Volunteering opportunities for middle school students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.

That is incredibly disappointing. This would be such a great service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:9:15 again to add to my post. To the other person who recommended the invasive plants, we looked into that. My son was interested. The issue is a parent had to go with them for the entire time. While that’s nice in theory, we have multiple kids and don’t have time to devote a day to that after working all week. It was his volunteer requirement, not mine. He can find volunteer opportunities when he’s old enough to go alone.

Exactly. Having this as a requirement in middle school is a burden on families. It’s basically virtue signaling.

FCPS doesn't offer opportunities on campus?

I live in MoCo and have taught in DC, in both places our middle schools have plenty of opportunities on their campuses, with transportation available. I know 7th and 8th grader who got hours for riding the school bus to 6th grade orientation as ambassadors. I know kids who use their lunch time to shelve books in the middle school library. I know teachers who run clubs that do activities like packing backpacks for elementary school lunch, or making cards for elderly people, that meet after school before the late bus leaves. Teachers also work things into the classroom. The 6th graders in MCPS do stream clean up as part of outdoor ed, and MCPS transports them there.

I am surprised FCPS doesn't do the same.

They do offer opportunities to volunteer on campus. My son helped prepare laptops for distribution and got 40 hours worth of credit.

Another FCPS parent and I agree, some schools do help make volunteering happen on campus. Our DD's middle school had a gardening group plan and install a native plants garden outside the school. It was organized like a club with a faculty adviser, and students could choose to participate or not, but those who did got volunteer credit for it. To the OP, have your kid inquire at school about opportunities like those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many oppertunities to pull invasive plants and the like. Check with the Fairfax County Parks and Rec. Maybe ask a local Cub Scout Pack or Troop or a Girl Scout Troop, they tend to volunteer for these type of thing. Look at food banks that could use help with collection and distribution of food.

+1

There are local cleanup days, both for pulling out invasive plants in parks, and for general cleanup. Get online and find those, OP. Be aware, they're only held a few times each year so check now, so you don't miss them.

It's not that big a deal to organize a simple food drive to contribute to a food bank (the student can email friends/relatives/people at their house of worship if you do that, etc. and then you drive them to collect donations folks leave for them on the front porch or whatever). Food banks are in GREAT need of donations. Food for Others is one, in the Merrifield area near Vienna, if you're in VA, but please check their website first to see what they need; it's not helpful to any food bank to donate random items, they'll tell you what the greatest need is. Food for Others also used to do "Power Packs" of specific foods that they distribute to kids through schools, and both our Girl Scout troop and our church have packed many Power Packs and taken them to Food for Others over the years. I'm sure other food banks will be glad to get food donations too.

My DD was in Girl Scouts and we are active in our church so those provided a lot of ways to do service time. Sometimes the student really does have to make the volunteering happen--it's not easy to walk in and do volunteering at established places like shelters or soup kitchens because, well, they often want people over a certain age. But students can organize good, simple volunteering like clean-up days or food collection etc. It's good for MS-age kids to do something that gets them outside their heads and reminds them there are others less fortunate than they are whom they should help when they can.

It’s easy for you to say bc your family is already involved with organizations that do service, so it would be easy to arrange volunteer opportunities for you daughter. Please understand there are families that aren’t involved and therefore don’t have the connections. Families who are struggling to make ends meet and don’t have the time on the weekends to shuttle their kids to volunteer. Or need their kids to watch younger kids. Forcing all families to volunteer is unnecessary, inequitable, and ridiculous.

Yes, our family was involved in organizations and that helped. But I did note that there are park department clean-up days (open to anyone at all). I also said that organizing a food drive is a thing almost anyone can do. WE did it via church and scouting but that does not mean ONLY groups are welcome to do this. Sorry if it came off as only organized group activities but that is not what I"m saying.

As for "shuttling kids to volunteer" please take a look at other posts here about volunteer opportunities that take place at school, in school, and after school. No extra shuttling involved.

