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Team Community Service Projects


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I am a second year head coach and I am trying to get our players more involved in our community.We do not have a great history at Edinburgh (most know this), but our fans have always be in the stand supporting us no matter what.  We did a cemetery clean up last year and I am wanting to get more ideas. My goal is to take 1 Saturday a month for June through October to do an community service project. I would like to know what are some of your guys ideas are.

 

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At Lakeland  we have an indoor car wash in November to collect toys for our local Christmas Bureau.  We also split the team up the first Saturday of Two-a-Days to do community service projects in the community (yard work ,clean gutters, cut brush), We have also volunteered for Habitat, bagged groceries at the local market, then donated proceeds to local charities, volunteered at the local food pantry, held coat and canned food drives, worked Relay for Life, etc....

The problem is the number of wins and the number of community service projects have an inverse relationship.  We had more wins when players were given community service by a judge!

Edited by LAKER54
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2 hours ago, Coach DeSpain said:

I am a second year head coach and I am trying to get our players more involved in our community.We do not have a great history at Edinburgh (most know this), but our fans have always be in the stand supporting us no matter what.  We did a cemetery clean up last year and I am wanting to get more ideas. My goal is to take 1 Saturday a month for June through October to do an community service project. I would like to know what are some of your guys ideas are.

 

I do not know the make up of your community, but maybe something like this.....

Your team takes a Saturday or Sunday morning and makes breakfast for the community.

Pancakes, sausage/bacon, milk/juice, etc.  Possibly get these donated from parents and have a can out for good will donations for the program.

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In my short tenure, I was able to line up six outreach opportunities for our team.  It helps when your assistant coaches are connected to the community.  Get in contact with your local government agencies.  The parks and rec department gave us two jobs, the street department gave us one, we partnered with our unified teams, we worked with local churches to do repairs and maintenance, and some of our athletes went to retirement communities and played board games with them.  Other opportunities that fell through were helping with the VFW, painting fire hydrants, and helping tear down eyesores.

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52 minutes ago, Foga said:

In my short tenure, I was able to line up six outreach opportunities for our team.  It helps when your assistant coaches are connected to the community.  Get in contact with your local government agencies.  The parks and rec department gave us two jobs, the street department gave us one, we partnered with our unified teams, we worked with local churches to do repairs and maintenance, and some of our athletes went to retirement communities and played board games with them.  Other opportunities that fell through were helping with the VFW, painting fire hydrants, and helping tear down eyesores.

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At Garrett we use our inter-squad scrimmage at the end of the first week of August that most have as a way to raise non-perishable items for a food pantry in town. Instead of people paying to get in, the cost of admission is some sort of non-perishable good. Our seniors then deliver them to the food pantry and help out with any sort of reorganization they need. It is generally a huge success. We also help out with several other service projects that pop up here and there (landscaping, clean-up, etc.) 

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We adopted the stretch of main roadway that leads into our town.  Michigan Highway Sign lets everyone know that our Football team cleans that stretch of roadway.  

We cleaned all the weeds and small trees that were growing under our stadium bleachers, weeded and edged the landscaping around our school, etc.  

Didn't take long to do, trying to get the kids to develop some pride in where they are from. 

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I've seen/read where players from the football program help clean up the bleachers/seats after other sporting/school events.  I love seeing that because it gives them a better sense of all the contributions that are made for them to play when they take the field themselves.  

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While this is for baseball, my boys play travel ball in the Harrison program, I was pleased to see that they've done community service activities. 

One of my boys' teams volunteered their time at the local food pantry stocking and prepping distribution bags.  Another one met and had lunch as a team and then went shopping at Christmas for a local kid that the team "adopted" for Christmas.  Both boys' teams also participated in an event where they laid wreaths on the graves of the veterans at Indiana Veterans' Home Cemetery.

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22 hours ago, Wedgebuster said:

We adopted the stretch of main roadway that leads into our town.  Michigan Highway Sign lets everyone know that our Football team cleans that stretch of roadway.  

We cleaned all the weeds and small trees that were growing under our stadium bleachers, weeded and edged the landscaping around our school, etc.  

Didn't take long to do, trying to get the kids to develop some pride in where they are from. 

 

20 hours ago, XStar said:

I've seen/read where players from the football program help clean up the bleachers/seats after other sporting/school events.  I love seeing that because it gives them a better sense of all the contributions that are made for them to play when they take the field themselves.  

There's a little "reliving the event" from the other side that impacts many kids that do activities like this.  That juxtaposition is good for realizing that A LOT goes in to making Friday Night happen.

One of the things that I remember when my boys' teams went to lay wreaths is that they just didn't lay wreaths and leave.  Part of the process was to say the person's name out loud and perhaps thank them for their service.  For my boys, they also kept the tags that were on the wreaths and also took a picture of each tombstone as a reminder.  For my boys, the event resonated with them more so as they thought about what they were doing in more than just doing the laying of the wreaths.  It also brought about dialogue about the various military conflicts and wars and where our family's members fit in to that as their grandfathers on each side both served ... my dad in the Air Force and my wife's father in the Navy.

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While we do some team community service projects, similar to the ones listed above, one of my favorite things we do is require a certain number of community service hours before the season starts.  

Over the summer, the boys are expected to find their own ways to help their community and attain the hours on a sign-off sheet.  Opportunities can be as simple as volunteering at our own youth/middle school camp or as in depth as volunteering their time at an assisted living facility or homeless shelter.  The results have been great and our kids love doing it!  I highly recommend it to any team.

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