Did you miss a challenge during Jesuit Week of Service? You can still take part in our Service Challenges! Email service@jcu.edu and tag us on Instagram with your submissions!
Day One Service Challenges:
1. Record yourself singing/dancing to an interactive children’s song.
Think Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes! Show the steps to the dance so that children can learn to dance along. This is a fun, interactive way to keep children active during social distancing. Email service@jcu.edu with your video and we will post it on our YouTube Channel and invite our community partners to share with the parents of their students!
2. Record yourself reading a children's story
Pick your favorite children's story and read it to a video camera. Be sure to show the pictures and use the video recording to show the book as you read aloud.
This can also be done from an iPad or phone video camera. If you do not have a children's book at home, you can look up a book online and read from your iPad or phone and record yourself using your computer or have a friend record you. Email service@jcu.edu with your video and we will post it on our YouTube Channel and invite our community partners to share with the parents of their students!
3. Sort through your books to donate
Did you know there is a Cleveland Book Bank that accepts donations of gently used children's books? Although most places are not accepting donations during this time, you can still do your part and get books together to donate once locations are open again. Get some spring cleaning done and give to a good cause! Send us a picture of you and your donations! Learn more about the Cleveland's Kid's Book Bank HERE.
4. Write a letter to high school seniors
High school seniors are missing out on a lot of activities during this time of social distancing: prom, graduation, sports games. Write a letter of encouragement and comfort to a senior that you know and send us a picture of part of your letter. OR write a letter and we will send it to our community partners to share with their high school seniors. Email service@jcu.edu with your letter and we will send it along to our community partners.
Day Two Service Challenges:
1. Use your voice to help your neighbors in need
Urge Congress to increase SNAP benefits in the next COVID-19 relief package. Write a letter to Congress through the Greater Cleveland Food Bank HERE! A modest increase to SNAP will help ensure that every family impacted by the current pandemic- whether it is due to lost work, lost wages, or school closures- can continue to keep food on the table. Although food banks provide meals to millions across Ohio, SNAP is still the first line of defense against hunger. For every one meal provided by food banks, SNAP provides nine. It is critical that families impacted by the current health emergency can access all the help they need to keep food on the table. Why is SNAP important? Watch a video about SNAP HERE. Email service@jcu.edu with a screenshot of your letter!
2. Make a Donation to the Arrupe food drive for the Cleveland Food Bank
The Arrupe Students in AR150 Hunger and Poverty Advocacy class have started a virtual fundraising campaign though the Greater Cleveland Food Bank as a substitute project for what they had hoped to do on campus. DONATE HERE and join the Food Bank in supporting those whose ability to work has been or will be impacted by the pandemic. You can help them reach their fundraising goal by donating to their page and sharing the information with family and friends. All Bluestreaks, past and present, along with their family, friends, and others in their social networks are challenged to consider donating $1, $2, $5, $10 or more to this cause. $1 buys 4 meal ordinarily, but because of a generous matching gift to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, it effectively buys 8 meals. Email service@jcu.edu with a selfie of you making your online donation!
3. Tell Congress to Ensure Housing Stability During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
Use the email template found HERE from the National Low Income Housing Coalition to contact your members of Congress and ask them to ensure that the next Congressional stimulus package further addresses the needs of our lowest-income neighbors. Access to healthcare, housing, food assistance and other services provided in response to Coronavirus should be available to everyone, regardless of income, immigration status, involvement with the criminal justice system, or insurance. Email service@jcu.edu with a screenshot of your letter!
Day Three Service Challenges:
1. Sewing Bee! Learn How to Make Masks Join JCU's Staff Council for a mask making tutorial where you will learn how to make masks for families, loved ones, and for the community. There will be step by step instructions for those who sew and plan to use a sewing machine, Q&A, and a demonstration of the non-sewing version for those that do not sew. Don't have much time? Check out this super easy face mask made from an old T-shirt. Make them for your family and friends to keep the whole community safer! Watch HERE. Want to know more about how cloth face masks help? Learn more from the CDC HERE.
