VOL 17 #4 A HERFF JONES BELIEVE IN YOU RESOURCE FOR STUDENT LEADERS

MAKE AN IMPACT WITH HOLIDAY SERVICE

The winter holiday season is a great time for student leaders to pitch in to help out people in their community who are struggling. Choosing a trustworthy organization with which to work for a service project can seem overwhelming when you consider all the charities soliciting help. If your organization is looking for a worthwhile service project this holiday season, consider one of the following: through the delivery of Christmas gifts by local church volunteers who purchase and deliver these gifts to children.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

involves filling shoeboxes with toys, hygiene items, story books, crayons and other things that a child would enjoy receiving. The shoeboxes are collected and shipped to children in need across the globe. For information visit www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/ operation-christmas-child

all kinds of personal disasters nationwide. Students can register online at www.ringbells.org to work shifts ringing bells, or visit www. salvationarmyusa.org/usn/volunteer. You can also create a virtual kettle for your organization at www.onlineredkettle.org and send invitations for people to donate to it online.

NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS has a variety of

ways for volunteers to combat homelessness by serving food at shelters, collecting clothing and household items, and more (www. nationalhomeless.org/want_to_help/ index.html). Learn what more students can do to organize service events at school or in the community, including materials for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, November 1624, at www.nationalhomeless.org/advocacy/ youth.html.

TOYS FOR TOTS. The traditional

way student groups support the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is by conducting a toy drive and donating the collected items. For information on donating toys or volunteering locally, visit www. toysfortots.org/donate/toys.aspx. Another way to support this organizations efforts is by selling your unwanted items on eBay and donating 10100% of the final sale price. Find out more at: www. toysfortots.org/donate/ebay-instructions. aspx

MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION

(http://wish.org/) grants wishes to children diagnosed with a lifethreatening medical condition in the United States and its territories. Schools can help by raising funds through the Kids for Wish Kids program, walking in a Walk for Wishes, or participating in the eBay Giving Works program (http:// wish.org/ways-to-help/products-andpromotions/ebay-auctions).

FAMILY-TO-FAMILY is a nonprofit
that is dedicated to connecting, one-to-one, families with enough to share to impoverished American families with profoundly less. Sponsor a family or get involved with a variety of kids helping kids projects (www.family-to-family.org/kidshelping-kids).

ANGEL TREE (www.prisonfellowship.

org/programs/angel-tree) is a ministry of Prison Fellowship, which helps parents in prison maintain a connection with their children

THE RED KETTLE CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN enables The Salvation

Army to provide food, toys and clothing to more than 6 million people during the Christmas season and helps more than 34 million Americans recovering from

This newsletter is a joint effort between Herff Jones and Leadership Logistics 2013

FRESH EXCHANGE is a great way

to help students apply the concept of reduce, reuse, recycle to the holidays. The idea is to organize an exchange of gently used toys and clothes, where people offer things in good condition they no longer want or need and exchange them with others doing the same. For more information visit www. canfeinesharim.org/hanukkah/freshexchange/

CREATING SUPPORT FOR YOUR EFFORT

Once youve selected the charity for which you will organize a drive or coordinate a fundraising effort, how can you get your peers to support the effort? Try these tips:

RAISE AWARENESS. The best way to ensure participation is to make sure students
know the real need behind your effort. Develop a campaign to let people know the reasons behind your drive. For example, if its a canned food drive, let people know the statistics on hunger in your community, but relate it to their lives. If one in ten households experience hunger, ask students to look around their classroom and realize that two or three of their classmates might be going to bed hungry. Create posters, announcements, and a social media campaign to stress how much your effort is needed.

SENIOR CITIZEN CENTERS in your

community likely would welcome a visit to their residents by your student organization. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 50 percent of nursing home residents have no close relatives, and 46 percent have no living children, resulting in few visits for many of these residents. A holiday party, concert, or other visit would be a good way to liven up the holidays for these seniors.

ADD ON. Figure out ways you can infuse the charity drive into other activities. For
example, if you are conducting a toy drive, ask everyone who attends a holiday choral concert or band performance to bring a musical toy to donate. People attending an athletic event could donate a sports-related toy. Be sure to publicize the effort through all available communication networks.

REWARD EFFORTS. If the altruistic goal of doing something good for its own sake
isnt motivating enough, try setting a goal that, if reached, will result in the whole school receiving some reward. The reward could be something like having a favorite teacher or administrator do something unusualkissing a pig, shaving their head, getting a pie in the faceor a special assembly, a bagel breakfast, or free dessert at lunch. Another way to reward participation in the charity effort is to give each student who contributes to it an entry into a drawing for a particular prize. Find a local business that is willing to donate something students would find appealinggame systems, iPods, tablets, etc.

REV UP RIVALRIES. If one of your schools traditional rivals conducts a similar drive,
challenge them to see which school can collect the most. Conduct it as a one-time evente.g., which school can bring the most cans to a basketball game between your two schoolsor collect over a two week period and have the amounts collected be verified by the agency to which you donate. Create a traveling trophy to award to the winning school and make it an annual competition.

Jon Speich Graduation Specialist Representing Herff Jones www.mygradshop.com herffjonesmsp@gmail.com