May 4, 2010
Congratulations to our friends at Youth Service America (YSA) for their very successful 22nd annual Global Youth Service Day.
Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is an annual campaign that celebrates and mobilizes the millions of children and youth who improve their communities each day of the year through service and service-learning.
From April 23-25, millions of children and youth around the world partnered with family, friends, schools, community and faith-based organizations, media, corporations, and public officials to make a positive impact locally, nationally, and globally.
This year, in the U.S. alone, more than 3,100 project were registered in all 50 states. Here are some worldwide highlights:
–In San Diego, California, thousands of youth participated in Servapalooza, addressing issues that ranged from education to poverty to climate change.
–Students from six schools in Wilmington, Delaware partnered with their teachers, Communities in Schools in Delaware, and Public Allies Delaware to create a community garden that will be maintained by students throughout the year. High school students worked alongside elementary school children to make this event successful
–Young skateboarders joined park officials and community groups to "Imagine the Park" in Anaconda, Montana. The teens offered their vision of what the ill-maintained skate park needed to be a safe and fun environment and raised awareness about this project by cleaning the park for GYSD.
–In Hungary, 20,000 young people between 14 and 25 joined 200 local volunteer projects in 180 villages and cities. In the capital city, Budapest secondary school students organized a food drive and collected 3,000 kg of food. The mayor, in the town where the food will be dispersed, accepted the donated food on behalf of his constituents.
–In South Korea, more than 6,000 people participated in over 190 projects across the country over a two week period.
Did you participate in GYSD? Do you have great photos or videos? Add your media to the GYSD Flickr and YouTube groups. To learn more, visit www.GYSD.org/share.
YSA and GYSD provide a variety of helpful tips and resources for planning service events and service-learning projects that engage youth, including Semester of Service. In cooperation with the Corporation for National and Community Service, this semester long service-learning project launches on Martin Luther King Day in January and culminates on Global Youth Service Day in April. The Semester of Service links each program’s existing partnerships, and creates leaps in the number of children and youth engaged in service.
As part of the GYSD, Youth Service America also bestowed their 2010 Harris Wofford Awards. Following Senator Wofford’s goal of "making service and service-learning the common expectation and the common experience of every young person on America," the awards recognize extraordinary achievements in five categories. The 2010 recipients are:
– Grace Li, co-founder We Care Act (youth)
– People to People International (organization)
– The Huffington Post (media)
– Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville, Tennessee (Elected Officials)
– Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa, Arizona (Elected Officials)