Collect pet food to donate to the SPCA - sort of a food hamper for homeless pets.
Contact the local Humane Society to arrange to walk the dogs and groom the cats. Don't forget to play with the puppies and kittens so they get exercised too.
Have a gift exchange where only pet gifts are allowed, then donate these items to the local animal shelter.
Make dog biscuits and take them over to the local Humane Society or pet shelter.
Write letters to the editor of your local paper to support the work that animal shelters do: spaying and neutering of dogs and cats.
Visit the local animal shelter and take pictures of the pets in need of adoption, make posters with their pictures, and display them in prominent places for an adoption day (which your troop could organize).
Conduct a towel and blanket drive to collect these much needed items for local animal shelters.
Run a workshop on pet care for younger children.
Put up flyers around town when free vaccination clinics for pets are to be held.
Collect often forgotten items that pet shelters need: bleach, small two-compartment dishes, etc
.
Involving VISITING
Visit a Senior Center or nursing home with Thanksgiving decorations, come back in December to carol.
Make valentines and deliver them in person to a VA hospital.
Do a sing-along in a Senior Center: sing songs that the Seniors know (usually songs of the 40s).
Sing songs in the children's department of a hospital: Halloween songs, children's songs, Christmas-Hanukkah-Kwanzaa songs, etc.
Visit a shelter and help prepare/serve a meal.
Visit a pet shelter to help walk and exercise the animals.
Involving CRAFTS
Hospitals, fire departments, ambulance drivers, police, etc. need stuffed animals for children who are hurt, in difficult situations, etc. Make "bear" from simple patterns using leftover fabric, stuff with fiberfill or old hose, decorate with fabric paint, and tie a fabric ribbon around the neck.
Put together a fun story time for a young child. Read the stories on tape, and donate the tape and books to a hospital for the pediatric department.
Make tray favors for Meals on Wheels or a nursing home.
Bake some dog biscuits for the Humane Society.
Decorate the Children's Room at the local library for an upcoming holiday.
Make and decorate gift baskets with products specific to ethnicity for women in shelters.
Sew small drawstring bags and fill with sample size toiletries for women in shelters.
Fill berry baskets with small toys, crayons, note pads, activity books and donate to the children's section of a hospital.
Make valentines and give them to a VA hospital.
Make ornaments to decorate the Christmas trees in nursing homes.
Bake some cookies and give them to a shelter.
Sign up to do a seasonal mural in the pediatric unit of a local hospital.
Make small coloring books from unused pages of used coloring books and donate them to a children's psychiatric hospital.
Make sleeping bags for the homeless.
Make placemats for a nursing home or senior center.
Make centerpieces for a nursing home or senior center.
Make situpons and donate them to a library or children's museum for use during story time.
Prepare a meal for a homeless shelter.
Make treats such as molded candy or popcorn balls, wrap attractively, and donate to a shelter.
Make ready-to-bake apple pies and donate them to a local hospital auxiliary's fund raiser. Or donate them to a homeless shelter, or a food pantry (at holiday time).
Make, decorate, and donate sheet cakes for a community supper.
Make play-dough and donate it to a shelter for battered women/children.
Make the quilt tops and bottoms for sleeping bags for the homeless, and send to My Brothers' Keeper Quilt Group in PA for completion.
Make a large wreath for a nursing home or senior center.
Make a "birthday box" for a child in a shelter.
Make "Create a Smile" pictures and send them in for distribution to the elderly and shut-ins.
Involving COLLECTING
Collect used clothing, clean and mend it, and donate it to the local Salvation Army.
Collect books for children and donate to a battered women's and children's shelter.
Collect full-size toiletries, bath towels, and large baskets. Fill the baskets, decorate and donate to a battered women's shelter.
Sew small drawstring bags out of fabric, fill with miniature size toiletries, and donate to a battered women's shelter.
Collect items to be sent to third world countries, from pencils to hard candies. Box, wrap as gifts, and locate an organization that will distribute them for you.
Collect early reading books and donate to Head Start.
Collect children's books, read them onto tape, bag the book and the tape, and donate the package(s) to children's departments at hospitals or to shelters.
Collect coats, hats, gloves, snow pants, and boots for the local shelters, or children in need.
Collect towels and blankets for the local animal shelter.
Collect canned/boxed goods for the local food pantry.
Collect items and make up holiday boxes for children in need: Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, Passover, Birthday.
Collect crayons, coloring books, puzzle books for children in the hospital.
Collect dog and cat food, cat litter and toys for the local animal shelter.
Collect adult's books and magazines to be donated to a VA hospital or shelters.
Collect toys, clean them, and donate to hospitals or shelters.
Collect school supplies and distribute to shelters or donate to organizations which distribute them to third world countries.
Involving the OUT-OF-DOORS
Do a "litter chase" of the local ball park, church grounds, meeting place, or school grounds.
Volunteer a car wash for parents in appreciation of all the driving they do.
Beautify a public place: plant a tree or a flowering bush or seasonal flowers.
Make and place a "peace pole" in a school yard or public park. Design a special ceremony for it.
Help the Girl Scout camps get ready for spring: camp rehab, trail building, trail mulching.
Help distribute seasonal bulbs in your town.
Help plant wildflowers in your town.
Paint play equipment at a town park or preschool, possibly using a theme, such as a ship on the ocean.
Collect potted plants that cemeteries discard at holiday time, and recycle to areas that need beautification.
Design and execute a landscaping design where you have your meetings.
Involving HELPING OTHER GROUPS
Visit a pantry, and help fill bags for distribution. (Pantry supplies all items.)
Make Christmas stockings for the Protestant Guild. (They supply items for filling stockings.)
Staff the "Toys for Tots" booth at a local mall at holiday season.
Baby sit at a PTO meeting where adults are present.
Help in various organizations to sort Thanksgiving foods in to family baskets for the needy.
Work in a soup kitchen.
Call Ronald McDonald House and volunteer to help in any capacity.
Help at a community supper: make sheet cakes or help serve/clean up.
Stencil storm drains for the Charles River Watershed Authority.
Help plant wildflowers in your town.
Help distribute seasonal bulbs in your town.
Wash and dress CPR babies for the Red Cross (onesies and elastic hair bows).
Roll pennies for organizations which collect small change in boxes or wishing wells.
Involving the ADOPTION OF A GROUP OR AN INDIVIDUAL
Adopt a family. Make food baskets, collect clothing, books, toys, gifts, etc.
Help the children in Eastern Europe (Operation Christmas Child): each girl brings an item to be put in a shoe box. Wrap and send to the organization conducting the distribution of the boxes.
Adopt an elderly community or retirement home, and each year go caroling, bringing along a small gift such as homemade cookies.
Adopt a women's shelter, and several times during the year collect sample sized toiletries which are put into baskets and donated.
Adopt the local VA hospital for Valentine's Day. Make and donate cards.
Visit a nursing home on a continuing basis. Do a craft, share a song, and have a snack.
During cookie time, adopt a group or organization to receive a "Gift of Caring": each time someone says they don't want to purchase a box of cookies, suggest they purchase one for the troop's chosen organization.
Have your Service Unit adopt a senior facility, then divide the names of the residents among the town's troops. Therefore each troop will have 8-10 people to whom to send holiday, birthday, and "thinking of you" cards throughout the year.
Adopt a family in your school district (but not your school) and collect or use cookie money to purchase clothes or toys.
Play a sport, like basketball, with members of the Special Olympics team.
Help out at Head Start, playing games and doing craft activities with the preschool children.