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Welcome to The Classroom Edition’s Volunteer Center! Think you’d like to volunteer – but not sure where to begin? The Volunteer Center offers lots of practical help for getting started. Read about service projects in other schools and profiles of teens and Major Leaguers taking the lead as volunteers. Plus, get ideas for how to connect your interests – sports, technology, animals, the environment, working with kids, helping the elderly – and volunteering with our service resources and monthly “Make a Date” suggestions.
 
Service in Action | Teens In Action | Major Leaguers In Action | Volunteer Resources | Make
a Date to Volunteer
The Major League Baseball Players Trust – Volunteers of America Action Team National Youth Volunteer Program
Get the scoop on volunteer activities that you can do in your community. Use the links below to get step-by-step plans and easy-to-implement project ideas.
Seattle Action Team: How Many Toys Can You Stuff in a Bus?
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Give “holiday toy drive” a new twist with a Stuff-a-Bus challenge! Read
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Oakland
Action Team: Building a Library Book by Book
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Does a homeless shelter for families or a local community center need a children’s library? You can make it happen! Oakland Action Team Captains show you how. Read
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Chicago Action Team: Off to a Grand Slam Start!
Plan a winning service project with help from a brand-new Action Team. Get ideas
for coordinating a community “Sweep 16th” and more. Read
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What's Your Holiday Volunteer Project?
Teens: Share your holiday volunteering project with the Major League Baseball Players Association! E-mail a summary of the project and photos to feedback@mlbpa.org. Subject Line: Holiday Volunteer Project.
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Teens in Action:
Meet the Action Team Captains
You make a difference in your community when you get involved as a volunteer. And volunteering can benefit you! Find out how from Action Team Captains in schools around the country. Like all captains of the Major League Baseball Players Trust and Volunteers of America Action Team, these teen leaders recruit other students to participate in service projects.
Action Team Captain of the Month: Mackenzie Hammon, Sultan High School, Sultan, Washington
Previous Action Team Captains of the Month:
November: Trinh and Tuyet Tran, Mt. Eden High School, Hayward, California
October: Debbie
Gonzalez, Jones College Prep, Chicago
September: Jeremy Carter,
Scarborough High School, Scarborough, Maine
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Talking with Seattle Mariners’ Miguel Batista
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This Action Team player is passionate about service.
Find out his challenge to you! Read
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2008 Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award: Congratulations to Michael Young!
Talking with Oakland A’s Andrew Brown and Huston Street
What impresses these Major Leaguers and Oakland Action
Team players about teens who volunteer?
Read More
Meet the 2008-2009 Action Team Players!
These Major League baseball players are all committed to encouraging young
people to get involved in their communities as volunteers. Action Team players
help prepare high school Action Team Captains to be service leaders and support
Action Team service projects. Read
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Make a Date...to Volunteer in December 2008
Use the Volunteer Tracker Sheet (PDF) to log in your volunteer hours.
December: Hi Neighbor Month
Take part in this celebration of neighbors and neighborliness. Start a winter commitment this month to shovel snow for a neighbor in need or collect the person’s mail and newspaper when the weather is bad. Put up holiday lights or other decorations for elderly or disabled neighbors. Volunteer at a holiday festival or fair in a neighborhood center or place of worship. Looking ahead to the end of the month, if your community holds a family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration, get involved to help ring out the year as a volunteer. Check www.VolunteerMatch.org for service opportunities where you live.
December: Write a Friend Month
Holiday cards to friends are a tradition this month, but many elderly and disabled need help writing, addressing, and mailing cards. Volunteer to assist a relative or someone else you know. Or ask at a senior center or a nursing or assisted-living facility about helping residents make or send out cards. There are also programs for making and sending cards to active-duty service members, veterans, and their families, such as “Holiday Mail for Heroes” organized by the American Red Cross. Spearhead the effort for a club or group you belong to – but act fast to meet mailing deadlines. (Holidays for Heroes cards must be postmarked by December 10. Visit
www.redcross.org/email/saf/?gclid=CI3Hnru0m5cCFQHHGgodE1q08g for details.) You can also send e-cards through Paralyzed Veterans of America at www.pva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ECRD_homepage to veterans in hospitals around the country.
