Salt Lake City – From
April 20-22, 2012, the Utah Commission on Volunteers will join with youth
organizations throughout the state to encourage youth to participate in Global
Youth Service Day (GYSD).
Established in 1988, Global Youth Service Day is the largest
service event in the world and the only day of service dedicated to children and
youth. It is an annual campaign to mobilize millions of children and youth
globally and locally to improve their communities through service and
volunteering.
“Engaging youth in volunteering creates a foundation of service
that lasts a lifetime,” said Lt. Governor Greg Bell. “If we can get our young
people to serve in their the communities now, Utah will continue to be a state
filled with kind, charitable individuals prepared to serve and help others,
well into the future.”
In 2011, there were over 38 service projects from Utah registered
on the Global Youth Service Day website, www.gysd.org, which involved
almost 1,500 youth. This year, the Utah Commission on Volunteers hopes to see
an increase in those numbers. One of the participating organizations this year
is The Utah Federation for Youth. Their service projects this year include
Columbus Center After School youth participants painting murals at the Senior
Citizen Center in South Salt Lake, SSL Youth City Council planting trees at
Fitts Park, the Academy for Math Engineering, and Science hosting a dental care
benefit event for low-income populations, and youth in South Salt Lake
translating emergency informational materials from the Fire Department into
other languages.
“Service should be the base of humanity. We all should be looking
for what we can do for others, projects large and small are of equal importance
and this experience for the youth is great," said DeBee Stidham, Utah
Federation for Youth representative. “Involving youth in service through Global
Youth Service Day, can be the start of something that will grow to become part
of their lives.”
Planning is underway for youth-led projects that address
challenging local, national and global issues such as environmental conservation,
childhood hunger and civil rights. Examples of local projects planned for
Global Youth Service Day 2012 include:
The Living Planet Aquarium: The
Living Planet Aquarium has planned four unique service events that will be held
April 20th to 22nd that
center on environmental cleanup and restoration. Projects will take place at
the Jordan River, Wasatch Hollow, the Living Planet Aquarium and Hidden Hollow
and hundreds of youth are expected to be involved. Contact Melissa @ (801) 495-4888
for more information.
Real Life in Salt Lake City: At Real
Life in SLC, an afterschool youth mentoring program designed to help refugee
youth become acculturated to life in Salt Lake City by forming friendships with
Utah youth of the same age, refugee youth will assemble backpacks and write
letters to new refugee youth that will be arriving in Salt Lake City in 2012.
Contact Julia @ (801) 467-4417 for more information regarding this April 20th GYSD
project.
Service to the World: Held on
Saturday, April 21st from 11-2 PM at the BYU Wilkinson Student Center, Service
to the World will be working with youth on projects that will ultimately be
sent to a schools in Uganda. Projects include file folder games that teach
colors, arithmetic, multiplication, division, shapes (lots of coloring), hand
puppets, hygiene kits, blankets, hats, nutrition posters, and public health
education posters and books. Contact Martina @ (801) 857-5969 for more
information.
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