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Service and Ideas for Service Projects
Before making a commitment to a service project, think about the variety of ways in which you can use your talents and abilities to help others. These suggestions are only some of the ways other candidates have chosen to serve.
In order to gain a better understanding of the need you are addressing, review the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and Catholic Social Teachings on these pages and pray about whether your service project lends a hand to those needs. A few guidelines about the service projects themselves:
40 hours of service, total, must be completed before the start of Religious Education in the Fall.
15 of those hours must be completed with a sponsor or a parent.
Hours that you perform during school hours may not be counted.
If you serve as an altar boy, you may only count 5 hours.
If you are paid for any service, it may not be counted.
Service done for school, scouts, etc. can be counted for Confirmation hours. These hours however need to be completed outside of school hours.
To feed the hungry/give drink to the thirsty
The manner of giving is worth more than the gift---Pierre Corneille
- Make sandwiches for Zachaeus’s kitchen or Martha’s Table.
- Help at a soup kitchen.
- Help prepare and serve a meal at a shelter, such as Christ House.
- Go to S.O.M.E.
- Help put together food baskets, especially during holidays.
- Initiate a food drive or help with the collection and distribution.
To clothe the naked
Whatever you did for the least of my brothers, you did it for me---Matthew 25:40-41
- Organize/help with a clothing driving.
- Help distribute furniture and goods with S.H.A.R.E.
- Work at a food bank or shelter that needs help organizing and distributing clothes.
- Babysit for single teenage moms at Borromeo Housing while they are receiving counseling and going to life skills programming.
- Participate and/or raise money for the Walk for the Homeless.
Shelter the Homeless
If you judge people, you have no time to love them---Mother Teresa
- Walk for the Homeless
- Participate in Workcamp
Care for the Sick, Homebound, Confined or Imprisoned
God does not ask for our ability or our inability, but our availability---Anonymous
- Write cards/letters to those in the hospital, nursing home, rehab center, military.
- Participate and/or raise money for the Race for the Cure, AIDS Walk, etc.
- Prepare entertainment or holiday parties for nursing homes or child care centers.
- Assist with chores or go shopping for senior citizens.
- Visit and/or read to the elderly in nursing homes.
- Prepare a meal for a family who is dealing with a serious illness.
Teach the Ignorant
Our actions are the best witnesses of our thoughts---Anonymous
- Help with Religious Education programs.
- Help prepare for a children’s liturgy.
- Tutor after school at a local elementary school.
- Help prepare soup for Soup Suppers or baby-sit during church events.
- Make audio tapes for the blind or elderly.
- Coach or assist with young children’s sports groups or work at summer camps with younger children.
Comfort the Sorrowful
To ease another’s heartbreak is to forget one’s own---Malcolm Muggeridge
- Visit someone who has just lost a friend or loved one.
- Prepare a meal or dessert for a family who has lost a loved one.
- Make cards for those who are mourning the loss of someone.
Catholic Social Teaching
My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it---Clarence Budington Kelland
- Living our faith in relationship with of God’s creation through sponsoring an Earth Day project or a neighborhood clean-up.
- Organize your family to help an organization in your community one afternoon.
- Organize a bake sale with proceeds going to homeless, pro-life organizations or immigrant families struggling in our community.
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