King Day Grant Opportunity!!!

ServiceNation Home Depot Gift Cards for MLK Day Projects (Deadline: January 7)

ServiceNation would like to support your MLK Day of Service activities. Through a generous gift from the Home Depot Foundation, Service Nation has been given $5,000 worth of Home Depot gift cards.

The gift cards will be given out in $500 increments to support sustainability or community revitalization projects taking place on or around MLK Day.

To apply for this grant, please submit your proposals by January 7th through our short online application: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGw5STVpT2pQZ2t6N1RkSy1vSnRjUnc6MA

Get Involved! All America High School Service Team

All America High School Service Team FAQ’s

What is the AAHST Award?
All America High School Service Team recognizes students who have made exemplary contributions in the service areas of: health, education, environment, economics or community.

Who can apply?
· Be a high school student;
· Be a US citizen or permanent resident of the US;

What do you win?
There are 2 levels of awards the first being the most significant.

Service Team Awards:
1st Team- Three awardees from each category of service (health, education, environment, economics, and community) and a parent or guardian will receive an all expense paid trip to Washington, D.C. to receive an award and recognition from the U.S. Secretary of Education. Each 1st Service Team awardee will become a national youth spokesperson for service and a member of The LEAGUE National Youth Commission Advisors.

2nd Team- Three awardees from each category of service (health, education, environment, economics, and community) will receive a framed certificate of acknowledgement for exemplary contributions to their community and local media recognition.

How do you apply?
The application for the All America High School Service Team will be available January 17th 2010.

Please check after Jan 1st 2010 www.theleague.org to find out where to apply.

Who is eligible to apply?

· Students must be involved in dynamic community service projects. Dynamic projects are defined as projects where the student has lead and involved others in service in the area of health, education, environment, economics, or community, and which has had a measurable impact.
· Nominees will be judged on the completion of the following:
1) Nomination Form
2) Nominee Recommendation Form
3) Appendix Form.
· Additional factors may be considered as determined by the judges prior to final scoring.

When is the nomination deadline?
Then nomination is March 1st 2010, all applications received after the due date will be disqualified.

To learn more about the All American High School Service Team nomination process, please contact Kelli Brown, Project Manager via email at Kelli.Brown@leagueworldwide.org

Going for the Extra Point

The Drive is done, you are thinking about King Day, but haven't committed yet....

Challenge your students to go for the "extra point" and finalize a King Day project before they leave for Xmas break.

It will fit in nicely with lessons about giving and sharing at this time of year and allow you a much needed time filler that will actually mean something in the future!

Below are 10 Easy King Day Ideas

1. Teach a game to younger students at an after-school program. Help them play fairly and teach them to use problem-solving to settle disputes.

2.Create cards of support for children or families in a homeless shelter or for service men and women.

3.Give flowers (real or artistic models) to residents in a retirement community

4.Students can read aloud to preschool-age children at an at-risk school or shelter to help the children develop a love of reading.

5.Play games with children from a local at-risk school.

6.Arrange regular class visits to residents at a retirement home.

7.Learn to knit, and donate homemade hats.

8.Make and give out buttons with kindness slogans on them.

9.Create bookmarks with kindness slogans and random acts of kindness ideas.

10.Give a compliment to someone.

End your year with a big W! Plan King Day now!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.....

The countdown is on! How many more days till that much needed Christmas break? 17? 18? Forget the extra wordsearch pages, jumbles, and trivia, take this time to plan your King Day event!

Many King Day service project ideas fit well with the spirit of Christmas. Challenge your students to think about caring, respect, and fairness during the holiday season and beyond.

Choose your captains and take some time to brainstorm all the ways you can show respect throughout your school and community.

Start simple, think about people in the school building that do things for the teachers and students each day, how can your students show them that their hard work is appreciated?

Take these last loooong days before break to do something meaningful with your students and get ahead of the game!

Interesting Grant Opportunity!

"Miley Cyrus is partnering with Youth Service America to mobilize teens through Get Ur Good On, a social network that brings together youth to support each other in their mission to do 'good' in their communities. 'People my age are making positive contributions to their communities every single day,' said Miley Cyrus. 'My generation is one that cares about the environment, about hunger, and about human rights. We use the Internet, videos, and even music to raise awareness of these issues to our friends and family,' continued Cyrus. 'I'm excited to see so much energy to do 'good' from teens.'

