How to Volunteer During Make a Difference Day

Make a Difference Day was started in 1990 by USAWeekend magazine. Held on the fourth Saturday in October every year, it is a national day to help people or places that are disadvantaged. Activities take place in small towns and cities across the country. To date, more than 3 million volunteers have participated in Make a Difference Day. It's easy to volunteer for this annual event.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Investigate what's needed in your community. Decide if you'd like to run errands for an elderly neighbor, help the hungry by starting a food drive or clean up a neighborhood park.

2. Look for volunteer opportunities, or think of some of your own ideas. See if local or national organizations need volunteers. Read your local newspaper and search online to see if certain groups or organizations need volunteers. You can even visit the USAWeekend website, or another site such as Volunteer Central, to search for projects in your area or to get project ideas.

3. Decide if you want to act alone, or if you want to gather a group of friends or co-workers to volunteer on a group project. Plan a schedule that allows everyone to volunteer for a few hours or for the entire day. Then, if you want, register your volunteer plans with USAWeekend by going to their Make a Difference Day page, and hitting the "Register a Project" link under the Make a Difference data bank section. Details of your project will be posted on the website so that you can generate more volunteers for Make a Difference Day.

4. Volunteer on Make a Difference Day. Meet at the designated location, and meet your group if you arranged one.

Tips & Warnings

• Make a Difference Day is a good time to start volunteering if you don't do it on a regular basis. The project or activity that you choose may be something you'll want to do often.
• If you register a project or sign up for one on USAWeekend's website, you also have a chance to enter a contest for the best Make a Difference Day project. The contest is usually judged by a celebrity, and it honors participants by giving a monetary reward to donate to charity.