Semester of Service Projects on Global Youth Service Day Map

Almost 10 percent of the nearly 2,000 projects registered on the Global Youth Service Day event map are Semester of Service projects. Here's a sampling of some of them:

Houston, TX -- Every Saturday throughout the spring semester, youth and adult volunteers will plan and build the Light Way Organic Garden, a garden that will provide the community with fresh, organic sustainably grown food which will be sold by "pick "n" pay" and at Farmer's markets. The food will also be used to feed lunch to the children at our school starting in September. On April 25th, the grand opening on the garden, youth from our "A Dream of a Better World" Saturday program, the Cy-Woods High School Key Club, adults and community leaders will gather to pick food from the garden and donate a portion of it to a local senior assisted living center. Youth from the Saturday program will also present information on pesticides, organic produce and which fruits and vegetables you MUST buy organic. Community members are welcome to join: www.LightWaySchools.org http://www.gysd.org/events/2009/us/tx/grand-opening-light-way-garden

Miami, FL -- Service For Peace has guided a group of 7 middle school students in the planting and development of an urban organic garden in the backyard of their school, the Yvonne Learning Center. After a semester of researching, learning, and participating in mini- projects at their organic garden, the 7 students of the Yvonne Learning Center will culminate their service-learning garden project on GYSD by leading their fellow classmates in teaching them about the garden: showing them how to plant seeds, how to maintain/care for seeds once planted, demonstrate how the vegetables & herbs could be used, etc. The garden was first planted on 2009 MLK Day by YLC students with the help and donations of Log Cabin Nursery (Miami Beach) and the individuals of Sunrise Group. http://www.gysd.org/events/2009/us/fl/our-garden-service-peace-ylc

New Jersey -- To recognize and celebrate Global Youth Service Day 2009, NJA3 (New Jersey After 3) afterschool programs across New Jersey will be working with afterschool students in March and April to explore the importance of literacy, and how it impacts each of us, our community and our world at large. The NJA3 “Listen Up!” initiative is a statewide service learning project organized by NJA3 that engages the students in its afterschool programs in meaningful examination of and action toward promoting literacy. Throughout the spring, thousands of students across New Jersey will be participating in the “Listen Up!” initiative. In conjunction with GYSD, NJA3 students will then share what they have learned by leading “Listen Up!” Literacy Fairs on and around April 24-26, 2009, that feature activities aimed at promoting reading and writing. In many of the NJA3 programs, AmeriCorps members will be leading the efforts to have youth “Listen Up!” http://www.gysd.org/events/2009/us/nj/listen-up-new-jersey-after-3-students-share-their-words-efforts-change-our-world