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Get in on the Action: Make Friends, Help Others, Have Fun – Four Action Teams Show How It’s Done!

If you think service is all work and no play, then get in on the action and join the Action Team! From Boston to Denver to Mobile to Tampa, Action Team Captains have a message for fellow teens: Volunteering is a great way to meet people, have a good time – and feel good about what you do.

Every high school in the country is eligible to launch an Action Team beginning in September 2009. So get an Action Team Application – and Get in on the Action today.

Here are Action Team projects from Boston, Denver, Mobile and Tampa to help you plan service projects in your own community!

Boston Action Team Captains Amanda Zaniewski, Notre Dame Academy (first on the left) and Andrew Morgan, Boston College High School (third on the left), with other Meals in Motion volunteers. (bottom) A “street team” gives away meals.

* Boston Action Team: Meals in Motion

Action Team Captains from Boston College High School and Notre Dame Academy, working with Volunteers of America Massachusetts, organized Meals in Motion – a packed lunch distributed to the homeless on Boston streets. Plan a summer Meals in Motion in your area. Why not make one project date July 4 and celebrate Independence Day by helping the homeless be free of hunger! 

Planning Tips

• Choose easy-to-eat foods: sandwiches, fresh fruit, nutrition bars, juices.
• Ask for donations of food and other items: Contact grocery stores and food clubs in your area, and use flyers to spread the word to local citizens about what’s needed. Here is Boston’s “wish list” for donated food and materials. Sandwich fillings also included ham and turkey.

brown paper lunch bags
bottled water
applesauce (snack cups)
peanut butter and jelly
juice
oranges
bread                                               
canned soda                       
raisins
granola bars                                   
mini chip bags
cookies

• Find a preparation location: Your school or a community center are options. In Boston, the Arlington Street Church members volunteered to assist with the project. Donated supplies were brought to the church and lunches prepared in its kitchen.
• Recruit volunteers: Plan for helping hands to make lunches, pack and label bags by sandwich contents, clean up, and distribute meals.
• Organize volunteers by “prep” and “street teams”: Set times for volunteers to meet. Boston volunteers made over 300 bag lunches in three hours – 9:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. Street teams gave out meals from 12:30 to 3:30 P.M. in places where the homeless gather. (For safety, street teams should work in small groups of four or five volunteers.)
• Work together to make it a good day: “I really enjoyed working with the other volunteers,” says Action Team Captain Amanda Zaniewski, a junior at Notre Dame Academy. “Meals in Motion was really fun.”

Denver Action Team: Head Start Buddies

Denver Action Team Captain Jumayah Brown on the playground with her preschool pal.

Preschoolers in four Head Start programs operated by Volunteers of America Colorado get one-on-one attention from Action Team Captains, who spend three-hour sessions with the children.

Planning Tips

• Contact a local Head Start program or any early care and education program in your community about volunteering as mentors for individual children.
• Match mentors and children: Denver Head Start children choose the teen they want as their buddy. A program director or teachers can also match children to volunteers.
• Aim for a block of time together: Longer sessions give mentors and buddies more time to get comfortable together and for teens to have a bigger impact on children’s learning. Coordinate with the program director and teachers to agree on the schedule.
• Follow the usual routine: You don’t have to plan special activities. In Denver, teen volunteers work with children on their typical learning and play activities.
• Repeat visits as possible: Some Denver Action Team Captains return to the same programs multiple times to mentor. But whether it’s one visit or many, mentoring young children is valuable to teens and preschoolers alike. Ask Action Team Captain Jumayah Brown from Manual High School in Denver: “These children look up to us. It meant a lot to me to be part of that.” Visit Student Voices to hear more from Jumayah on mentoring at the Rainbow House Head Start, a program for children with HIV/AIDS.
  

Mobile Action Team: Playground Cleanup Crew

Mobile Action Team Captains from Light of the Village Christian Academy

Action Team Captains at Light of the Village Christian Academy in Mobile, Alabama, working with Volunteers of America Southeast, joined forces with others to renovate the playground of the Little Tree School, which serves children who are deaf, blind and have other special needs. Over 70 volunteers repaired and rebuilt the playground. Action Team Captains recruited 15 student volunteers, who spent four hours removing old equipment and other debris, so volunteer builders could start with a clean site.

Planning Tips

• Target a need in your community: It might a playground to spruce up or a neglected public space you can improve by weeding and planting. 
• Enlist partners or sponsors: A local TV station partnered on the Mobile playground project. You need donations of materials for any renovation, and you may need skilled labor. Ask local businesses or community groups to get involved.
• Decide how you can help best: Everybody plays a role in a big project. As teen volunteers, taking charge of cleanup before or after a project, like the Mobile Action Team, is an important contribution.
• Document before and after: Take photos or videos of the space before the renovation and after, to post on school and community Web sites and to share with local press. Seeing the outcome of their work is a great way to thank all volunteers.

Tampa Action Team: Good Days for Seniors

Tampa Action Team Captains from different schools have made new friendships through Action Team activities.

Action Team Captains, with help from Volunteers of America Florida, “adopted” a group of senior citizens in a low-income, independent-living facility in Clearwater, near Tampa. Action Team Captains from two high schools – Plant City and Durant – have worked together on projects for the elderly residents this year. Collaborating with Action Teams in your community is a great way to meet other teens and make new friends.

Planning Tips

• Target holidays: Tampa teens planned events for the seniors during the December holidays and Valentine’s Day – traditional times when people appreciate being remembered. Plan summer activities for July 4 and other special days in your community.
• Collect donations for small gifts: Tampa Action Team Captains filled 100 holiday stockings – one for each resident – with donated soaps and other personal care items for the seniors. You might give out small American flags on July 4th.
• Share photos and cards: Think about how to use the talents of your group as you plan projects. At the December party, teen volunteers adept with digital cameras took a holiday photo of each senior as a keepsake. At Valentine’s Day, Action Team Captains worked together to create 100 handmade valentine cards.
• Make it entertaining for all ages: Plan activities that are favorites with seniors, and introduce high-tech games that you like too. Tampa Action Team Captains are organizing a Wii tournament for the seniors at the Clearwater facility and Action Team players like Carlos Pena. But these teen volunteers are also discovering that leading Bingo games can be fun!