In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day the Boys & Girls Clubs tribalwide decided to have a “Week of Service” program Jan. 22-25 to teach the youth the importance of serving their community in different ways. All together 170 youth/teen members and staff participated in different service activities tribalwide. Members clocked in 300 service hours at four BGCs doing these various activities. This will also go toward hours for the nationwide Boys & Girls Clubs of America initiative “Million Members Millions Hours of Service,” which encourages good character and appreciation for citizenship and provides every Club member with opportunities to serve in year-round Club and community-based volunteer service experiences.

Some of the activities during the “Week of Service” were:

• Bully Busters – Members learned about bullying and how to conquer it using different scenarios and techniques and then enrolled in the BGCA Bully Busters Club where they pledged not be a bully.

• Kindness Stones – The members found rocks and decorated them with kind words and then placed them around the exterior of the club so they can be found and offer a kind word to whoever may need it

• Random Acts of Kindness – Throughout the reservations the members sent thanks and baked goods to different departments and created love bags for seniors at the Senior Center.

• Community service activities – Ranged from community clean up to volunteering time in other departments while learning different tasks along the way.

• Youth Mentoring – Older youth mentored and ran activities for the younger members.

“The youth learned so much this past week through taking time to give back to their communities and show their appreciation to all who helped along the way,” said Valentina Arce, tribalwide youth events coordinator for Boys & Girls Clubs of the Seminole Tribe. “It was an important lesson and one everyone enjoyed and we are very proud of our youth. We look forward to implementing more community service activities throughout the year and look at MLK Service week as a wonderful kickoff in doing so.”