INTRODUCTION

This Blog is being created to share information on service opportunities available in the McAuliffe School community. It is often difficult for students to find service opportunities and our goal is to assist them in their efforts. We desire our students to see service not as a requirement but as an action step in their learning and also as a new experience from which they may learn.

In order to organize the information the opportunities will be listed under the categories of People, Animals and Environment with an understanding that each of these categories overlap. We will also list service opportunities at McAuliffe School as this list becomes available. It is our suggestion that students seek opportunities from each category as well as in local and international communities.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Pennies for Peace



Greg Mortenson has also just released a young adult version of Three Cups of Tea. If you have not heard of his story he was a climber who climbed K2 in honor of his younger sister but events of his climb took him to starting a foundation that builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His daughter is 12 years old and started a campaign called Pennies for Peace.

We had for crews participate in the Pennies for Peace project (Crow, Ross, Kris and Heavey) collecting change for building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We collected 30 pounds of change that broke down into
7535 pennies
420 dimes
386 nickels
68 quarters and
11 dollars for a total of 164.65 donated to Pennies for Peace. Thank you to everyone for helping and a thank you as well to the Framingham Co-operative Bank for converting the change for us.
Kathy Lee
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PEOPLE

LOCAL

NATICK’S OPEN DOOR

A Non-Profit All Volunteer Weekly Community Meal
Natick’s Open Door is an all volunteer organization which provides an evening meal to anyone who wishes to attend. The meals are prepared by volunteer civic, faith-based and neighborhood groups and are served every Thursday evening @ 5:00PM in Sherrill Hall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church across from the fire department.

Prior to the meal a volunteer plays the piano and a group gets up and sings. The event is usually attended by 50-60 people of all ages who come to the Open Door for both the meal and the social aspect of the evening. Frequently school age youth volunteer to set up and clean up and fulfill some or all of their community service at the Open Door. There is also a group of 5-6 regular volunteers who manage the operation each week.
Support Contacts
Fred Witte (508) 353-2239 Cell (508) 647-6437 Work
Joan Bace (508) 380-7883 Cell (508) 655 1708 Home


Natick Food Pantry Collection

Organize donations to the Natick Food Pantry.
Patty Shaffer at 508-655-1791.

Natick Senior Center
The fall raking. Call Diane packer at (508)-647-6541 or e-mail at dpacker@natickma.org. She matches volunteers with seniors who are living at home but need help with leaf raking.

Birthday Wishes
Birthday Wishes is a program that organizes birthday parties for kids in homeless shelters. Get on their e-mail list and, one month before each birthday party, you’ll receive a list of ways you can help: baking and/or decorating a birthday cake, making party-favor bags, coming to the party and helping give out treats (fake tattoos, etc). Whatever skill or interest you have, they can use you! To help at a homeless shelter near you, visit www.birthdaywishes.org and get on their email list.

Bristol Lodge Soup Kitchen, Waltham. Help serve meals to families. Sunday is a
great time, but help is needed other times as well. Contact Dick Rogers, (781) 883- 2050.

Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown. The Perkins School offers wonderful tours all year round (call 617 972-7224). If your child goes on this tour and gets excited to help out, s/he can inquire with Molly Campbell: 617 972-7520. Molly helps design learning devices for Perkins kids. Perkins also needs help sorting audio cassettes in their library. An hour every week or every other week would be most welcome.

Cradles to Crayons
Volunteer to host a used toy recycling drive or help sort donations and fill orders for needs. 

http://cradlestocrayons.org/2/content/view/28/111/

International 


Pennies for Peace: This organization was started by Greg Mortenson (see is story inThree Cups of Tea) after his failed attempt to climb the second tallest mountain in the world, K2. The mission is to focus on community-based education, especially for girls. This program is a wonderful way to learn about Pakistan and Afghanistan. The program focus on the power of kids to make a difference one penny at a time.
Idea: start a penny campaign Contact page: www.penniesforpeace.org


ENVIRONMENT

LOCAL

Marking Storm Drains
Learn about the storm drains in your community. Get together with a group of 3 friends and an adult and help your town mark the storm drains and educate the community. You get to spray paint!!