More than 3,600 'volunteers' are registered on Get Ur Good On, a space for them to discover what needs fixing in the world, find information on how to get involved, and showcase their work in schools and communities through photos, videos, and blogs. The site links Miley Cyrus' star power with youth voice, giving kids an opportunity to demonstrate how one person can make a difference. Youth interested in sharing their stories about volunteering and community service, learning about important issues, and making civic-minded friends can visit www.GetUrGoodOn.org. They can upload videos that show how they have made a difference in their local, national, and global communities.

Get Ur Good On Grants are available for youth-led service initiatives on Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25, 2010. Available to children and youth around the world, YSA's Get Ur Good On Grants will award 100 $500 grants to support projects addressing critical community needs such as poverty, education, and environmental sustainability. Grant applications are due February 22, 2010. To learn more about Get Ur Good On Grants and to take the eligibility quiz, visit www.YSA.org/grants"

One Day Winner!

Congrats to the students at LaPorte High School for being the One Day point winner in the state of Indiana!!!!

Take The Freeborn Challenge

By providing students a matching grant, The Freeborn Challenge encourages the development and support of youth driven service and community projects. Students will apply for a monetary amount that matches monies already fundraised by the project participants. Students may not ask for a greater amount of money than already fundraised for the project nor will in-kind gifts be considered for its monetary value.

Who is eligible?
High school students who are part of The LEAGUE

What projects will receive support?
Service projects that are managed and operated by high school students that demonstrate creative and effective ways teens are practicing philanthropy (examples: beautification programs, food drives, community mentoring programs, etc). The student will be awarded up to a maximum of $1,000 to implement their service project.

How to apply
Click to download application

Applicants are to submit application on a rolling basis. Awards will be considered for the closest deadline. Letters to students stating whether they have received the money will go out no later than three weeks after deadline date. Applicants may resubmit in the same year if they are not granted an award.

Deadlines for Submission:
October 15, 2009
December 15, 2010
February 15, 2010

Midseason Shuffle

As you are engaging students in The Drive, mix things up a bit with some Financial Literacy!

Log onto your Teacher Homepage and click on LTG Lessons & Tools. Then click on Financial Literacy and Philanthropy.

There you will find interactive coded lessons for grades 2-5 at Smart City and give your younger students a chance to meet Ant Phil in Giving & Me. As well as lessons on spending, saving, investing, and donating.

In the Money Smart Teens section for grades 6-12 you will find lessons on:

Needs vs. Wants
Short, Medium, and Long-term Goals
Impulse Spending and Buyer's Remorse
How to create a Personal Spending Plan
Credit
Budgeting
Opportunity Cost
Scarcity
Investing

There is also an interactive component in Smart Choices.

Students can work through different lessons online. Topics include: Managing your Money, Supporting Your Community, Running a NonProfit, and Family Giving.

Head to www.theleague.org, Log in, and start tackling some standards, the lessons are all there for you, use them, and mix it up!

Going Into Overdrive

You have your "Drive" set up, kids are starting to bring items in, now it is time to challenge their minds with a great lesson from the LEAGUE website.

There are several different ways you can find lesson plans:

1. Log onto your Teacher's Homepage and click on the tab labeled: Teaching

There you will find lesson plans that are categorized by grade level.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the Teaching section and click on Go to Learning to Give

There you will find an orange box marked Lesson Plans, where you can search by grade level, keyword, subject or standard.

No time for a full lesson?

Click on any of the lessons appropriate for your grade and scroll down to the aqua box. There you will see the words Learning Link.

Learning Links are 5 to 10 minute lessons where students read a passage and react to questions that you or one of your captains delivers.

It keeps their minds focused on why they are holding a Drive in the first place.

So, take your drive to the next level, go to www.leagueworldwide.org and log in!

Grant Update!

Youth Service America is currently accepting applications for State Farm® Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants to support service-learning projects that culminate on Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25, 2010.

School and community educators across the United States and Canada can apply for up to $1,000 in funding for youth-led projects.

State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning grant applicants are encouraged to develop projects that launch on Martin Luther King Day of Service, January 18, 2010, and culminate on the weekend of GYSD, April 23-25, 2010.

The deadline is midnight ET next Monday, November 9.

To begin the application process, complete the Eligibility Quiz at http://www.cybergrants.com/ysa/sfgn/quiz

Deadline Extended to November 6 for the NEA Youth Leaders for Literacy Grants!

Youth Service America is partnering with the National Education Association to once again offer Youth Leaders for Literacy grants to children and youth, ages 5-25, who offer innovative ways to increase literacy skills and appreciation for reading among their peers.