December14: International Children’s Day
 Do something for kids in need on this annual observation. Plan a toy collection for this weekend (see Service in Action for a new twist on a toy drive – stuff a bus with toys). Help with a holiday party for children in a hospital, homeless shelter, or other facility. Or set up a “Mitten Tree” project at school or through a youth group to benefit children in a family shelter or a preschool for low-income families—and make this the day for organizing or wrapping the mittens, hats, and scarves you collect. (The project is based on the children’s book The Mitten Tree about a woman who secretly knits mittens.) Contact Volunteers of America at www.VolunteersofAmerica.org for local nonprofits that aid children to cooperate with on a project.
Plus, download a free poster to see how Major League baseball players and
teens are supporting families young and old in their communities.
December 21: First Day of Winter
The winter solstice has the shortest hours of daylight in the year, but you can make the day brighter for homebound residents where you live. Organize a “Welcome Winter” theme party at a local nursing home or assisted-living facility. Plan “Winter Warm-up” visits to elderly or disabled neighbors and deliver baskets of canned soup, tea, and hot cocoa mix, along with a medley of seasonal songs. Also check for winter volunteer opportunities for teens in your area at www.volunteer.gov/gov/INDEX.CFM. Access the monthly calendar of events on the home page or your state on the interactive U.S. map.
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Resources: Go-to Sites for Getting Involved
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Do Something |
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The goal of Do Something is to make it possible for teens to change the world! Visit the site for the latest information on important teen issues, ways to get involved, and a directory of volunteer opportunities by entering your zip code. Check out the Brick Awards, scholarships and community grants for teens and young adults to age 25 who are outstanding “world-changers.”
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Charity Focus |
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CharityFocus is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that provides online support to other nonprofits and promotes everyday ways to make a positive difference for others, near and far. Visit the site to find out about the variety of volunteer programs.
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| Volunteers
of America | | |
If your community is one of the 400 around the country where Volunteers of
America operates programs for those in need, then you can find many ways to get
involved to help. Volunteers of America is a nonprofit, faith-based organization
that serves more than 2 million people nationwide. Volunteers of America also
partners with the Major League Baseball Players Trust on the Action Team national
youth volunteer program. Visit the Volunteers of America national site to investigate
volunteer opportunities in your area. |
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Cool People Care |
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The motto of Cool People Care is “Saving the World, Five Minutes at a Time.” Check the Partners link for a U.S. map showing cities with Cool People Care events, including volunteer opportunities. There are also ideas on the home page for making a difference in five minutes – and what else you can do if you have longer to give.
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On Your Feet Project |
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This national nonprofit works to encourage young people to engage in community service and activism. Currently, there are chapters in five major cities: Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Check out the Boston home page (www.oyfp.org/BOS) for a listening preview of “Rock On Your Feet,” OYFP’s first-annual charity concert, on April 10.
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Youth Service America |
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This serving-learning site offers information on special events for volunteering. A newly launched initiative for this election year is ServiceVote 2008. Visit www.servicevote.org/ to learn about the ServiceVote Challenge. It asks young people to choose an issue you care about and then develop an action plan to address and solve it through community service, civic participation, and political engagement.
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| Volunteer
Match | | |
Did you make a resolution to volunteer more this year? VolunteerMatch promises
to be your “resolution solution.” This easy-to-use site connects volunteers
with volunteer opportunities. You can select an area of interest – such as volunteering
with children, animals, environmental causes and many more – and specify the
distance from your area. Then type in your zip code for a list of local groups
requesting volunteers. Or find online volunteering opportunities by choosing “Virtual”
for your search. | | Best
Buddies International | | |
Best Buddies works to help people with intellectual disabilities by promoting
friendships between disabled and non-disabled peers. This nonprofit organization
was founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver in 1989. (His mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver,
is the founder of the Special Olympics.) There are programs for high schools as
well as middle schools and colleges. Buddies can be matched locally for one-on-one
activities. There is also an e-Buddies program that connects students for online
sharing. Visit the home page and access the “High Schools” information to
find out more about the program, including how to start a Best Buddies chapter
in your school. | | Little
Brothers - Friends of the Elderly | | |
Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly (LBFE) welcomes volunteers who
want to help and befriend the elderly. Its motto is “flowers before bread”
– which emphasizes the group’s focus on being friends to the elderly as well
as helping with basic needs. Among the Little Brothers’ activities are special
parties for elderly members and volunteers, to bring seniors together for social
activities. There are currently Little Brothers chapters in the following locations:
Boston; Chicago; Cincinnati; Houghton County, Michigan; Miami; Omaha; Philadelphia;
San Francisco; Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul). Visit the national site to
find out more and to get contact information for the city chapters. |
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