Contact information: Town of Natick: DPW
(more information Kathy Lee leekn@bc.edu)

Trash pick-up
Spend time picking up trash and putting it in the trash
Areas around playgrounds, schools and public spaces always need a clean-up. Don’t forget areas around lakes or water in your neighborhood. You can help the habitat and the local animals.


Waltham Fields Community Farm, Waltham. Help grow food to give to local food
pantries. Help is needed Sundays 10 – 4, and/or on weekdays. No experience
necessary: orientations offered regularly. Visit www.communityfarms.org for more
information, or contact Derek Christianson: (781) 899-2403.

Land’s Sake is a community farm in Weston (www.landssake.org, 781 893-1162).

Newton's Green Decade Coalition is an environmental organization.
Students for A Greener World (SGW) became the Green Decade’s first
student committee in 2007, with volunteers from the middle schools and high schools.SGW help the Green Decade reach out to kids of all ages and to help them learn and practice environmentally friendly actions at home, school -- and have fun doing it!http://www.greendecade.org/kgg_sgw.html

Charles River Watershed Association Volunteer to help clean up the Charles River.
http://www.crwa.org/volunteer.html


INTERNATIONAL

TAP Project:
UNICEF project to provide safe water and sanitation in schools and communities.
6,000 children die every day around the world because of the lack of clean water. We live in a culture that we take clean water for granted.
Idea: At the next soccer game or basketball game have a group of friends sell cold water bottles and donate the proceeds to the TAP project. Remember to provide a place to recycle the bottles.

Contact information: http://www.tapproject.org/

ANIMALS

LOCAL

Baypath Humane Society, Hopkington

• Walk a dog or help look after the cats. Help is needed weekdays and weekends 8-10 a.m. or 3-5 pm. This is a great way to help take care of the animals in our community.
• Organize a dog wash to benefit the humane society
• Help collect food, beds and other items from the shelter wish list

Contact information: Brenda Holloran Donald from the webpage:
http://www.baypathhumane.org/index.php


Metrowest Humane Society, Framingham/ Ashland
This shelter is cats only.
• They need help with the Trap Neuter Return sites in Framingham and Ashland. The shelter supplies the food and you stop by the site once a week. Contact person: Sue Budge
• Help clean the shelter and socialize with the cats. Contact person:

Webpage: http://www.webpaws.com/mwhs/volunteer.htmlBroadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary
Habitat Restoration: Clear brush and invasive plant species with hand tools a.m. til non Most Saturdays November through April. Sat. April 25th there will be a large cleanup organized. For details on meeting location and specific information contact: broadmoorprograms@massaudubon.org

Save-a-Dog: This organization has regular weekend “meet and greet” events to adopt
out dogs from their Natick (Petco) location. Student help is most welcome! Visit
www.saveadog.com; click on “volunteering.”

Stray Pets in Need (SPIN), Wellesley (http://www.straypetsinneed.info/). One student
organized her own flea market to raise money for this animal shelter.
She invited friends to sell crafts they had made and charged admission to
buyers and to the sellers. Sellers kept their profits (except for those who wanted to
donate them to SPIN), and the admission fees all went to SPIN. SPIN dropped off
pamphlets and a donation box for the flea market.

MSPCA (Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), Jamaica Plain. MSPCA is a shelter for all kinds of animals. They need clean blankets and towels, toys, and pet
food.


INTERNATIONAL

Chimpanzee Guardians:
There are as few as 200,000 chimpanzees left in the wild. The Jane Goodall Institute works to put an end to the commercial bushmeat trade and also runs the Tchimpounga Sanctuary, an orphanage for chimps where they can receive proper nutrition and survival training. At the orphanage guardians have to carry the baby chimps around all day and care for them. Raise money to become a chimp guardian.
Idea: get some small chimp or monkey stuffed animals and make up birth certificates for them. Teach others how to adopt one and then sell them with proceeds going to the orphanage in Africa.
Contact page: http://www.janegoodall.org/chimp_guardian/default.asp

Jane Goodall became famous for her study of the endangered chimpanzees.
Follow the work in the field: http://www.janegoodall.org/gombe-chimp-blog/