Watch the Staff Council Mask Making Tutorial HERE
To donate masks to a CSSA community partner, masks can be dropped off or mailed to: Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Men's Shelter 2100 Lakeside Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114 Attention: David Blunt, Operations Director Fatima Family Center 6600 Lexington Ave Cleveland, OH 44103
Cleveland Sight Center
1909 East 101st Street
Cleveland, OH 44106
Take a photo of yourself protecting your community by wearing your face mask and of the masks you make and send toservice@jcu.edu or tag @jcu_cssa on Instagram!
2. Make Artwork for COVID-19 Patients
Participate in the #GetWellWorld global art project to support patients with COVID-19. Getting sick can be lonely and scary. You can help with #GetWellWorld.
Here’s how:
Create Get Well art, writing, music, performances, etc.
Email your work to youwillriseproject@gmail.com
You Will Rise will post it at youwillriseproject.com/getwellworld social media, and share it with hospital patients battling COVID-19.
Watch a video about the project and learn more HERE.
Don't forget to email service@jcu.edu or tag @jcu_cssa on Instagram with your artwork!
3. Do Something Nice for a Healthcare Worker
Nurses and other healthcare professionals need your help now more than ever. Nurses and healthcare workers everywhere are heading directly into the places that everyone else is trying to avoid — hospitals, urgent care facilities, and medical offices teeming with people who need care related to COVID-19. It’s more important than ever to support healthcare workers working on the front lines of COVID-19. Here are some ways that you can #SupportHealthcareHeroes and make a difference in the battle against COVID-19.
Here are some things you can do:
Send art and encouraging messages to nurses and doctors to hang at their stations
Sending $5 through Venmo or PayPal to a family member or friend who works on the frontline to buy a coffee on their way to work
Call a local nursing unit to arrange takeout or delivery
Help nurse and doctor parents with childcare
Find more ideas HERE
Email service@jcu.edu or tag @jcu_cssa on Instagram so we can see your good deed!
Day Four Service Challenges:
1- Purchase a gift certificate or takeout meal from a locally-owned business
Order a takeout meal, purchase a gift certificate, or write an online review. Many small, locally owned businesses are cornerstones of the community. Our featured partner below, Edwins Restaurant, Butcher Shop, and Bakery, is open for takeout or delivery. Order HERE. Support their belief that every human being, regardless of their past, has a right to a fair and equal future.
There are many other wonderful local businesses that you can support right now. Find one in your neighborhood! If you are looking for suggestions in the greater Cleveland area, check out this list of locally owned restaurants that are still open for takeout or delivery,
2- Participate in the Prison Postcard Project
Background:
Grafton Correctional Institution is located in Lorain County, Ohio
There are 1,600 men at Grafton which is a minimum and medium security facility
The men there have made more than 2,800 face masks to date for those in nursing homes, homeless shelters, and food programs, they, too wanted to be of service to others during this crisis.
Project Directions:
1- Create a 5 x 7 postcard for one of the men at Grafton with messages letting them know they are not forgotten during this time of isolation and uncertainty.
2 - Side one: Decorate with images, inspirational quotes, photos.
3 - Side two: Write a "Thinking of You" message. You can include your first name but omit other details.
4 - Mail completed postcards in an envelope and send to:
Sr. Rita Mary Harwood, SND
Diocese of Cleveland
1404 E. 9th St.
Cleveland, OH 44114
5 - Postcards can be received by prisoners and will be delivered to Grafton.
Don't forget to email service@jcu.edu or tag @jcu_cssa on Instagram with your completed postcard!
3. Record yourself reading an original or other favorite poem.
Social distancing is keeping many people safe right now, even as it limits our ability to visit with friends and loved ones in person. We value our relationships with all of our community partners, many of whom cannot receive any visitors at this time.
We will upload all videos to the CSSA YouTube Channel to share with our community partners, including individuals who are incarcerated, senior citizens, people with different abilities, and more.
