buildOn Students United Across the Nation in Holiday Service

Every single weekend, buildOn’s youth service students across the nation are out in their communities volunteering – working at soup kitchens and senior centers, tutoring disabled children, and completing dozens of other great activities. But this last weekend was particularly special. During the Saturday and Sunday before the US went on its 2011 winter vacation, we engaged hundreds of students in a wide variety of fun, empowering, and socially conscious service projects. Here’s what every corner of the buildOn nation was doing!

San Francisco: Teens in San Francisco volunteered at Golden Gate Park to help preserve their bison paddock. They even got to welcome a new baby bison to the park! Others volunteered with Compass Family Services, an organization helping out families in need.

Chicago: Some Chicago students were engaged at a local senior centers, cooking up an eggs and bacon breakfast before playing rounds of bingo! Others toured Chicago’s rehab and senior centers, singing carols to spread the holiday spirit.

Detroit: In Dearborn Heights, MI, students volunteered with the local firefighters, preparing a chili lunch and enjoying a meet and greet. 22 other students delivered 800 holiday meals to seniors in need.

Philadephia: Students wrapped donated gifts at a Barnes and Noble in Center City, PA. Others made pancakes at Philly’s Ronald McDonald House. Still others wrote letters and sent books to prison inmates with the group Books Through Bars on Baltimore Ave. And still more went ice skating with kids from a local homeless shelter and sang carols door to door in a West Philly neighborhood!

New York: At St. Clements Food Pantry, students handed out food to community members in difficult situations. Others helped plant almost 2,000 daffodil buds in the Bronx!

Stamford: Students wrapped gifts for 2,750 children with St. Luke’s Lifeworks, conducted a holiday social at a local senior center, and served meals to over 300 at the Jackie Robinson Park of Fame Christmas Extravaganza!