FAITH DEVELOPMENT : MISSIONS

Sacred Heart Cares

for local charities while others are for national and even global charities. We do hands-on projects, like collections of needed items or making ornaments for the Fantasy of Trees, and projects that involve fundraising as well. Our goal is to expose the students to many different charitable organizations and to the variety of ways they can get involved in helping others.

In addition to our school-wide service projects, our middle school students are encouraged to participate in our Upward Trends program. They are asked to complete 4 hours of service or leadership activities during each nine-week period throughout the school year. These hours must be completed on their own time with their parents’ supervision. This program moves the responsibility to the student to seek out service opportunities that they enjoy.

Here are some of the organizations we support:

American Heart Association American Red Cross Catholic Charities • Columbus Home • Samaritan Place • Noah’s Ark Foster Care • Children’s Emergency Shelter • CHAP family counseling East Tennessee Children’s Hospital Florence Crittenton Agency Heifer International Knoxville Area Rescue Missions

Ladies of Charity Medic Regional Blood Center Mission of Hope Ronald McDonald House Reach Out to People Everywhere (ROPE), Kenya Africa St. Jude Children’s Hospital St. Mary’s Hospital Outreach St. Michels School, Haiti Shannondale Nursing Home The Salvation Army Volunteer Ministries Center

MISSIONS CALENDAR

TIME PERIOD	FORM OF MISSION SUPPORT	TYPE/AMOUNT
Aug. 27 - Sept. 12	Catholic Charities/Ladies of Charity	Food Drive/Collection partnered with Catholic High School vs. Webb competition
Oct. 8 - 12	Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries	Collection of Winter Clothing and Blankets for the Homeless
Nov. 12 - 16	Florence Crittendon Agency Children’s Hospital	Thanksgiving Food Baskets Fantasy of Trees - Nativity theme - set up Nov. 18th
Nov. 26 - Dec. 7	Salvation Army	Angel Tree - Christmas presents for Knoxville Area children & families
Dec. 3 - 21	Helping Hands Tree	Christmas presents to be given to various local charities
Jan. 28 - Feb. 1	Boys and Girls Club of the Tennessee Valley	Collection of Arts and Crafts Materials – in keeping with the Renaissance theme of Catholic Schools Week
Feb. 18 - 22	St. Jude Children’s Hospital	St. Jude Math-a-thon fundraiser
Mar. 10 - 14	Samaritan Place	Easter Basket Collection for elderly residents
Apr. 14 - 18	Ronald McDonald House	Collection of comfort items for families staying there
May 5 - 9	Ladies of Charity	Collection of Newborn Clothing and Baby Items for Mother’s Day
Click here to download a printer friendly (PDF) copy of this calendar.
Emergency assistance as needed upon request. Example: Natural disasters. (Mission calendar is subject to change according to immediate needs)

 

The Canned Food Drive To Feed The Hungry

IDEAS FOR VOLUNTEERING
Click on an area below to see specific ways you can help

Help The Homeless and the Hungry Assist Children Befriend the Elderly

Care for the Sick and Disabled Respond to the Environement International Volunteer Efforts

 

VOLUNTEERING RESOURCES

Print Resources

The Busy Family’s Guide to Volunteering by Jenny Friedman (Robins Lane Press, 2003)

The Giving Family: Raising Our Children to Help Others by Susan Crites Price (Washing ton, D.C.: Council on Foundations, 2001).

Raising Kids Who Will Make a Difference: Helping Your Family Live With Integrity, Value Simplicity and Care for Others by Susan V. Vogt (Chicago, IL: Loyola Press, 2002)

Chicken Soup for Little Souls: The Goodness Gorillas by Lisa McCourt (Deerfield Beach, Florida: Health Communications, Inc. 1997) Ages 4 – 7.

Kids’ Random Acts of Kindness by Dawna Markova (Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 1994) Ages 4 – 8.

The Giving Box: Create a Tradition of Giving with Your Children by Fred Rogers (Philadelphia Running Press, 2000) Ages 7 and up.

A Kid’s Guide to Service Projects: Over 500 Service Ideas for Young People Who Want to Make a Difference by Barbara Lewis (Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, 1995) Ages 9 – 12.

The Kid’s Guide to Social Action: How to Solve the Problems You Choose – And Turn Creative Thinking Into Positive Action by Barbara Lewis (Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, 1998) Ages 9 -12.

