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!