I know one kid who organized a food drive and people dropped food at her home, which she sorted and took to a local food bank--a single trip for her parents. (and she wasn't doing it through any other group or organization.)

I doubt any of that will change your mind since you think volunteering shouldn't be part of school requirements at all, but I wanted to clarify that though our DC was involved in organizations, there are other ways for kids this age to volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every kid can pick up trash in their neighborhood for an hour x 5.

That's . . . not how it works. You need a sponsor and someone to sign off on the request.

Parent can sponsor and sign off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every kid can pick up trash in their neighborhood for an hour x 5.

That's . . . not how it works. You need a sponsor and someone to sign off on the request.

This may be specifically for NJHS, but back when it was part of civics general requirement (waived during the pandemic), anybody could sign off. So depends on what you are wanting to use the volunteering hours for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve often wondered about adults who never volunteer to give back. Who don’t help with sports, scouts, religious orgs, etc. Now I know, they believe that helping out is virtue signaling and their virtue is all caught up in themselves.

I’m sorry if you object to your children having to volunteer and can’t help direct them to resources or direct some of your free time to volunteering with them, your kid needs service learning the most. Because they’re not learning what it means to be a caring, engaged, and active member of the community from you.

And on behalf of every working, service oriented parent who gets tapped all the time to lead/help/volunteer, I guarantee you’ve enjoyed every fall festival, bingo night, sports team, and scouting event the rest of us have somehow found time to contribute to. Please stop teaching your children to freeload. It takes everyone doing their part for us all to have nice things. I’m glad school is teaching them if you are not.

You are so privileged it’s disgusting.

No, that PP is right. Sure, it's A privilege to be able to volunteer and to have time to do so. But you're tossing out "privileged" as an insult. The too-cool-for-school parents who yap about "virtue signaling" are--as that PP rightly points out--the same ones who seem to think that school events, organizations like sports teams, etc. just magically happen, and they send their kids to enjoy them without taking any roles in making them happen. Yes, there are families where genuinely the parents cannot volunteer even if they want to. But I doubt that those parents, with job and kid issues that mean they truly can't be as involved in things -- those are not the parents who are on here snottily talking about virtue signaliing and privliege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve often wondered about adults who never volunteer to give back. Who don’t help with sports, scouts, religious orgs, etc. Now I know, they believe that helping out is virtue signaling and their virtue is all caught up in themselves.

I’m sorry if you object to your children having to volunteer and can’t help direct them to resources or direct some of your free time to volunteering with them, your kid needs service learning the most. Because they’re not learning what it means to be a caring, engaged, and active member of the community from you.

And on behalf of every working, service oriented parent who gets tapped all the time to lead/help/volunteer, I guarantee you’ve enjoyed every fall festival, bingo night, sports team, and scouting event the rest of us have somehow found time to contribute to. Please stop teaching your children to freeload. It takes everyone doing their part for us all to have nice things. I’m glad school is teaching them if you are not.

You are so privileged it’s disgusting.

No, that PP is right. Sure, it's A privilege to be able to volunteer and to have time to do so. But you're tossing out "privileged" as an insult. The too-cool-for-school parents who yap about "virtue signaling" are--as that PP rightly points out--the same ones who seem to think that school events, organizations like sports teams, etc. just magically happen, and they send their kids to enjoy them without taking any roles in making them happen. Yes, there are families where genuinely the parents cannot volunteer even if they want to. But I doubt that those parents, with job and kid issues that mean they truly can't be as involved in things -- those are not the parents who are on here snottily talking about virtue signaliing and privliege.

The parents who can’t volunteer for whatever reason are usually afraid to send their kids to those events bc they know privileged parents like you and others will gossip about how they never volunteer. Ask me how I know.

[pettifogger]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.

That’s bc part of the service hours requirement is identifying a real (authentic) need. See here:

https://www.fcps.edu/activities/service-learning

Has your kid determined that there was a big gap in this and the need was genuine, that’s step one.

