Today’s post comes from Lezlee McDaniel, Community Engagment Manager with HandsOn Jacksonville.
Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is kind of a big deal here at HandsOn Jacksonville. For us here at HandsOn Jacksonville, GYSD will be celebrated from April 15th to the 17th. The students of our Youth Council worked together for over 6 months to be able to plan not one, but five projects for GYSD. Together they brainstormed issues that mattered to each of them, and from there designed projects around their particular interest. What they came up with is pretty exciting!
First up is an online tutoring session where students will be able to log-in to monitored chat rooms provided by a software sponsor for peer on peer tutoring. Some of the students in the group share a huge interest in technology and loved their experience with online tutoring and wanted to share this with others. Off in another part of town, a group will be meeting with Community Connections of Jacksonville to decorate a room for a new family coming to stay at the transitional home facility for women and children. They will paint, decorate and buy toys to make the new space like home for one lucky family.
Next up a group is heading over to the Jacksonville Landing to celebrate the Earth Day Festival. They have planned “green” activities for kids that day that include painting Earth Day tiles (a fun multi media art project to express themes of peace and of course, Earth Day) and designing “Eco Bags.” In another group, a student took her membership with Best Buddies to a whole new level by getting her group to create their own team for the Best Buddies Friendship Walk at the University of North Florida. These students have also set up a booth for children and parents to create Peace Tiles.
Lastly, one group has placed 25 pallet sized boxes at businesses all around town (including here in our office) to collect clothing and shoes for Haiti and Japan Disaster relief. Along with Mission Harvest, the students will sort out the items and get them ready to ship.
All of this hard work and dedication is an inspiration to our office. From their own hearts, five amazing projects will benefit people all over the city of Jacksonville. This is truly an inspiring day of events for youth service and HandsOn Jacksonville.
If you are interesting in being apart of any of these events, please click here.
Lezlee McDaniel is a former teacher and exuberant new addition to the HandsOn Jacksonville staff. She is the Community Engagement Manager whose focus is youth service.
The Teacher’s Supply Depot is a nonprofit that gathers donated goods and hosts give-aways for district schools. Teachers, principals and PTAs can come get paper, educational material, art supplies and much more for free!
After the pictures were painted and crafts were made the History Channel’s documentary film 
