self-defense classes for local senior
citizens.
✔ Work with seniors on craft projects and donate
them to a local shelter, school, etc.
Education
✔ Hold a book drive and donate the books to a local
library, community center, hospital, senior center,
Salvation Army, shelter, or local school in need.
✔ Record books on tape and donate to schools for
the blind.
✔ Volunteer to host a story day at your local library,
where students can read to children in the
community.
✔ Start a peer tutoring program.
✔ Hand out information at a mall or grocery store
about substance abuse prevention, suicide
prevention or impaired driving.
Children
✔ Volunteer in a children’s hospital: sing, perform a
play, read to the kids, make crafts with them, etc.
✔ Ask your soccer, football, field hockey, volleyball
and other teams to hold skills classes for local
youth.
✔ Ask your school’s talented artists, actors, and
dancers to hold an arts day for local youth to
teach them skills.
✔ Donate small stuffed animals to your local law
enforcement agency and emergency management
services to give to children who may have been in
a fire, accident or removed from their home.
✔ Hold a toy, book, or clothing drive for a local
shelter, hospital, or youth center.
Safety
✔ Collect old cell phones for victims of domestic
violence.
✔ Hold self-defense classes for community members.
✔ Ask your swim team members and the coach
to hold water safety classes for community
members.
✔ Hold a health fair for the community. Work with
your school nurse and your local Department of
Public Health to provide information about substance
abuse prevention, suicide prevention,
proper nutrition, etc.
✔ Work with local law enforcement to fingerprint
and identify all children in your community.

Food
✔ Hold a food drive and donate nonperishable
goods to a local food bank, shelter, or soup
kitchen.
✔ Bake treats for a senior center or nursing home.
✔ Volunteer in a soup kitchen.
✔ Hold a food drive for families in shelters or for
disaster relief agencies.
Sick, Disabled
✔ Volunteer in hospitals or hospices.
✔ Make get well and thinking of you cards.
✔ Donate care kits (see below).
✔ Make mobiles to hang above beds.
✔ Serenade patients in hospitals or hospices.
✔ Make hats or blankets for sick babies.
Homeless
✔ Make birthday boxes for children in shelters.
✔ Make comfort kits (see below) for shelters.
Care Kits
Your chapter can collect a variety of goods for
different charities, hospitals, or organizations. By
putting these items in “care kits,” you will surely
brighten someone’s day. Here are a few ideas:
✔ Collect toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, lotion,
Band-aids, and other personal hygiene products
for families in shelters.
✔ Collect crayons, markers, coloring books, gently
worn stuffed animals, dolls, and books for
children in shelters or children’s hospitals.
✔ Create birthday boxes for patients in hospitals or
those living in shelters. Include balloons, cards,
magazines, puzzles, games, etc.
✔ Collect small toys, books, and puzzles for siblings
who are visiting hospitalized family members.
✔ Create care kits for senior citizens or veterans in VA
hospitals, including crossword puzzles, word
searches, magazines, pens, paper, stationery, etc.
✔ Make care kits for military personnel overseas.
Include greeting cards, hard candy, magazines,
and things to remind them of home. Contact the
American Red Cross for more information.
✔ Make crisis comfort kits for children who are
removed from their homes and placed in foster
care. Many times this is done quickly and children
don’t have time to get their belongings. Include
stuffed animals, hats, mittens, sweaters, jackets,
pillows, toothbrushes and toothpaste, washcloths,
soap, lotion, shampoo, nonperishable sweet
treats and anything that will make them feel more
comfortable.
Other Ideas
✔ Organize a Bowl-a-thon, Dance-a-thon, Bike-athon,
etc., to raise money for your favorite charity.
✔ Hold an auction to raise money for your favorite
charity.
✔ Arrange a supply drive for low-income schools
(collect pens, pencils, notebooks, paper, books,
crayons, markers, paints, posters, etc.).
✔ Collect cans to recycle; donate money to charity.
✔ Collect old glasses and donate to an eyeglasses
bank.
✔ Hold a bake sale to raise money.
✔ Hold a pancake breakfast fund-raiser for your
favorite charity.
✔ Sponsor a Make-a-Wish contest for local youth or
families.
✔ Host a party for a local shelter or children’s
hospital.
✔ Work with a local museum or science center to
host a fun day for local youth.
✔ Contact your local parks and recreation department
to learn about areas in need or current
projects.
✔ Collect and donate books and old toys to pediatricians’
offices.
✔ Host a Day of Honor for local fire and law
enforcement officials. Ask your school bands and
musicians to perform, ask parents and students
to provide food for a potluck breakfast, lunch or
dinner, and be sure to award them certificates of
appreciation.
✔ Educate local families about violence prevention,
substance abuse prevention, eating disorders, etc.

Spring Break at Home
The Power of Teamwork
What Kind of Project Will You Do?
Here is a list of questions to help you focus your thinking as you develop your service project.
You can use it as a survey instrument in your chapter to assess your group’s interests.
1. Is there a specific group you’d like to help?
Children
Disabled people
Elderly
Hospital patients
Homeless
Disadvantaged youth
Other _____________________________
2. Is there a specific cause you’d like to help?
Environment
Cleanup/Beautification
Shelters/Soup Kitchens
Hospitals
Relief Organizations
Literacy Projects
Community Renewal
Family/Parenting
Violence Prevention
Disaster Relief
Human Rights
Senior Centers
Other _____________________________
3. Is there a group or an organization you are already involved
with that you might consider working with?
No
Yes___________________________
4. Is there something your school does especially well that might be of help or interest to others?
Sports
Arts
Theater
Bake Sales
Fund-raisers
Food/Clothing/Book Drives
Other _____________________________
5. Is there a specific event you’d like to host or participate in?
Food/Clothing/Book Drive Sports Day
Bake Sale
Cleanup Project
Volunteer in hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, etc.
Volunteer in elementary schools
Teen Teacher Day (offer free sports and arts clinics to local youth)
Other _____________________________
6. What kinds of resources does your school community have?
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7. What issues is your community facing?
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Teamwork
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