Mid-Week Activities centered around...
Good Works
 

" A pattern for living" - Barbara Adams shares a fun handout to go along with an Adopt-A-Grandparent activity.

Service Scavenger Hunt

 Temple Cookies by Alison Dursteler
 

Chicken Bowl - Everyone brings canned items for donations.  Fill 2 liter bottles with water for bowling (ten of them for each lane).  Tape off lanes in the cultural hall.  Use frozen chickens for bowling balls.  Have fun bowling.  This sounds weird, and the leaders had their doubts about it, but the girls thought it was one of their most funny activities!

Love Quilt - Each Mia Maid and Laurel were assigned to assist an elderly couple in the ward for a year and each Beehive was asked to be of special assistance to her family or a relative.  Each time a girl performed an act of service she marked it on a chart circulated on Sunday.  For each mark, a 3” square of fabric was cut to represent that act of service.  Throughout the year you are in the process of creating a beautiful service quilt.  It will be rewarding to see the quilt grow as the girls continually see to the needs of the families to which they are assigned.

Care Packages - The last two weeks before school is out or during finals is often a stressful time for the young women.  They have difficulty attending activities because they are trying to get all their assignments turned in.  The leaders decided to instruct the young women to be in their homes at 7:00 on Mutual night to receive a surprise.  The surprise is a brown paper sack filled with things to aid them in their studying.  Attach a poem to each sack and enclose things like “No Doz” tablets which are M&M’s in a prescription bottle, a pencil, an apple with a gummy worm stuck in the top with a toothpick, a sucker, chips, etc.

Service Scavenger Hunt - Teams can visit member homes and receive points for doing acts of service (cleaning, washing a car, reading a book to small child, changing a diaper, etc.)  A prize can be awarded to the team with the most points.

Canned Food Scavenger Hunt - Teams could gather food and paper items for a local shelter or Ronald McDonald House.  The team with the most items could receive a reward/certificate.  Everyone could meet afterwards for ice cream sundaes.  The key to successful service projects is being very organized and bringing the youth together at the end of the activity to talk about what they did, how they felt, and the purpose of service.

Car Wash - Free for all members of the ward who have so graciously supported youth activities in the past.

Secret Grandmothers - The young women choose a secret grandmother.  They take her something they have made at least once a week without her knowing who they are.  After a month, a dinner is held for the girls and their secret grandmothers to meet.

Christmas Remembrances for the Elderly - On a regular fireside Sunday (before December) divide the YM/YW into groups of 5 or 6 and give each group a tape recorder and the names of 1 or 2 elderly people in the ward.  They will need to go visit with those assigned to them and ask about the Christmas they remember best or their most special Christmas.  Prepare questions ahead of time so they can help stimulate their memories about the stories and get details.  The recorded stories are then typed and put into a book.  The following month (December) the youth host a nice dinner for the people that they were visiting and present them with a copy of the book of memories.  The dinner gives the youth a chance to sit and visit and get better acquainted with some of the older members of the ward.  The youth may also share some of their talents with them at the end of the evening.

Our girls made placemats for snack time. They took paper placemats and colored them, cut out pictures from the Friend magazine, stickers, etc. Then they were laminated for the Nursery children to use. (Idea by Pyper Dow)

Stuff envelopes for a charity organization or a nonprofit group.

Baptism Binders - Have youth make them as a service activity for Primary

Our beehives are going to make survival kits for the Laurels/Mia Maids during finals week. (Daphne Brimhall)
 

Welcome to the Neighborhood Kits - Have the girls come up with things a new neighbor might be in need of.  Have them look up addresses and phone numbers of important local businesses or places.  Have them decide what to include in kit (manila envelope).  (For example: ward directory, community calendar, helpful websites, etc.)  You could take the packets to the new neighbors yourselves or you could make a whole bunch and give them to your ward missionaries to pass out when the need arises.

Volunteer to help clean pens and walk the pets at the local animal shelter.  You could have the girls make up a flier inviting ward members to donate dog/cat food for the activity.

