Here are some creative volunteer projects great for your scouting group and family members. Volunteering can be an activity that has one of the biggest impacts on Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts! We hope your group finds an activity that will be meaningful for them.
Help the Homeless/Hungry
- Conduct a canned food drive
- Collect clothing/hygiene supplies/toys/paper products/blankets to give to a shelter
- Help cook casseroles with family members to be served at shelters
- Inspect and sort canned food in a local food pantry
- Make sandwiches and bag lunches for homeless children or a shelter
- Decorate bag lunches
- Organize snacks for walkers during fundraising events
- Make welcome baskets for new Habitat for Humanity homeowners
- Grow a vegetable garden and donate some of the food to a shelter
- Glean fresh produce for food pantries
- Collect clothing for goodwill
- Conduct toiletry, mitten, or book drives
- Collect art and school supplies for homeless children
- Sponsor a birthday party for a homeless child
- Have your friends bring canned food for your birthday party that you can donate to a homeless shelter
- Have a lemonade stand or bake sale and give money to a shelter
- Research homeless issues with your family and help your friends and neighbors understand the problem as it relates to your community
- Draw pictures and write stories about homelessness in your area and help people learn more
- Participate in a Walk or Run and gather pledges to raise funds for food banks and pantries who are feeding the hungry
- Go with other family members to collect donations and deliver them to shelters
- Make fleece tie blankets
- Adopt a family – give gifts anonymously or holiday gifts, have a friendship with them, have barbecues together
- Work, plant, water, weed and/or harvest in a community garden
Find an Opportunity
Assist Children
- Make pillows, cards, games, or stuffed toys for children who are sick in the hospital
- Make booboo bunnies for children to receive at a clinic
- Collect items to make baby bags for poor mothers who recently had a baby – may contain diapers, baby bottles, pacifiers, burp rags, formula, baby food, etc.
- Hold a drive to collect sunscreen/flip flops/healthy snacks/school supplies for children
- Hold clothing drives and donate clothes to those in need
- Re-paint or rebuild playground equipment
- Have a birthday supply drive to give a child in need the party supplies necessary for a birthday party
- Make, buy, or donate toys for children in orphanages or shelters
- Sort through clothing, toys or books others have donated for children in need
- Play basketball or other sports with children in need
- Donate your hair for children with cancer or other medical conditions
- Put together a baby layette for new moms
- Make a first day of school package with school supplies
- Conduct a fundraiser to help send a child to summer camp
- Make care packages (i.e. sunscreen, stationery) for children at camp
- Write letters to or for sick children
- Organize a teddy bear drive
- Draw pictures for Save the Children
- Donate and sort books, clothes and party supplies for disadvantaged children
- Select and wrap gifts for the holidays
Find an Opportunity
Befriend the Elderly
- Have a talent show or musical program for residents at a nursing home
- Make emergency storm packs for elderly in times of need
- Organize a Bingo evening or game night
- Perform seasonal yard work including weeding, mowing lawns, raking leaves, and shoveling snow for nursing homes
- Have puppet shows
- Plant flowers
- Make decorations for rooms – could make flowers out of tissue paper or construction paper to brighten up a room or attach to wheelchairs or beds
- Clip coupons for seniors – often they are on a tight budget
- Listen to stories and memories about his/her life
- Label pictures to preserve memories of people and places (using acid-free materials)
- Make cards or write letters for a special older friend
- Play board games with nursing home residents
- Perform a play for residents
- Read a book or the newspaper
- Make lap blankets
Find an Opportunity
Care for Sick or Disabled People
- Help with setup and decorations and/or cleanup of a party
- Put on a special party with a holiday, birthday or other fun theme
- Have a special story time or reading hour
- Tell funny stories
- Walk or Run to educate and raise money for cancer research (or another important disease)
- Help with painting projects and/or horticulture
- Grant “wishes” for children who are sick
- Make food for families with relatives in the hospital
- Put on a concert for people with disabilities
Find an Opportunity
Respond to the Environment Find
- Help clean up shore around lakes, beaches/coasts, river
- Clean up litter on the street or in a park
- Weed in a cemetery or park
- Use more energy-efficient light bulbs
- Work on a community garden or farm
- Clear trails
- Start a compost pile
- Participate in a city cleanup in your local area
- Research about specific environmental issues and present for others in a creative, fun, and educational way
- Recycle!
- Fix a leaky faucet for yourself or a friend
- Learn about energy conservation and make daily changes at home
- Plant trees and other native species to preserve natural habitats
- Plant flowers and trees in your yard or (with permission) in other public areas
- Come up with creative craft projects out of re-used materials to combine with other volunteer opportunities (ex. helping children, the elderly, or people with disabilities)
- Make sets for dramatic productions out of cardboard boxes and other re-used items
Find an Opportunity
Take Care of Animals
- Help with a yard sale, bake sale, or lemonade stand and donate the money you earn to an animal organization
- Make items, such as magnets, scarves, or other special animal artwork that you can sell, and donate the proceeds to animals in need
- Protect habitats for endangered animals (see also list of suggestions for helping the environment)
- Have a dog or cat food drive
- Make a birdbath or birdhouse
- Walk or run to raise money for animals
- Sponsor a party or festival where friends and the community can learn about animals in need, have fun, and donate money to help them out
- Adopt an endangered species
- Research and teach others about a local shelter, its needs, and ways people can help
Find an Opportunity
International/Culture
- Gather supplies to make and send school kits to children in Iraq
- Sponsor a child living abroad
- Send a child to school in Tanzania
- Write to a pen pal overseas
Contact your local organizations to find specific, local opportunities for you! Please feel free to login here
Do you have another idea for your Girl or Boy Scout Troop? Share it with others! Send an email here.
Have you had a great (or perhaps not so good!) volunteering experience with your Girl or Boy Scout Troop and/or family that you would like to share? Maybe a funny story or a really special experience we can all learn from? Tell us about it here.
If you’re looking for even more ideas, visit our ideas for more ideas!
Are you finding some great ideas, but have been unable to carry them out? Our Fequently Asked Questions may help.
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