My friend and I want to start a community service club at our school next year. We are thinking about doing something along the lines of making toys for shelter animals, collecting books for poor children, or collecting coats for the homeless. We also want to hold fundraisers for whatever idea we decide to go with. My question is, is there any way we can get volunteer hours for the fundraisers and donating (of money/toys/books/coats)? Do we get it from whoever we donate to, or do we have to write the letters ourselves and have the school sign it?
first does your school already have clubs like Key Club and Interact club that specialize in volunteer/community service - basically no need to start a club that already exists. You can join and make suggestions without having a leadership title.
In general a group you volunteer with signs off on the volunteer hours. You would need to ask them if they have a form or you provide it.
Thank you for your reply! As for the clubs at my school, there aren’t any “big” volunteering clubs, like the two you suggested. There are a few small ones, but there aren’t that many opportunities and events to participate in in the club, and they only meet once a month.
Ok why do you need volunteer hours signed off on? That is only needed if your school requires it and I’m guessing if they do they do they can let you know how the hours need to be accounted for (chances are a form signed by a person in charge of where you volunteer at). Since our school does not require volunteer hours (plenty of people volunteer on their own) I don’t know how it works for collecting donations.
At our school you need an adult (often a teacher but could be guidance counselor etc) as a group advisor. Perhaps start out by finding out school requirements and an advisor if needed (and time/space to use). Perhaps an advisor can help you determine if starting a chapter of a known club like keyclub/interact etc is good or just go with a school club.
Perhaps brain storm some ideas and reach out to community people to see if they are looking for volunteers if you start a club and if they have a minimum age requirement. Think about how often you want to meet as a club vs actually doing volunteer work. Also depending on where you live is transportation an issue?
I would try very hard not to start a new club, but somehow work with an existing club/organization.
I would look within my community first.
For example, go to your local Animal Shelter and see if they need a food/toy drive for the animals. Then go to either the service club or student counsel and say that you would like to run a toy/food drive for the animal shelter, would they like to sponsor it? And then you do all the work.
Or ask your house of worship (if you attend) if they need items collected.
For example, our church does a “Backpack program” where food is provided for students who normally get free lunch…but what happens on the weekend? we have teens that run that program.
Or we had a teen run the CROP walk that collects food.
Or see if there is a Charity that collects things for the Holidays.
For colleges, you don’t need to have hours “signed off”. You might for NHS…but any org. you work with can do that.
Our shelters often need blankets and towels more than anything so you could see if you could do a monthly drive to get those for them. As noted above I would go talk to the shelter and see what they need. Doing service to set up monthly drives for them could be great. Have a day people could drive by and drop the blankets off or a box at school to drop them off. A lot of times they are happy with old towels with holes in them that people would love to get rid of!