Youth Leaders for Literacy will award 30 young people from across the U.S. each with $500 grants and $500 in books from the Pearson Foundation. Successful projects will be youth-led and address an established literacy need in the applicant's school or community.

The projects will follow the framework of YSA's Semester of Service initiative, launching on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service in January and culminating on Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25. An activity should also occur during the NEA's Read Across America Day on March 2.

Complete the eligibility quiz at: http://www.cybergrants.com/ysa/yll/quiz

Access the application at: http://www.cybergrants.com/ysa/yll/application

Don't Just Go Through the Motions

Anyone can hold a canned food drive. It is easy for students to go to a local grocery store, get some canned items, and place them in a box in the hallway. But, do these students know the who, what, where, when, and why of their Drive?

To make sure your students have a full service learning experience, have your captains research the following to report back to the school:

WHO- who will benefit from the canned goods?

WHAT-what will be done with the canned goods?

WHERE- will the canned goods stay at the drop off location or be taken to other locations?

WHEN-when are the canned good used?

WHY- why is there a need in this community for canned goods?

Challenge your students to figure out how to let the student body know the answers. Do they make an announcment each morning, make posters, or go from class to class?

As each of these questions are answered, see if you can contact a director of the pantry or location your goods will go to. Even better, visit the site, and help out!

Remember service learning is meaningful.....don't just go through the motions.

Two for One

It is Drive time. You have chosen what you are going to collect, have let everyone know about it, and are waiting to see what comes in, but what about taking it a step further?

Contact a director at the place your donations will go to, see if he or she can come in and talk to the students about the who, what and why of the project.

Who will benefit from the donations? What will

Take a "detour", fun new ideas for your Drive

Huddle up and think about these ideas for your Drive......

1. Students color paper grocery bags to distribute to local grocery stores. Make a sign asking local residents to donate grocery items by filling one of the decorated sacks.
2. Host a hat, mitten, or coat drive.
3. Weigh your staff and challenge your school to match that weight in donated items.
4. Collect baby items for a women's shelter.
5. Challenge the students to fill the Principal's office with canned food items.
6. Assign each grade or classroom a specific food item and then put all the items together to make a full meal.
7. Bob for apples. Students pay $1.00 per try. Donate the proceeds to a local soup kitchen along with bags of apples.
8. Host a pasta dinner at your school to raise money for a local cause. Give a free dessert for every food contribution.
9. Create a "Knock Over the Cans" carnival game. It can be bowling style and it is a $1.00 to play.
10. Have a theme a day for a week and students bring food items to match.

For example: Do You Know the Muffin Man?- Collect breakfast items
Souper Bowl- Collect canned soup, crackers, dry soup
Healthy Snack Day- Collect fruit cups, granola bars, applesauce
Back to School Day- Collect PB and J
Vegetarian Day- Collect non meat items
Turkey in a Bag- Each class pools pennies or loose change to buy a turkey to donate to a family in a bag

11. Hold a movie night after school. To get into the movie students must bring a canned food item.
12. Hold a CANstruction contest. Classes make their canned goods into art and the Principal or volunteer judges.
13. Hold a drive to donate to the Humane Society or animal shelter in your area. See if a representative can come and talk to the class about what goes on at the shelter.
14. Hold a rice and pasta drive and donate the items to Second Helpings a non-profit organization in Indianapolis. They give tours and you can go there to weigh all your donations!
15. Have your gym teacher use the canned food items for obstacle or agility courses. Students can even design the courses for the teachers to go through!
16. Have a pen pal challenge! We can find LEAGUE schools in other states for you to challenge to see which school can bring in more canned goods!
17. Hold a Turkey Trot. Students will walk or "trot" around a school track or area for so many canned goods. Each can can be worth .25 mile and community members can sponsor students for either canned goods or money donations.
18. Health is Wealth- hold a drive of only healthy foods.
19. Gleaners Food Bank of Indianapolis needs PB, pudding cups, 100% juice, juice boxes, and fruit cups for their Kids Cafe program.
20. Sock it to me! Collect socks for local shelters.

If you have fun drive ideas, comment on this post or email me at kelly.bradford@leagueworldwide.org!

Are you a Good Neighbor?

Youth Service America is currently accepting applications for State Farm® Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants to support service-learning projects that culminate on Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25, 2010. School and community educators across the U.S. & Canada can apply for up to $1,000 in funding for youth-led projects.

Go to this link and get started. You have to take an eligibility quiz, which is at the bottom of the page.

http://ysa.org/MyYSA/YSAContent/YSANews/tabid/219/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/187/StateFarmGoodNeighborServiceLearningGrantsDeadlineNovember9.aspx

2 min drill: Grant Application!!!!!