Wash Windshields at the Temple - Wash the windshields of cars parked at the temple. After we washed them, put a note under their wiper that says: "Because of your faithfulness in serving today at the temple you will see your way "home" more clearly. Thanks for serving so lovingly." (Adapted from Becky's Sonshine)

Mission Possible - Give the girls an envelope at the containing their "secret identity", a badge, and an assignment sheet. We are going to record a tape - mission impossible style - of what they are to do -  "should you choose to accept this assignment..."  Their assignment is to do as many acts of service as they can before Sunday (or next activity) without being seen. At that time, they will get to "crow" to us about what they did, and receive a wooden purple heart for their service. (Idea by Melanie Litton)

Our girls like making baby hats w/ a knitting loom. Our Young Women have also made scent "dolls" for babies in ICU. They're little flannel dolls that the mothers sleep w/ then put them w/ their babies in the hospital so they're familiar w/ their mother's scent. Seems different, I know, but the nurses here find them very helpful. (Idea by Yvonne)

Bread for Sacrament - Make bread together and give that bread to the ward for the Sacrament on Sunday. They learned a skill, and also talked about the Sacrament and why we have it, and what it means.  It went over really well, and they loved knowing they helped with the Sacrament.

Baby Quilt Activity

Have a letter-writing night when everyone pens a few encouraging words to the missionaries, Congressman, Mayor, Bishop, Parent. or military service person.

Talk to city authorities to have them help you set up a time when you can paint over the graffiti in your area.

Food for the Hungry - each August our youth get together and do a huge food drive for the Council of the Churches. The ward list is divided up between the youth. They called the members to let them know we were coming by Wed. evening to pick up any non-perishable foods, water, diapers, etc. to donate. This has always been a huge success. Each group
tries to collect as much as they can. We gave prizes to the group with the most. And they all had popsicles when they returned.  We even got our picture in the paper this year!  (Credit Unknown)

Clean the Young Women Room - Detail clean the Young Women room including all the chairs and piano.

Feed the Homeless

Have a family history night where you learn how to do genealogy, extract records, etc.

Find out what your local shelters need and make items for them—things like hygiene kits, toys, and quilts.

Mow lawn - Teach the girls how to operate a lawn mower, check for gas and oil and general safety issues.  As a group, go and mow the lawn of someone who is elderly, sick, new mom, etc.  Or, challenge each girl to go home and mow their lawn with their parents permission.

Baby-sitting for Christmas shopping - this was put together as a Laurel project. The girls sent a sign-up sheet around for any interested parents who would like to leave their kids with all the young women at the church. I think we chose the hours of 9:00-1:00 on a Saturday in December. The girls planned activities for the whole time. They put the kids in groups and did crafts, a story, music, games, decorated cookies, etc. The kids each brought a sack lunch and we had them eat on blankets in the cultural hall. Each laurel was in charge of a section and the other young women helped out. We had over 50 kids come and the girls kept very, very busy!  This could be done any time of year to give mom and dad a break and allow them to go on a date, or for single parents to have some free time to themselves.

Visual Aids for Primary - this was done as a class project. The girls made flannel boards, colored story pictures and laminated them. This was to help out the sunbeam class so they would have them whenever they needed them. This could also be done for nursery or other junior primary classes.

Frozen Foods - Decide on a main dish that would be quick and easy to make.  Have the girls make the dish together.  Let dish cool before dividing food equally into several gallon Ziploc baggies.  While it is cooling, have the girls make cards for shut-ins, new moms, or whomever could use a few freezer meals.  Once cooled, have them deliver the food and cards to the recipients.

Local Library - Ask to go on a tour.  After the tour, offer to repair books, check in books, put on carts, etc.  Or simply ask the library what your girls could do to help.

Tie a baby quilt - Donate it together at a local shelter or hospital.

A Time to Appreciate - Have the girls make thank you notes for their school and/or church teachers.  Print out a copy of this poem, "Teacher Seeds"  for each girl.  Glue poem inside card. You could also give the card along with a packet of wild flower seeds (as suggested by author of Teacher Seeds).

Friendship Beads for Girls

Call up your Primary Chorister and see if there are any props that your girls could color for her.  I'm sure she would really appreciate it!!

Clean your ward house together.

