More Laurel
Projects
by Veronica Vanderhoof
1. Organize & carry out a family reunion.
2. Organize and lead a ward youth choir.
3. Create and make a collection of your own writings, musical compositions, or graphic art
work.
4. Give consistent help over a period of time to a family or individual
in your ward with special needs.
5. With the approval or member of the bishopric, organize and carry out a mission
preparation experience for the young men and young women in your ward.
6. Organize and implement a scripture-reading incentive program for your class. You may
want to invite the young men to participate.
7. Write and direct a dramatic presentation that portrays a gospel theme and involves
children or youth in your ward.
8. Create a children's game that will help a child learn a principle of
the gospel, such as making correct choices.
9. Learn about or develop a system for organizing information or materials and begin your
own system.
10. Complete a certain first-aid course, including CPR training, and serve as a volunteer
in teaching first-aid skills.
11. Learn signing for the deaf and teach a song to your young women group to perform in
Sacrament Meeting. If there is a deaf branch near you, you may ask for permission to
assist on a primary lesson or help teach a group of deaf children the 13 Articles of
Faith.
12. Teach reading or language skills to someone in need of help.
13. Serve as a volunteer guide or docent in a community park, museum, or zoo for at least
three months. Share the knowledge you have acquired as a result of your service.
14. Plan and care for a vegetable garden or maintain your family's or someone else's yard
for three months without pay.
15. Prepare and conduct a preschool or nursery class as a service for younger children.
16. Organize a sewing or other home skills class for younger children.
17. Serve as a volunteer in a hospital, nursing home, day-care center, or other community
social service institution.
18. Prepare 72 hour kits for each member of your
family and present a FHE lesson on emergency preparedness. Help plan a family emergency
plan.
19. Organize and carry out a substance abuse prevention program in your school or
community.
20. With the approval of your bishop and the mission president responsible for you area,
work with full-time sister missionaries on a regular basis.
21. With the approval of a member of the bishopric, organize and conduct a cultural arts
event for your ward or community. Coordinate this activity with the ward calendar through
you Young Women President.
22. Put together a "Plan for College" evening or Saturday afternoon for the
young men and young women with sessions on college preparation, scholarships, high school
academics and other associations (clubs, etc.), study habits, budgeting, cooking, etc.
23. Make something that could be of value to your posterity such as a piece of needlework,
a family flag, a coat of arms, or a quilt.
24. Plan and complete a personal history on each parent, and all your grandparents. Type
them up nicely and present them as gifts to other family members.
25. Write your own personal history.
26. Work with parents to prepare names for temple work.
27. Find stories of experiences, personalities, etc. of ancestors and put together a book
of ancestral history that takes a more personal look into their lives.
28. Record children's stories on tape and make puppets or flannel board characters to go
along with stories. Donate to a children's hospital or domestic abuse shelter.
29. Plan and organize a service day for a youth group where you can go serve in different
places for different people.
30. Put together activity kits or trick-or-treat bags with treats in it for children.
Deliver to low-income youth center or domestic abuse shelter.
31. Plan and organize a blanket or coat drive at a time other than the holiday season.
32. Plan and organize a drive for a homeless shelter for household items such as towels,
dishes, appliances, sheets, etc.
33. Make a "this is your life" quilt for you, a parent, a church leader or an
"appreciation" quilt for the bishop, stake president or stake patriarch.
34. Volunteer at a service center.
35. Volunteer at a veterinarian's office or the Humane Society.
36. Make baby quilts to take to hospitals for women on welfare.
37. Organize a children's used video drive to donate to a children's hospital, homeless or
domestic abuse shelter.
38. Plan and organize Family Home Evenings for an entire year. Plan lesson topics,
spiritual thoughts and songs. If you have younger brothers and sisters put together
flannel board stories, etc.
39. Learn to sew and make some baptismal clothes for the ward.
40. Take a class to improve a talent such as singing, dance, piano lessons, etc. Maybe
organize a night where you and other young women could share their talents.
41. Put together a tutoring program for children in the ward.
42. Plan and organize a children's "Olympics" in your ward. Talk to the Primary
president and ask for names of children who are less active or are struggling. Make it a
whole day event. Plan fun events and have awards at the end. Make sure each group gets an
award of some kind. You could make the events gospel related.
43. Pick a personal challenge (spiritual or physical) and set up a progress/program to
strengthen yourself in that area. Organize and come up with a game plan to go by for at
least 3 months. Make a visual display to remind yourself. Write about it in your journal
as you go along.
44. Spend at least 20 hours studying different material about the life of the Savior. Put
together a presentation and present it at a fireside for the youth. Write about your
feelings in your journal as you go along.
45. Read the whole Book of Mormon. As you read it keep a record in a notebook of each
chapter or section and what you learned as you go along. Make it as detailed as possible.
Keep an ongoing record also of your favorite scripture references, by topic and file in a
small file box for easy reference. On each 3X5 card write reference, write out scripture
or key words, and why it stood out to you.
46. Read the whole Doctrine & Covenants and do the same as above.
47. Learn how to crochet or quilt. Make 1st college blanket, make 1st wedding quilt, or
make 1st baby blanket for yourself or for someone else.
48. Put together a family cookbook with favorite recipes. Give to family members as gifts.
Familiarize yourself with the recipes and learn to make them as you go along.
