Friday, October 7, 2011

Service Project, Anyone?

I have a very fun calling right now in our church. I am our ward's Humanitarian Aid Representative. What is that, you ask? I didn't know either. It consists of organizing and providing opportunities for members of our congregation to serve others. I get to organize these projects on a monthly basis for the women in our congregation, and occasionally for everyone else. I thought some of you might enjoy hearing these ideas so you can serve others where you are.

In August I worked with some of the leaders in our ward to organize a big service night where we had a clothing/household item drive for a local charity, colored file folder games to be sent to orphanages (information and patterns found here), wrote letters to military personnel and missionaries serving from our ward, and made animal pillows to be donated to hospitals. We ended up making 59 animal pillows (the faces were created with fabric paint).


In September we held a blood drive with the American Red Cross. We joined with another ward in our area and collected 64 pints!

In September we also made fun pillowcases for ConKerrCancer.org. This organization donates fun print pillowcases to sick children in hospitals, the Ronald McDonald House, etc. Their goal is to bring a smile to a sick child. You go to their website, find a chapter near you, and find out where to donate pillowcases. They also have a very fun pattern for pillowcases found here. We were able to donate 31 pillowcases!


For our service group in October and November, we will be making 12 Days of Christmas Kits to distribute in December. Each of these kits will contain:
1 - 1 Christmas Music CD
2 - 2 Homemade Christmas cards for the receiver to send
3 - 3 Homemade ornaments
4 - 4 Recipes (Christmas preferred)
5 - 5 Favorite Scriptures
6 - 6 Uplifting Quotes
7 - 7 Christmas magnets
8 - 8 Homemade Christmas gift tags
9 - 9 Expressions of gratitude (Counting our blessings)
10 - A Top 10 list of why you like the recipient
11 - 11 Fun Christmas websites
12 - A dozen cookies

The intent of these kits is to be given all at once and the recipient can choose to open a day at a time or all at once. They will be encouraged to open day 12 right away though!

I'm really enjoying this opportunity for service. It's exhausting sometimes, but very rewarding. So, feel free to send service ideas my way. What projects have been a success where you are?

1 comments:

Dean, Andrea, Tanner, Landon, & Braddock said...

Wow this is awesome! You guys are doing some great stuff! Of I hear or see any good ideas I'll definitely send them your way. Oh and thanks for making me feel better about Tanner! Glad I'm not alone! ;)