Service projects are a great way for adults and families to give back to the community. We can help you arrange a project that is perfect for you to do alone, with a friend or with your children. The following is a list of projects that are fun and easy for adults and families.

Animals

• Volunteer your time and love to help care animals in local shelters.
• Dog toys — We provide simple instructions so you can make toys for dogs and donate them to the SPCA or another animal shelter in your area. These toys are easy to make and they are fun.
  • Fleece Dog Toys
  • Rope Dog Toys
• Cat Toys — We provide instructions for toys with cat nip inside (requires sewing).
• Pet Therapy Dogs — Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities have residents who will be delighted to see your pet! Many facilities have short training sessions for you and your pet to get you started.

Baby Shower

Teen mothers and Grandmothers are raising children in every community. Place a crib or pack–n–play in the lobby of your church, synagogue or school. Ask participants to donate new baby gear and watch the crib fill up with everything from diapers to baby clothes! We can help you find a place to donate the wonderful items you collect.

Birthday Parties

Your Mitzvah Circle Birthday Party — a party that makes a difference. We provide a birthday kit that you can share with your guests. You host a party and donate gifts to Mitzvah Circle Foundation. We send these gifts directly to people with serious illness or living in poverty. You will be surprised how much joy this brings to both the donors and the recipients.

Blanket Making

No sew fleece blankets are an easy relaxing activity that can benefit a wide variety of recipients. We provide the instructions. We can also suggest where these wonderful warm blankets are needed. Save the scraps and we can tell you how a school for the blind used all of our extra pieces of fleece!

Board Game Collection

We have been collecting gently used board games for ten years! Children in after school day care programs at community centers are delighted to play board games after school. Many children, especially those in inner cities, no longer play board games. This is an unfortunate finding, as board games teach children about following rules, being fair, and learning about conflict resolution.

Books

Collect gently used or new books in your school or neighborhood. Many children’s hospitals, schools and after school programs are in need of these items and welcome your contribution.

Cemetery Beautification

Is there a cemetery in your neighborhood that looks neglected? Most synagogues and churches have cemeteries that could use a little extra care. Cemetery clean up at holidays, or the placement of flags for Memorial Day can be a meaningful experience.

Cooking

Cooking is a wonderful intergenerational, community building activity. There are many simple but delicious meals that can be prepared when cooking with a group or alone. Meals can be delivered immediately or frozen to be donated at a later date. Families in need, Food Banks and shelters will be delighted to sample your delicious cooking.

Craft Projects

There are dozens of craft projects that can warm the hearts of young and old alike. If you are someone who likes to crochet or knit, gloves, scarves and afghans are always needed by our youngest babies and the most vulnerable senior citizens. Tzedakah Boxes, pot holders, refrigerator magnets, picture frames and door decorations, are just a few of the projects that can be distributed and enjoyed by a wide variety of recipients.

DVD Collection

Many hospitals and Neighborhood Centers have DVD players for the purpose of entertaining and education. However, most are very limited in their selection. Many people right in our own back yard have DVDs that they no longer watch or that their children have outgrown. Collect some DVDs and donate them! This is an easy way to brighten someone’s day!

Homeless

There are so many items that can be created and collected for homeless shelters. Did you know that homeless shelters are in need of warm socks all winter long? What would happen if every person we know provided five pairs of warm socks to an area shelter? There would be many fewer homeless people freezing on our streets this winter.

• Hats & Gloves are needed! (See winter glove collection.)
• No Sew Fleece Blankets (Please see Blanket Making.)

Home Repairs

There are so many small ways that make a big difference in the lives of older people. Changing light bulbs, installing grab bars in bathrooms, shoveling snow and other small home repairs are great projects for Boy Scouts and other groups.

Jared Boxes

We have created hundreds of Jared Boxes for chronically ill children. A Jared Box is a plastic shoe box which contains hand held toys, games and craft supplies for children receiving chemotherapy or other medical treatments. This individualized box stays at the hospital so that each child has something special to play with during this difficult time. Collecting the items for Jared Boxes is easy and rewarding!

Knitting Projects

Knitting and crocheting are wonderful hobbies enjoyed by young and old alike. At Mitzvah Circle our yarn-crafters are a multigenerational group who live in different cities and take on many different projects.

Hats 4 Homeless is just one of our knitting projects where volunteers create hats, gloves and mittens for recipients who live in shelters or on the streets in cities across our country. We also encourage knitting and crocheting for babies and young children in our Knit 4 Kids program so that all babies and young children can have a new clean hat or a blanket to keep them warm. There are kids in communities, schools and daycare centers who are in desperate need of these items.

Leading Religious Services in Assisted Living & Nursing Home Communities

When older folks can not get out it is such a blessing when the world can come to them! Lead a religious service or celebrate a holiday at an area nursing home. You will bring great happiness to the residents and add meaning to their lives.

Lids for Kids

Collect new hats at your school, synagogue, church or in your neighborhood. These can be donated to local pediatric cancer centers for kids with cancer.

Planting

If you have a green thumb and enjoy gardening your skills are needed! Nursing homes, assisted living residences, synagogues, churches and schools all can benefit from a beautification project. Flowers and plants can make the world look brighter!

Projects Related to Nature

There are wonderful projects related to conservation and preservation. The EPA has a program where individuals and groups can adopt a watershed along side local community based projects that work to clean up local streams and monitor the water.

Recycling

You may also want to increase the recycling system in your school, church, or synagogue.

Ronald McDonald House

Ronald McDonald Houses provide support to families with seriously ill children. Your group can help in many ways, from volunteering your time to collecting necessary supplies for residents.

Ronald McDonald Family Rooms

Ronald McDonald family rooms are usually found in pediatric floors of major medical centers or at children’s hospitals. These rooms provide a brightly colored, innovative, respite center for parents. Your group can cook a meal and come to a Family Room and serve dinner to parents. Our bagged breakfasts, lunches and snack bags are a tremendous help for families. It is costly to have to eat out three meals every day when you have a chronically ill child receiving medical treatment. A bagged meal can be taken to any procedure and eaten on the run.

Visit seniors in Nursing Facilities

Bring light into the lives of older people who may not get many visitors as you visit area nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Winter Hat and Glove Collection

There are outreach workers who distribute hats and gloves in the winter months to homeless people living on the streets. Every winter Mitzvah Circle Foundation collects hundreds of pairs of gloves and warm hats and delivers them to outreach workers and homeless shelters. A pair of gloves on a winter’s night can change a life.

Words of Hope

Create a scrap book for chronically ill children filled with drawings and words of encouragement. You can make this yourself, with a friend or even a small group or class. This is certain to lift the spirits of children and their families.

Yard Work

Mowing lawns, cleaning up branches, weeding and planting flowers are all wonderful projects that can be extremely satisfying. Elderly and homebound individuals will be delighted to see the improvement in their yard after your group has completed their work!

Volunteer!