Each December the Franklin Road Community Association hosts Holidays Around the World. This huge community event led by Franklin Gateway residents provides holiday entertainment, crafts and activities, Christmas gifts, and a resource fair. Our Mentoring Bigs took advantage of this opportunity host “pitch tables” for their upcoming community service projects. Each service project group shared their project visions and received feedback from the hundreds of community members in attendance. This spring, the Bigs are hosting a Community Voter Registration drive, a “Franklin Fair” neighborhood block party, and a Community Business Outreach Event for small businesses on Franklin Gateway. Holidays Around the World served as a great platform for the Bigs to network with the community, receive feedback on their projects, and practice their pitches.
During the event, community members were given secret ballots. As they listened to each Mentoring group’s pitch for their service projects they recorded their favorite presentation and had the opportunity to leave feedback for our students to read and improve on the delivery of their projects. The team with the most votes at the end of the night received $100 towards their project!
The Mentoring program Bigs meet on the first Saturday of each month to work on developing their service projects. These projects are entirely teen-led. They put a lot of time, energy, and heart into making these events a success and something that truly benefits the community. We are always searching for dedicated volunteers who are interested in being Service Project Coaches that help guide our teens as they learn what it takes to plan these large scale service projects. Service Coaches meet with Bigs in their service projects groups one Saturday a month from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.
These hardworking Bigs also meet every Tuesday to help instill servant-leadership values to their elementary school aged Littles. We are also always in need of volunteers that are interested in working with our high school students as adult Mentors on Tuesdays from 3:00 – 6:00 PM.
We hope you will plan to join us at our Bigs’ Community Service Projects this spring!
Interested in learning more about becoming a Mentor or Service Project Coach? Email mentoring@yellsinc.org for more information.