Email your video to service@jcu.edu!
Day Five Service Challenges:
1- Write Letters to Senior Citizens
Write letters to uplift senior citizens during this period of social distancing! Social distancing has led older adults to be isolated from their loved ones. It’s extremely important during this time to ensure that seniors are positively engaged and supported during COVID-19. Write letters to senior citizens at Eliza Bryant Village and/or the Fatima Family Center. If you feel comfortable, share your own address so that seniors write you back. You can also email CSSA your letter and we will share with our community partners.
Some tips:
Embrace creativity! Share a poem or insert a small drawing into the letter.
Pretend that you're in the room actually talking with them. Make your letters detailed, thoughtful and heartfelt.
Be kind and thoughtful (more than talking about yourself). You might not receive a letter back, so remember that the possibility of no reciprocation attached is part of the beauty of your act of kindness. Also, the recipients will not feel burdened by feeling obligated or being unable to respond during this time.
Be encouraging and uplifting - make the letters cheerful to put the seniors in good moods.
Letters to Eliza Bryant can be sent to:
Eliza Bryant Village
Attn. Joan Palumbo
7201 Wade Park Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44103
Letters to Fatima Family Center can be sent to:
Fatima Family Center
Attn. Ms. LaJean Ray
6600 Lexington Ave
Cleveland, OH 44103
Share your letter with us! On social media, tag @jcu_cssa on Instagram or send us an email at service@jcu.edu with your letter and we will forward it to our partners!
2- Participate in an activity with YouthAbility
The YouthAbility program creates meaningful experiences for students with disabilities.
These young adults continue to meet multiple times every week through online Zoom activities. John Carroll students are no longer joining them in person, so they invite you to select one activity next week for a special program open to the entire John Carroll community. They look forward to seeing you! Register HERE to select your activity. You will receive a Zoom link to join in from YouthAbility.
Monday, April 27, 4:00 - 5:00 pm
PANTOMIME
Use hand and full body movements to tell a story.
Tuesday, April 28, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
SHOW PRACTICE
Sing songs from our show RESPECT and other tunes.
Thursday, April 30, 8:30 - 9:15 am
YOGA
Namaste! Our yoga teacher Wendy will help us start our day with movement and peacefulness
Thursday, April 30, 5:00 - 6:00 pm
ZOOM-BA
Group exercise in the virtual era — bring a chair , two cans (we will use them as weights) and a smile
Friday, May 1, 4:00 - 5:00 pm
CONVERSATION CLUB
The morning email will include questions.
Register for an activity HERE
Don't forget to email service@jcu.edu and tag @jcu_cssa with a photo on Instagram when you participate next week!
3- Reach out to your neighbors, near and far
While we keep our physical distance to keep our communities healthy, it is more important than ever to highlight and strengthen our social connections. Connect with your neighbors in one of the following ways:
Make a sidewalk chalk or window decoration message to your neighbors.
Offer to do yard work or run an errand for someone in your neighborhood.
Text, call, or email someone that you have not spoken to in the last two months (maybe someone from John Carroll!)
Share your connection with us! On Instagram, tag @jcu_cssa or send us an email at service@jcu.edu with a photo of how you are keeping connected!
How to participate and share your actions:
• Take photographs or videos of each of the daily challenges you choose to participate in.
• You have three options for sharing your challenge with us:
On Instagram, make a post, tag @jcu_cssa and use the hashtags: #JWOS2020, #jcucssa, #servecle, and #servicechallenge. Your profile must be public for us to view your photos
Email service@jcu.edu with your images and videos
• Look for your photos and videos in the "JWOS Showcase of Service" video on Saturday! • See what others are doing LIVE by scrolling to the bottom of our homepage at https://www.cssaengagecle.org/ and by following our hashtags on Instagram!
*Please note that CSSA may choose to share your photographs or videos and use your content for marketing purposes unless you specify you would not like your photographs or videos to be used*