For kids, community service may become a lifelong habit

Kids in the Mounds View School District start performing community service early — it's built right into their curriculum.

Elementary and middle-school students perform concerts for seniors, conduct recycling projects, make fleece blankets to donate, hold fundraisers for various causes, collect canned goods, deliver Meals on Wheels, build houses with Habitat for Humanity, train dogs in a Humane Society shelter. Middle schoolers have established a state forest and designed a rain garden on school grounds. Mounds View students of all ages work in organic gardens at schools throughout the district, growing produce for a district-run public food shelf. High school students who put in 150 extracurricular hours of service in a year earn varsity letters like those traditionally awarded to athletes.

School officials believe that kids who start young will develop a lifelong habit.

"We want students to know that service is something everybody benefits from — including them," said Greg Herder, the district's service learning coordinator. "It's not something that happens with 'those people over there,' or just writing a check."

When kids perform volunteer work, it's at least a win-win situation, and maybe even a few more wins beyond that. Organizations that enlist help from young people gain not just extra pairs of hands but also extra sets of eyes with fresh perspectives.

"They have so much to contribute, they have so many great ideas, they have such a huge amount of energy," said Kristin Schurrer, executive director of HandsOn Twin Cities, a nonprofit that promotes volunteerism in the metro area. "They can come into an organization and look at how things are done and see 5,000 ways it could be done differently."

Experience with community service looks good on college and employment applications. But young volunteers often gain less tangible benefits, such as leadership skills, self-confidence, empathy, knowledge of their communities, a sense of accomplishment. They even have fun.

Studies show that people who start volunteering as kids are more likely to maintain the habit as adults.

"Volunteers get more out of it than they usually give," Schurrer said. "They feel good about themselves and the work they do, and that's something they'll come back to."

Although there's no shortage of need, kids who want to volunteer sometimes have trouble finding places to pitch in, Schurrer said. Not all nonprofit organizations accept help from young people. Some haven't figured out how to deploy their energy and insights, or worry about liability or supervision issues.

"[Nonprofits] really do need to start thinking outside the box and say, 'How do I use this untapped resource?'" Schurrer said. "I hate it when I hear a story about a youth calling an organization and they say, 'You have to be 18' or 'You have to be 21 to work for us.' It's one of my biggest pet peeves."

Online volunteering databases such as HandsOn Twin Cities and Caring Connection can tailor searches by age group (see page 12) and provide lists of opportunities specifically open to young people.

Other common opportunities include working with seniors, serving meals in shelters and sorting food at food shelves, Smith said.

Another path to volunteering is through service organizations designed specifically for young people, such as Students Today Leaders Forever, established in 2003 by four University of Minnesota freshmen. The organization holds Pay It Forward Tours: groups of middle school, high school or college students travel by bus from city to city. At each stop, the groups perform service projects, ranging from visiting nursing homes to pulling garbage from a polluted river.

With chapters on college campuses in 13 states, Students Today Leaders forever conducts about 100 tours a year involving thousands of kids - some 23,000 since the organization formed.

"We pull them out of their normal environment and get them to start thinking about things differently," said Nick Wiebusch, director of Human Resources and Training.

Each evening on the tours, students discuss that day's activity, "how it made them feel and why they thought it was important," he said. "We hope when they get home they'll find something to get passionate about."

Each team has an adult adviser, but the kids lead the way — writing proposals, making phone calls, planning fundraisers. Last year, for example, a team met with an environmental organization, planted trees along the Mississippi River, sold reusable water bottles printed with an environmental message and donated the proceeds to the environmental organization.

"They learn just as much about project management as they do about the issue at hand," said Director Nou Yang.

By the end of the year, the students report improved confidence in their ability to serve the community. Some of participants return the following year to serve as mentors.

"I think our program is really helping young people think differently about who they are — they're not just passive recipients of services but can really be agents of change," Yang said. "That gives me hope for our future."

Katy Read • 612-673-4583