Join the millions on October 28 who volunteer their time and talents to accomplish thousands of projects in communities across America. The Annual Make A Difference Day is a celebration of “neighbors helping neighbors.” Everyone can participate.
Your project can be as large or as small as you wish! Look around your community and see what needs to be done.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Collect Needed Items
Longtime volunteer Mary Zaffino rallied 2,000 others in Pennsylvania to collect food, clothes, socks, books and toys for the ill and needy; clean up town; and raise money to fix a landmark.
- Organize a Community-wide Effort:
Amanda Renelt, 15, of Rosholt, S.D., organized more than half of her town's population of 400 to participate in a community-wide cleanup and outreach effort. Volunteers cleaned streets, public parks and the community center; spruced up the fire and ambulance buildings; collected clothing, food and pet supplies for charities; and entertained at a senior center.
- Take Care of a Neighbor:
Delmarva Montgomery and Lauren Davis, both 10, delivered personal-care items to an older needy friend in Maryland.
- Look Around Your Community:
Gary Mills and sons, Brandon and Dylan, reset headstones, cleared trash and repaired the fence at a Santa Rosa, Calif., historic cemetery.
- Consult Shelter Wish Lists:
Rosemary Lincoln-Clark and Gloria Jardine in Massachusetts collected clothes and toys and held a raffle to buy a vacuum cleaner for a women's shelter.
- Raise Needed Cash:
In Easton, Mass., 8th grader Erin Conley and 12 friends raised $600 for a local organization that helps needy residents.
- Mentor Kids:
At a time when she could be enjoying a leisurely retirement in Augusta, W. Va., Eleanor Milliken, 59, is helping to build a better future for local children growing up in a region with high levels of unemployment and poverty by running Computer Kids, which held a training seminar on Make A Difference Day to help kids and older adults who can't afford one learn how to use them and take one home on indefinite loan.
For more project ideas, see the Idea Generator at Web site http://www.usaweekend.com/diffday/index.html.
After participating on October 22, send in the entry form you can download from Web site http://usaweekend.com/diffday/index.html so you will be counted among the millions of volunteers and be considered for an award.
Make A Difference Day is sponsored by USA WEEKEND Magazine and is held in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation, www.pointsoflight.org.
Source: Wellness News You Can Use, National Wellness Institute, September, 2005.
