Celebrating Valentine’s Day through direct service with the community

This Valentine’s Day, buildOn students are showing the love through direct service!

What better way to connect with your community than through direct service projects such as serving meals in soup kitchens, tutoring elementary school students, or visiting senior citizens? Face-to-face encounters help students develop empathy and compassion as well as personal leadership and teamwork skills. That’s why 60% of all buildOn service activities are dedicated to direct, people-to-people service!

Philly:
At two homeless shelters, buildOn students will be decorating cookies, making cards, face painting, and playing games – all with a Valentine’s Day theme.

At our partner senior home, we’ll be hosting a senior prom where buildOn students will decorate the home and dance with senior residents.

CT:
buildOn partners with ARI, a service for disabled individuals that helps residents maintain their homes by learning housekeeping, money management, shopping, and food preparation skills. This Valentine’s Day, our students are putting on a party for the ARI community!

Detroit:
buildOn students at Renaissance High School and Oak Park High School will be making Valentine’s Day cards featuring inspirational quotes about love and compassion to send to men and women in solitary confinement in the Upper Peninsula.

NYC:
buildOn students at Truman High School and Marble Hill High School will be making Valentine’s Day cards in the special education classes and then help those students deliver the cards to a local nursing home.

Chicago:
buildOn students in Chicago will be making Valentine’s Day cookies and decorations at a local women’s shelter. Students will also be making Valentine’s Day themed crafts with 3 and 4 year olds at a local early learning program available for families of varied economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds.

Bay Area:
In preparation for Valentine’s Day, buildOn students at Oakland Tech and Oakland High School hosted a card-making event for community members, families, and children at a park in the Lake Merritt neighborhood.The cards will be sent to Meals on Wheels and delivered to homebound veterans on Valentine’s Day.

Be sure to check out each region’s Valentine’s Day direct service photos at we.buildon.org!