Our YCL Assistant's husband is a dentist and he donates a lot of his time to giving free service to the underprivileged children. He is one of many dentists in our city who do this. He asked us to make him some tooth fairy pillows to send home with children who had to have teeth pulled. We made over 200 pillows for him and many other dentists to use. Maybe there is an organization in your city that would need something like this. You could call the hospital and they may have something that would be nice for them to give to the children when they are in the hospital.  (Idea by Nan VanderDoes)

Face Lift - Give each girl a garbage sack and have them pair up into two's or three's.  Decide on a location (your neighborhood, local park, their school ground, etc.) and a time limit and see who can pick up the most garbage. 

Learning about the Blind - We had a blind woman come in with her dog.  She also brought a Braille writer. She wrote each girl's name in Braille. She had a Braille children's book which she read to us.

Invade the bishop’s house and do all sorts of wonderful things for him like cooking, cleaning, yard work, and anything else you can think of. Don’t forget to let his wife know you’re coming.

Nursery Cleaning - Offer to wash and disinfect the nursery toys.  Repair toys that need it.  Wipe them down as well as shelving and tables.  Your nursery leaders will LOVE you!!

"ME" - We have encouraged our girls to give service for one month. Something each day. Have the  girls paint and decorate wooden cutouts of the letters M and a E (found at craft stores) and give them this poem (Credit: Becky's Sonshine)

Sand Art Cookie Mixes - The "sand art" cookie mixes are a lot of fun for the girls to put together. You'll need Quart size canning jars with lids. (I suggest one jar per girl) Then you just pick your favorite cookie recipe and layer all the dry ingredients in the canning jar. Then have a small piece of fabric to cover the lid (just to make it look nice, you put the piece of fabric over the "sealing" lid and then screw on the other lid so it will stay on.) Then make sure you attach a small card that lists all the other ingredients (eggs, vanilla, butter, etc) and the remaining recipe, time and temperature to cook. You can either type these up and print them on the computer or if you want a more personal gift, you can have the girls copy this onto the card. On one side of the card it reads "Welcome to our ward - Love, The Young Women" or "We're thinking of you - Love the Young Women" since we don't have enough new members in our ward for each of the girls to give a jar to we picked a few of the members who might need some encouragement or a smile to cheer them up. Then on the second side of the card the remaining recipe is included.  At the activity we will assign each girl a family or individual and let them create the whole jar themselves, from filling and layering the jar to picking the piece of fabric and making and attaching the cards. Then we will take them to deliver the jars. (Idea Kristine Davis) (Here are some websites with more information on these mixes: Website 1, Website 2, Website 3)

Birthday service project - One of the Sister Missionaries from our ward had a birthday last week. We got together and made cookies, birthday cards, wrote little notes about favorite Book of Mormon stories and/or testimonies that could be put in Book of Mormon's the missionaries are giving out, and we put together stuff for a Birthday Party! We included some money for a purchased cake (like a frozen one at the grocery store), Barbie Princess B-day party crowns, napkins, paper plates, cups, matches and candles, 2 invitations -- on to the B-day missionary and 1 to her companion "where" was their apartment, "When" her birthday, etc. We added a couple of little things you would put in a bag to send home -- Barbie bracelets and sparkly pens (these were all things left over from a b-day party we had previously.  It was especially nice, because a lot of it is the same as her little sister had for HER birthday this year, and the missionary wasn't there for that -- so got to enjoy it in a little different way, 2 months later!!)  I also added 2 cans of Silly String. It ends up that her companion's birthday was 3 days before hers!  We got to look at her picture hanging in the church hall, so everyone would know who they were being of service to. We ate the cookies as our treat, and sent a plate to Bishopric Meeting that night. (They were thrilled to get it!) I explained service benefits many -- how a fun little act -- making cookies -- could be of such service to so many people. They were concentrating on how they were making them for this Sister Missionary, but weren't even thinking how it was of benefit to them (they were eating cookies at that same time,) we included some little sisters in our treat time -- the were of service to them, they were of service to the Missionary, and helping her enjoy her birthday and feel good things from home, and we were of service to the Bishopric! They were amazed at how much service they really had been, but having so much fun!! (Idea by Perry Benjamin)

Cook a dinner for Young Women Presidency and their husbands - The girls come early to prepare the meal and serve.  Have the girls write questions they would like to ask each other, to get to know their leaders. 
 

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