49. Learn how to can fruit.
50. Learn how to stencil, wallpaper and paint. Redo a room in your house.
51. Provide free babysitting for 6 months for a couple every other week for them to go to
the temple or on a date. Plan activities for the children. If age appropriate, activities
could teach them about the temple.
52. Provide babysitting for the nursery for Homemaking for 6 months. Plan activities for
the children.
53. Make finger puppets for a children's hospital. When they prick fingertips, they like
to give them a finger puppet because they do it so often. Children's Hospital in Seattle
goes through 50 each day.
54. Make bags that fit over the back of a wheelchair. Donate to a children's hospital.
They are always in need of them.
55. Schedule and plan specific times at a domestic abuse shelter or homeless shelter for
the children to make Christmas ornaments and the moms could do a craft. On other months
besides Christmas you could do other crafts, stories or skits.
56. Plan and organize a swimsuit drive or make swimsuits for a children's hospital. They
do therapy and have other activities in the pool. Always in need of them!!
57. Learn to knit and knit booties for babies at a children's hospital,
homeless shelter, domestic abuse shelter or any hospital. Always a need for these!!
58. Sew onesies for babies at a children's hospital.
59. Sew flannel receiving blankets for babies at a children's hospital.
60. Sew little outfits to give to parents of premature babies.
61. Organize a book drive for homeless shelters or hospitals. Children's hospitals are
always in need of paper-back and regular books for kids of all ages. Teenagers included.
62. Volunteer at Deseret Industries for 20-30 hours (or at a Salvation Army).
63. Call LDS or regular bookstores and donate time.
64. Call local child care places and ask if there is a need for certain items. Maybe you
can volunteer your time to read or do a craft. Maybe there is something you could make for
them of help them prepare (cut-outs, etc.).
65. Volunteer your time to go visit an elderly person in our ward on a regular basis.
Offer to do housework or just sit and talk.
66. Offer to do Personal History for an elderly person in ward. Interview them, get it
organized and type it up for them.
67. Offer to organize things such as photos or paper work for elderly person in ward.
67. Learn to do wookworking and make yourself a hope chest.
68. Offer free babysitting around the holidays so families can do their shopping.
69. Create a family newsletter for a year and distribute to all relatives every 3 months.
Check with all of them for ongoing events in everyone's lives. Have one person each month
send in a spiritual message on a certain subject. Example, have Uncle Joe send you his
message on "The Joys of Freedom" for the July newsletter. You could have
crossword puzzles, thoughts, funny quotes, funny memories, announcements, etc.
70. With the approval of the Primary President and YW Leader, serve as a helper in Primary
in making visual aids and other class materials. Help w/Achievement Day or other Primary
activities.
71. Plan and organize a fun night of songs and funny skits for a domestic abuse shelter or
nursing home. Call local florists and see if they would donate flowers. Put together
little booklets called "Messages of Hope" for the women. In the booklet put
quotes on hope, courage, determination from church leaders. Coordinate w/everyone what
they are doing. Make sure you have some fun songs and skits but also some that will touch
their hearts, i.e. You're Not Alone, Walk Tall, etc. Get permission to make little loaves
of banana bread for the moms and little goody bags for the kids.
72. Call around to athletic clothing distributors and see if anyone will donate plain
baseball caps. Send a sign-up sheet around in R.S. and ask women in ward to donate things
to decorate them with (pom-poms, wiggly eyes, pipecleaners, silk flowers, ribbon, little
army guys, small plastic dinosaurs, fabric paint, patches, etc.) Make "Happy
Hats" and deliver to children at domestic abuse shelter, homeless shelter, or
children's hospital.
73. Learn to crochet and crochet afghan squares for the Red Cross "Warm Up
America" Program. They will put the blankets together, they just need people to make
the squares (7"x9" rectangle). For information call (704) 824-7838, or
Warm Up America!
c/o Craft Yarn Council 2500 Lowell Rd.
Gastonia, NC 28054
74. Organize a blood drive.
75. Read the "Miracle of Forgiveness," look up every scripture you can find on
repentance and forgiveness, keep a journal while doing so, and make some personal goals
between you and your Father in Heaven for 3 months. Make a visual reminder.
76. Learn to cross-stitch and make a picture of your favorite temple or a family tree.
77. Make a "Journal Jar" for each member of
your family, including yourself. Encourage everyone to start their own personal history.
Gather all the info at the end of a year and put everyone's history into one big family
one.
78. With your Bishop's approval, learn all the missionary discussions by heart and offer
to go on splits w/the ward and stake missionaries for 4 months when they are teaching
women.
79. Choose a career field in which you have interest. Contact someone in that field and
volunteer your time to learn about that specific field.
80. Make a "friendship quilt". Hand out fabric squares to your friends, have
them decorate them and give them back to you. Make a quilt to help you remember each
friend through the years.
81. Plan and organize a "Parent's Prom" for the couples in your ward. Collect
high school pictures of them, vote on a king and queen, play their favorite music, etc.
82. Make barrettes or hair scrunchies for at the temple or temple clothes for children
being sealed to their parents.
83. Learn about cars and help fix one up.
84. Put together an "Individual Worth" photo album. You can focus on your
strengths, talents, etc. Mix in with the photos some of your favorite scriptures and
thought.
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