October 7, 2010

By: Michelle D. from Springfield, OH
Comments: 28

Posted By: Michelle Dalton
On: 10/2/2007 2:38:07 PM

Has anyone out there done a community based service project with middle schoolers? My Builders Club does a lot as a subsidiary of our local chapter of Kiwanis but our efforts are often as fund raisers. I am interested in ideas for a project that is strictly project based. One with literacy and our library is in the works but I wondered what anyone might have to offer? We also already do neighborhood cleanups. We are based in Springfield, Ohio. Thanks! Michelle Dalton

Posted By: Mary Hannon
On: 10/7/2007 12:19:41 PM

They can design and build bird feeders for institutions which have a staff to keep them filled, such as schools, long-term care facilities, or city recreation departments. They can design and build pet-poop plastic bag stations, and erect them in parks or along pet-walking green spaces. Our middle school age Girl Scouts have painted themed trash cans for public places (birds and fish on metal barrels along the seawall at a waterfront, and local images on cardboard for conventions). They also used stencils to paint catch basin covers, warning against pouring hazardous materials in drains. I don't much like that one because it is so ugly to look at. Another guerrilla project they undertook was spraying fluorescent paint around the rims of potholes in the streets. This is probably of limited use in areas where the city actually repairs the streets.

Posted By: Michelle Dalton
On: 10/9/2007 11:03:59 AM

Wow! Thank you! These sound like really great ideas...I love the bird feeders. Kids love to get creative with building materials and we could look at recycling what we already have at the school. Would we get permission before spray painting pot holes? Is there a special king of paint to use?

Posted By: Mary Hannon
On: 10/13/2007 9:48:41 AM

We did not ask for permission -- we just did it. Our streets are in very bad repair, and residents often post home-made signs -- that's why I called it a guerrilla project. We used fluorescent orange spray enamel, bought at the hardware store. I believe there is a glow-in-the dark paint, but it is probably four times the cost. Remember that in many communities, only adults can buy spray paint. If you are concerned about the environmental issues of spray, the paint also comes in cans.

Posted By: William Bobrowsky
On: 10/21/2007 8:19:20 AM

Michelle and Mary, I see some great ideas here. The bird feeders and dog posts are great. I wonder if there is something you could do surrounding bicyle use, access, rules of the road and safety. I see many young ones riding without helmets and that might be something to address. Also increasing awareness of bicycle "rules of the road" for both cyclists and drivers. I had a friend who was riding his bike have a knife pulled on him because the motorist thought he was "taking up too much of the road on his damn bicycle!" Another thing I saw done in Ann Arbor, MI is that they had school children design and paint fire hydrants in town. Each one was painted by a different student. One last thing is my concern about having middle schoolers in the street painting pot holes. I'd be so afraid of one of my students getting run over. If you were going to do this one, I'd probably do it early in the morning (less traffic) and have them wear dayglow vests. --Enjoy, Bill

Posted By: Christa Avampato
On: 1/8/2010 10:46:25 PM

I am teaching am after-school program about product development this semester through Citizen Schools at a middle school in East Harlem. I've found them to be extremely well-organized while also giving volunteer citizen teachers a lot of freedom to design their own programs. https://www.citizenschools.org