<p>All right, you are a bit blatant, but let's call you honest. You can do a fund raiser for a charity. The charity will appreciate it and this will look good on your college application. Go for it. Off the top of my head, here is a way to start:</p>
<p>1) if you have no idea at all what charity you want to help, go to your local United Way website.
2) find an organization in your community that interests you and look at their website or call them. Find out what they NEED. Group homes, Ronald McDonald House, food shelves, camps for disabled children often have a "wish list."
3) talk to someone at the charity you want to help and say you want to help them with their wish list. Many charities have a volunteer coordinator who will m mentor you at least a little bit. It is best to work with someone from the charity. That way, too, people can talk to that person if they question your sincerity or validity. (Maybe your parents even know someone who works for a charity or foundation in your town? You could choose your project based on having a good person affiliated with a good charity as your mentor. If you have any contacts you can use, all the better. Maybe one of your teachers or a staff member from your HS is highly involved with a local charity?)
4) hold a fundraiser to earn money to buy things from the wish list, and collect items from the wish list. Get other students to help you and you can describe your "leadership" on the project, too - a lot of college applications want to hear about your leadership abilities. Car washes, pancake breakfasts, and spaghetti dinners are classic ways to make a reasonable amount of cash for a good cause. Writing to local businesses in advance and asking for them to help "sponsor" your event will yield even more donations. A silent auction held in a church or temple or other site where you don't have to pay to rent space, in which you sell donated items "gift baskets" or "gift bags," can yield pure profit for your charity. In this case, you would as local businesses to donate items for your auction - maybe Lube Stop would donate an oil change; the craft shop could donate some craft supplies; the toy store could donate a toy; the grocery store could donate a few groceries that you would group together into a "themed basket."</p>
<p>Want to look even better? A lot of charities are certifiers for the President's Volunteer Service award. If you intend to spend more than 100 hours working on this, get yourself set up to have your hours tracked so your hours of service will be recognized, too. You could even pick your charity based on this, only volunteering for someone who will help you get some level of the President's Volunteer Service Award. As I said, I think it only takes 100 hours to earn the first level of this award. Just get this done before 12/1 or whatever the date is that you need to be submitting your college applications.</p>
<p>When you are done, someone from the organization will write you a thank you letter. You can include that in your college applications. If your HS logs community service hours on your transcript, you can work with your guidance counselor document this there too.</p>
<p>I feel almost guilty encouraging you to do this for the sake of your college application rather than out of the love in your heart, but seriously: It is good to do a good deed, no matter what the motivation. Go for it. If you put a lot of time and effort into your project, you could keep an eye on the deadlines for the Lowe's and Best Buy community service scholarship awards, too.</p>
<p>Find some time this summer to do this. The charity will appreciate your work, and if you do a good job, it most certainly will help your college applications.</p>