Mentoring/teaching younger kids is not an authentic need?

[Anonymous]

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.

That’s bc part of the service hours requirement is identifying a real (authentic) need. See here:

https://www.fcps.edu/activities/service-learning

Has your kid determined that there was a big gap in this and the need was genuine, that’s step one.

Mentoring/teaching younger kids is not an authentic need?

+1 yeah, really.

[Anonymous]

Look into

www.volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov
It does have a couple of volunteer opportunities for teenagers

https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/opp_search?urgency=Kid-Friendly%2520(%253C12%2520with%2520parent),Youth%2520(12-17)&sortByAttribute=date&sortPredicate=publishDateUtc&sortRecordType=opp&sortReverse&view=list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve often wondered about adults who never volunteer to give back. Who don’t help with sports, scouts, religious orgs, etc. Now I know, they believe that helping out is virtue signaling and their virtue is all caught up in themselves.

I’m sorry if you object to your children having to volunteer and can’t help direct them to resources or direct some of your free time to volunteering with them, your kid needs service learning the most. Because they’re not learning what it means to be a caring, engaged, and active member of the community from you.

And on behalf of every working, service oriented parent who gets tapped all the time to lead/help/volunteer, I guarantee you’ve enjoyed every fall festival, bingo night, sports team, and scouting event the rest of us have somehow found time to contribute to. Please stop teaching your children to freeload. It takes everyone doing their part for us all to have nice things. I’m glad school is teaching them if you are not.

You are so privileged it’s disgusting.

No, that PP is right. Sure, it's A privilege to be able to volunteer and to have time to do so. But you're tossing out "privileged" as an insult. The too-cool-for-school parents who yap about "virtue signaling" are--as that PP rightly points out--the same ones who seem to think that school events, organizations like sports teams, etc. just magically happen, and they send their kids to enjoy them without taking any roles in making them happen. Yes, there are families where genuinely the parents cannot volunteer even if they want to. But I doubt that those parents, with job and kid issues that mean they truly can't be as involved in things -- those are not the parents who are on here snottily talking about virtue signaliing and privliege.

The parents who can’t volunteer for whatever reason are usually afraid to send their kids to those events bc they know privileged parents like you and others will gossip about how they never volunteer. Ask me how I know.

DP: That would mean only a handful of kids attend. I think you're generalizing way too much here.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.


That’s bc part of the service hours requirement is identifying a real (authentic) need. See here:

https://www.fcps.edu/activities/service-learning

Has your kid determined that there was a big gap in this and the need was genuine, that’s step one.

Yes, there is likely a glut of free chess tutors dying to give their time to teach little kids who can't afford it, so that's probably the issue.

[Anonymous]

We just went through this last year (for civics and NJHS) and piecemealed a bunch of activities - volunteering at ES events, weeding with FFx Co Parks & Rec, working a dog adoption fair, and working with youth sports on buddy programs. All involved some parental time. Yes, it's crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every kid can pick up trash in their neighborhood for an hour x 5.

That's . . . not how it works. You need a sponsor and someone to sign off on the request.

This may be specifically for NJHS, but back when it was part of civics general requirement (waived during the pandemic), anybody could sign off. So depends on what you are wanting to use the volunteering hours for.

This was not our experience, for NJHS or Civics. You had to have a real sponsor, not a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The parents who can’t volunteer for whatever reason are usually afraid to send their kids to those events bc they know privileged parents like you and others will gossip about how they never volunteer. Ask me how I know.

Sounds like a great lesson in teaching your child not to let fear hold you back from engaging with your wider community.

But seriously, I’ve been a avid volunteer for a long time and work in a community org and I’ve never heard gossip about a child volunteering, ever. I do think their are parents out there who perhaps aren’t as hospitable to new parent volunteers as they could be, but I don’t think that’s the child’s experience. And when it comes to those less hospitable parents, I think sometimes that was my insecurity rather than their intent. (Moved to a new school in 3rd grade)