It’s Our World, Too!: Stories of Young People Who Are Making a Difference by Phillip Hoose (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002) Ages 9 – 12.

Catch the Spirit: Teen Volunteers Tell How They Made a Difference by Susan K Perry (New York: Scholastic Library Publishing, 2000) Grades 5 – 9.

A Complete idiot’s Guide to Volunteering for Teens by Preston Gralla (New York: Penguin Group 2001).

Online Resources

Points of Light Foundation

FamilyCares

Kids Care Clubs

The Volunteer Family

Volunteer Center National Network : 1-800-VOLUNTEER (800-865-8653)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Help The Homeless and The Hungry

• Help serve food in a soup kitchen
• Conduct a canned food drive
• Collect clothing/hygiene supplies/toys/paper products/blankets to give to a shelter
• Cook casseroles to be served at shelters
• Inspect and sort canned food
• Make sandwiches and bag lunches for homeless children or a shelter
• Organize snacks for walkers during fundraising events
• Teach computer or other job-building skills
• Make welcome baskets for new Habitat for Humanity homeowners
• Grow a vegetable garden and donate some of the food to a shelter * Glean fresh produce for food pantries
• Collect clothing for goodwill
• Conduct toiletry, mitten, or book drives
• Collect art and school supplies for homeless children
• Sponsor a birthday party for a homeless child
• Have a meal or other benefit to raise money for a shelter
• Research homeless issues with your family and help your friends and neighbors understand the problem as it relates to your community
• Contact and write letters to governmental leaders about the problems surrounding homelessness in your area
• Participate in a Walk or Run and gather pledges to raise funds for food banks and pantries who are feeding the hungry
• Pick up donations and deliver them to shelters
• Make fleece tie blankets
• Adopt a family: give gifts anonymously or holiday gifts, have a friendship with them, have barbecues together
• Share a musical presentation, talent show, or dramatic production
• Work, plant, water, weed and/or harvest in a community garden
• Plan a meal, purchase ingredients, and prepare food for a small group of residents or a family in transitional housing
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Assist Children

• Make pillows, cards, games, or stuffed toys for children who are sick in the hospital
• Make booboo bunnies for children to receive at a health clinic or at school
• Collect items to make baby bags for poor mothers who recently had a baby -- can contain diapers, baby bottles, pacifiers, burp rags, formula, baby food, etc.
• Plan and share craft projects with other children
• Plan a special event outing or field trip for kids in a low-income preschool
• Bake and decorate cookies with children
• Read with children at a local hospital or wellness center
• Help children at an after-school program develop their talents -- have rehearsal time and hold a talent show
• Hold a drive to collect sunscreen/flip flops/healthy snacks/school supplies for children
• Teach children a special skill or recipe
• Hold clothing drives and donate clothes that are in good condition to those in need
• Re-paint or rebuild playground equipment
• Teach music lessons to children in need
• Lead a craft project with children that will help elderly in a nursing home
• Have a birthday supply drive to give a child in need the party supplies necessary for a birthday party
• Make, buy, or donate toys for children in orphanages or shelters
• Sort through clothing, toys or books others have donated for children in need
• Play basketball or other sports with children in need
• Write letters to local and governmental leaders about the need to protect children from abuse and neglect
• Donate your hair for children with cancer or other medical conditions
• Read books to a sick child
• Befriend a disadvantaged child
• Put together a baby layette for new moms
• Help new mothers with the first 12 weeks postpartum
• Make a first-day-of-school package with school supplies
• Conduct a fundraiser to help send a child to summer camp
• Make care packages (i.e. sunscreen, stationery, stamps) for children at camp
• Talk as a family - and with other families and children - about what it means to be “safe kids”
• Write letters to or for sick children
• Organize a teddy bear drive
• Draw pictures for Save the Children
• Donate and sort books, clothes and party supplies for disadvantaged children
• Select and wrap gifts for the holidays
• Teach computer skills to children
• Donate your favorite (healthy!) snack to give to children in need
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Befriend The Elderly

