With the warmer weather and longer days of spring, most often our thoughts turn to outdoor activities and fun. But spring is also the traditional time for growth and renewal, and a great time to get started on service projects. We love the Scouting values, and so it’s in that spirit that we offer a friendly reminder that it’s always a good idea to form the service habit and “Do a good turn daily” whenever possible.
In fact, the spring season is fast becoming a favorite time for our youth to serve in all kinds of volunteer projects. Nationwide, it has become a tradition for many junior high, high school and college-age students to voluntarily give up their spring break vacations in favor of a week or weekend long service project organized by families, churches, schools and other nonprofit organizations. Our youth are fighting hunger, helping to build homes, lending a helping hand to people in need, and so much more.
We can’t help but applaud this trend! We also want to recognize all of the good that our youth are doing as part of their Boy Scouts groups within their homes and communities. Scouts are helpful, and an important part of the Scouting program is service. It builds our communities, and it builds character in our youth.
In keeping with this important Scouting tradition, we’re encouraging everyone this spring to find and get involved with a service project of some kind. To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of volunteer activities:
- Gather up old toys, books, or clothes to donate to a homeless shelter or organization that serves underprivileged youth.
- Clean out rain gutters for elderly neighbors. Offer to perform spring garden clean up by edging yards, removing leaves and other debris, or clearing out flowerbeds.
- Pick up trash from park areas.
- Volunteer to walk dogs, clean cages and play with animals at a shelter.
- Help to paint, fix or refurbish fences, benches or other outdoor structures that might need a little clean up after winter.
- Organize a recycling run. If your neighborhood services don’t collect glass, electronic waste, green waste or other materials, scouts could notify residents of a pickup day and collect the items for transport.
- Visit a senior center to provide company to the elderly, serve meals at lunchtime or lead an activity, such as teaching tech skills.
- Teach English close to home. Many nonprofit organizations that work with refugees have tutoring programs to help people learn to speak English. Older youth can volunteer to help by taking time to talk with a non-native English speaker, to help them learn and practice.
- Get in touch with your local county or municipal public works office to find opportunities to participate in a neighborhood clean up, trail building project, or fill sandbags to have on hand in case of spring runoff flooding.
These ideas are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Also, don’t forget that you can ALWAYS help out close to home! Youth can offer to perform a spring-cleaning project to help their parents. Organizing the garage, closets, or deep cleaning bathrooms are all great ways to help. It’s not hard to find opportunities to serve if you really pay attention to the needs of the people around you.
A final word: Parents, don’t forget to recognize your youth for all of his hard work and service at home and in Scouting. We shouldn’t necessarily volunteer for the recognition, but the support and approval of parents is so important to instill the great values in our youth. It’s always a great idea to make it a family affair!