Community Service

I think a good idea is for SkillsUSA Chapter members to take a field trip for a half a day to a nursing home to visit and cheer up the residents. I do volunteer work at Westmoreland Manor and it is just a wonderful experience to go and talk to the residents.

Amanda Murdock, student
Hempfield Area High School
Greensburg, Pa.

 

Ways and Means

Our fundraiser also doubles as a community service project to support our medical community. Last year while brainstorming with parents for service ideas, one mother who works at our local hospital suggested delivering brown bag lunches to medical staff. These individuals are too busy to go out and get a good lunch. It has become a bi-weekly fundraiser where our school staff alternates orders with our many medical offices. Every Wednesday at 6:30 a.m., SkillsUSA members meet with me to assemble the lunch orders, which are then delivered to each medical office This helped get seven students to the 2006 national conference last June. We fax order sheets to the medical offices in advance. We charge $6 for a six-inch ham or turkey hoagie, a small bag of chips and a soda and quite a few people give extra donations. Our average sales are 60 lunches a week with a  profit of about $230 a week. We also find out about upcoming local functions and ask to run a concession stand to sell pizza. We get pizzas for $7 each, sell the pizza for $1.50 a slice and the profit is $5 per pizza. We have done similar things by purchasing bulk snacks to sell at school games and community events. This is easy profit without a huge time investment.

Janis Baird, Advisor
Easton High School, Md.

At my school we are having our auto technology program sell any spare engines and scrap parts. This money is then deposited into our SkillsUSA account.

Billy Baird, student
Live Oaks Career Development Campus
Milford, Ohio