Youth Leaders for Literacy Grants Available to Young Volunteers Who Inspire and Encourage Reading! (Deadline: October 30)

Youth Service America is partnering with the National Education Association to once again offer Youth Leaders for Literacy grants... to children and youth, ages 5-25.

This grant is for students who will address literacy needs on March 2, 2010, which is Read Across America Day.

Click below for details and application.

Read More
www.cybergrants.com

High School Funding Opportunity

Take the Freeborn Challenge
Do you know a high school student who likes a challenge? How about a Freeborn Challenge?

Through the generous support of The Freeborn Foundation, The LEAGUE will be awarding student grants of up to $1,000 to high school students who develop and/or manage service and community projects. These projects must demonstrate creative and effective ways that teens are practicing philanthropy in their communities (such as creating beautification programs, community mentoring programs, food drives, etc). The Freeborn Challenge grant is open to all high school students that are a part of a LEAGUE school.
Click here for more details and to download an application.

For more information on the Freeborn Foundation, please visit www.freebornfoundation.org

"One Day", it will all come together....

If you still haven't figured out what you are doing for your One Day event, there is still time! Huddle up your team members, talk about something you can do for one day to help out your community and get the plan in motion!

It is a day of giving, so don't feel like you have to raise a ton of money! Give back to the neighborhood around your school and clean it up, read books to younger students, or rake leaves in a local park.

OR.....take that "one day" and plan for your next or even first event! Set aside time before October 28th and have your first blue sky activity, huddle, or captain led meeting.

As one week runs into another, "one day" it will come together and your students will have an amazing time giving back.

Looking for Endorsements...Grant Money Available!!!!

Colts Student All Star Program

The Indianapolis Colts and Grange Insurance are excited to present the 2009 Student All Star Grant Program for student-initiated community projects throughout Indiana . Students, ages 13 and under, can apply for grants of up to $500 to complete service projects. Applications are due October 30.

Go to http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=Community_dynamic&id=107 to download the application and read more about the application process.

There isn't a ton of time left, so hustle up, and get it done!

Tick tock, Tick tock

Several of the teachers that I have recently been in contact with feel like they don't have the time to take on another thing in their classrooms. They are bogged down with testing, district and state requirements, and trying to keep the pace of the curriculum.

As a former teacher myself, I have been there. I completely understand. Weeks would go by where I felt like I couldn't even take a second to breathe, let alone go to the bathroom!

My message is: you are a teacher, emphasis on TEACH. If you are to teach the whole child then they need to be able to understand where they fit in their community and eventually become a productive citizen. Sometimes we forget that "teaching" can mean several different things and if you change a student's behavior or outlook on life, that is sometimes more important then mastering standard 10.1.11.

If you can take 10 minutes a day to let students think about what is going on in their community and how they can give back, then you can help them plan a service project.

Start small. Do the little ones need help with reading? Have your students go down to their classrooms once a week to do some reading and mentoring.

Is there a blank white wall in the cafeteria that could use some life? Ask the art teacher to help your students create a mural that shows school pride.

It is the life lessons that stick with students. So go out and get them in the game, the game of giving and learning through living.

Extra, Extra, Read All About Us!

In the next week you will receive a newsletter that includes an article, stats about the year, tips, and a message from me! We would like to build on this newsletter, but need to know if you would like to keep getting a hard copy or would rather have an e-newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Leave a comment at the end of this post, email me at kelly.bradford@leagueworldwide.org, or give me a call at 317-894-7245.

We do this for you and want to highlight all the good things that are going on in our state!

The Sky's the Limit

The best part of The LEAGUE is that it gives students the opportunity to have ownership in service projects that they create and carry out in their communities.

Completing a Blue Sky Activity will get your students focused on what the community needs, almost a map of what they can do during the school year to give back.

The first event of the year entitled One Day is only 12 days away! If you have a corporate partner or an active PTO or PTA see if you can get them involved in your first LEAGUE service project.

Teaming up with other organizations makes students feel like they are truly a part of their community and gives adults the chance to volunteer for a great cause!

Have a plan in the works? Share it with us! Leave a comment below!

Blogging, blogging, blogging?

Many teachers have wonderful ideas for service projects and never get to share them! If you have done a service project for the LEAGUE and it was a success click on the word comment at the bottom and let us know what you did!

Then click on the word subscribe and you will get updates when new posts are created or comments are made!

Get started now!