Every Service Project Is a Good Turn for America Project

In the past 16 months, Scouts recorded more than a million service hours in community projects on the site. Good Turn for America gives Scouts an opportunity to raise awareness of community service and increase visibility in local neighborhoods.

In the past 16 months, Scouts worked with local organizations to ...

Collect, distribute, or serve almost 5 million food items.
Plant approximately 50,000 trees.
Conduct more than 5,600 disaster relief projects, including the creation of disaster preparedness kits and participating in hurricane, tornado, and severe storm cleanup projects.

Encourage your district's units to enter the service project information into the data collection area of the Good Turn for America Web site.

WEB Need help entering your data? View a short PowerPoint presentation walking you through the steps at www.goodturnforamerica.org.

Project Suggestions

Are units in your council seeking ideas for Good Turn for America projects? Suggest these at your next roundtable meeting.

Food

Deliver meals to shut-ins.
Volunteer at a food bank.
Participate in a Scouting for Food drive.
Help serve food at a shelter.
Offer to bring in goodies and entertain residents at a senior citizens center.

Shelter

Adopt a military family. Offer to shovel snow, cut grass, paint, and make small repairs.
Help with a house build or repair.
Organize a blanket, fan, or book drive.
See what a local animal shelter may need.
Ask your city about curb painting.
Collect toiletries for a shelter or for servicemen and women.

Healthy Living

Adopt a grandparent, neighbor, or family that needs a little help.
Hold a bike safety rodeo.
Help with a local blood drive.
Organize a CPR class.
Help with a child-identification fingerprinting drive.
Check with the city about painting fire hydrants.
Distribute pocket flags.
Organize a 5K walk/run.

Tips for Planning a Service Project

Begin planning the project by discussing various service ideas with Scouts, adult leaders, and your chartered organization. Local government offices are also good sources for communitywide projects. Projects are more meaningful and fun if well planned.
In taking the project from concept to reality, ask questions about the project's purpose. What resources might be available to assist in its completion? Are there other community groups that can join Scouts in completing the projects? How long will it take to complete the task? Are there any safety issues?
The project should leave an impact either in the community or on an individual. When completed, everyone, including the recipient(s), should feel pride and satisfaction.
People are more willing to help a project succeed if they help select, plan, and organize it.
A project must have a definite beginning and end, and logical steps in between. A clear goal allows everyone to measure the process along the way.
Have fun.
After the project is complete, talk with the volunteers. What worked? What didn't? Is this something that needs to be done on an annual, semiannual, or one-time basis?
Log your project into the www.goodturnforamerica.org data collection section.

Comments of Support

Here's what a few of our country's leaders and educators are saying about Good Turn for America:

"Today, more and more Americans have to see that any definition of a successful life must include serving others. Good Turn for America is a marvelous example of what it means to live up to the ideals that are contained in the Scout Oath and in the Scout Law: honesty, fairness, personal responsibility, and concern for others."

—President George W. Bush

"Volunteer efforts such as this are important to improving lives and strengthening communities across our nation."

—Margaret Spellings, U.S. secretary of education

The Merits of Marketing (marketing.scouting.org) is a resource for local councils, developed by the Marketing & Communications Division of the National Council, Boy Scouts of America.