• Be a friendly visitor -- often the personal interactions are the most meaningful!
• Have a “senior” prom at a nursing home
• Have a talent show or musical program for residents at a nursing home
• Adopt a Grandparent
• Look at pictures and share funny stories
• Deliver meals for meals on wheels
• Make emergency storm packs for elderly in times of need
• Organize a Bingo evening
• Organize a barbecue
• Perform seasonal yard work including weeding, mowing lawns, raking leaves, and shoveling snow for nursing homes
• Give manicures and pedicures
• Have puppet shows
• Plant flowers
• Make decorations for rooms -- could make flowers out of tissue paper or construction paper to brighten up a room or attach to wheelchairs or beds
• Clip coupons for seniors -- often they are on a tight budget
• Record and write down stories and memories about his/her life
• Label pictures to preserve memories of people and places (using acid-free materials)
• Make cards or write letters for a special older friend
• Play board games with nursing home residents
• Perform a play for residents
• Read a book or the newspaper
• Write letters or send email to their families
• Help him/her run errands
• Bring him/her to a medical appointment
• Conduct small home repairs
• Make lap blankets Bring your pet to visit
• Make a cake and bring a card on his/her birthday
• Go Back
  

Care for the Sick/Disabled

• Be a special friend to a person with disabilities
• Take your friend on your fun family outings and adventures
• Go on a walk together
• Become a best buddy to a child with developmental disabilities
• Help with setup and decorations and/or cleanup of a party
• Put on a special party with a holiday, birthday or other fun theme
• Have a special story time or reading hour
• Tell funny stories
• Help run an event or cheer and support athletes for the Special Olympics
• Tutor at an after school program for children with mental retardation
• Deliver meals to people with AIDS
• Walk or Run to educate and raise money for cancer research (or another
• portant disease)
• Sort through donations for families being sheltered from abuse
• Support the Red Cross disaster relief programs in your area
• Provide housing for out-of-town hospital patients' families
• Groom, care for, and lead horses that give therapy to people who are disabled
• Do craft projects and wrap gifts for a women's shelter
• Accompany people with disabilities to fun plays, concerts, or other events in the community
• Teach arts and crafts to children with disabilities
• Help with painting projects and/or horticulture
• Play soccer or other sports with youth who have developmental disabilities
• Grant “wishes” for children who are sick
• Deliver or serve meals to people who are bedridden or their families
• Make food for families with relatives in the hospital
• Put on a concert for people with disabilities
• Donate your hair for children with cancer
• Go Back
  

Respond to the Environment

• Write letters to congress supporting legislation that helps the environment
• Help clean up shore around lakes, beaches/coasts, river
• Clean up litter on the street or in a park
• Weed in a cemetery or park
• Use more energy-efficient light bulbs
• Work on a community garden or farm
• Clear trails
• Start a compost pile
• Participate in a city cleanup in your local area
• Research about specific environmental issues and present for others in a creative, fun, and educational way
• Recycle!
• Fix a leaky faucet for yourself or a friend
• Look for and promote programs in your area that recycle cell phones, toner cartridges, printers, computers, phone books, etc.
• Learn more about energy efficiency and renewable energy and educate others about insulating their home
• Learn about energy conservation and make daily changes at home, school, and work
• Plant trees and other native species to preserve natural habitats
• Plant flowers and trees in your yard or (with permission) in other public areas
• Come up with creative craft projects out of reused materials to combine with other volunteer opportunities (ex. helping children, the elderly, or people with disabilities)
• Make sets for dramatic productions out of cardboard boxes and other reused items
• Also check out the Environmental Kids Club, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Kids can participate in environmental activities around the community, or come up with their own projects to earn certificates and stickers. There are lots of interactive computer games, coloring books, and comic books online at www.epa.gov/kids.
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International

• Crochet bandages for people who have leprosy
• Gather supplies, make and send school kits to children in Iraq
• “Adopt” a family of immigrants to the United States
• Exchange recipes and cook together with people from different countries
• Share experiences from living in another culture and what you learned
• Sponsor a child living abroad
• Rebuild a bicycle to be sent abroad
• Send a child to school in Tanzania
• Write to a pen pal overseas
• Assist teaching English as a Second Language: children can play together while adults learn
• Trick or treat for Unicef (collect money that will help pay for immunizations for children, wells for villages, etc.)
• Write letters to Congress
• Buy UNICEF cards and gifts
• Become a host family for international students
• Send packages abroad
• Host an International Culture night: give educational presentations about another culture you have experienced or invite a friend from another culture to do so
• Hold a fundraiser to collect funds for children’s vaccines in developing countries
• Raise money for well-digging projects (and other good causes) abroad
• Collect baby clothes, books, and stuffed animals for orphans in Romania
• Help new families to America learn about culture, language, and/or U.S. citizenship
• Share food, music, dance, and stories from other cultures
• Go Back