service project ideas

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101 great Scout service project ideas
By Bryan Wendell October 9, 2015 24 Comments Cub Scouting, JTE (Journey to Excellence), Scouting Tips, Scouts BSA, Service

Nothing your Scout unit can do raises community awareness more than a service project.

These good turns are some of our best marketing tools. They send the message that Scouts are here, making life better for others.

But where to start? I’ve collected 101 Scout service project ideas below. These should get you started, but really anything that fulfills a community need (and follows the BSA’s Guide to Safe Scouting) can count for service hours.

And those service hours count toward your Journey to Excellence, or JTE, score.

At the pack level, you can achieve JTE bronze status by completing two service projects in the year — and entering them on the JTE website. Complete three service projects, and you’ll get silver. If at least one of those three is conservation-oriented, you’ll get gold.

At the troop and team levels, it’s three projects a year for bronze, four for silver and five for gold. At the crew and ship levels, it’s two for bronze, three for silver and four for gold.

Here’s the list. Note: While some of these might make great Eagle Scout service projects, most are intended for unit-level service.


Organize a book and magazine drive, with the collected items going to a daycare, overseas soldiers, a VA medical center or an inner-city school
Help out a local Cub Scout pack at its pinewood derby, Arrow of Light presentation or by teaching camping or cooking skills
Improve your local Scout summer camp, perhaps by clearing trails, splitting wood, repairing tents or more
Volunteer at a district event, running the first-aid station or staffing the Klondike derby
Participate in Scouting for Food, the annual canned-food drive
Help at the Scout Show, the council-level event where your volunteer service is always welcome
Lend a hand at University of Scouting, the training event for volunteers, can always use help
Go caroling at a local nursing home
Perform skits or songs at a homeless shelter, nursing home or children’s advocacy center
Collect gifts and make gift baskets for elderly people with no families
Prepare and distribute holiday cards (Valentine’s Day, Christmas, etc.) for people without families of their own
Assist in snow/ice removal for members of the community or businesses that need a hand
Assist in yard work for members of the community or businesses that need a hand
Adopt a needy family
Help agencies cook and serve meals for the homeless
Make gift boxes to be distributed by a local charity
Stock shelves at a local food pantry
Place flags on gravesites for Memorial Day or other special days of remembrance
Create and deliver thank-you cards to veterans on Veterans Day (or any day)
Help religious organizations set up religious exhibits or activities
Deliver, retrieve and dispose of Christmas trees
Help residents set up or take down Christmas lights
Repair and paint holiday decorations
Collect toys for Toys for Tots (or a local equivalent)
Prepare and serve hot chocolate or apple cider at the annual town tree-lighting ceremony
Purchase and distribute toys for the children’s hospital near you
Make stuffed animals, such as a Build-a-Bear, to brighten up a child’s holidays
Assist with parking cars at a local event (but please follow strict safety protocols!)
Assemble Easter baskets and distribute to local shelters
Provide free coffee at rest stops on heavy travel weekends, such as Thanksgiving or Memorial Day
Help run a fall carnival or pumpkin patch
Create or help create and run a haunted house
Assist at alternative trick-or-treat events
Adopt a town after a disaster
Assist organizations that provide home maintenance service
Help paint a school, church or chartered organization
Clean a Habitat for Humanity house before the family moves in
Clean a local animal shelter
Help walk the dogs at the animal shelter
Perform janitorial duties for your chartered organization
Repaint fences at government or nonprofit buildings
Adopt a Highway or road and take care of it
Take part in a litter cleanup project
Help beautify city hall
Clean up and/or help inventory a cemetery
Clean up and beautify the local community center, campground, park, river or school parking lot
Clear brush from a fire-prone area
Improve a town walking trail
Pick up trash at the chartered organization before or after a meeting (not just the trash you left — check out the entire facility)
Clean up the shoreline
Help package medical supplies to be sent to developing countries
Assist with a blood drive
Distribute organ donor cards
Pass out anti-drug literature
Provide the first-aid station at a district or council event
Create and distribute first-aid kits to residents in need
Help children make bicycle safety kits
Make welcome-home kits for victims of a disaster
Make bandanas, pillows or other items for cancer patients
Serve as “victims” for a local first-responders training event
Adopt a military troop and send them birthday cards and other holiday cards
Become pen pal with someone serving overseas
Create video histories of veterans and share the edited results with their families
Organize a movie night at a VA medical center.
Send calling cards to servicemen and servicewomen overseas
Assist in training search and rescue dogs
Clean and refill bird feeders at the local Audubon Society
Collect aluminum cans and donate the proceeds to a local charity
Construct duck houses, owl boxes or birdhouses
Build an education sandbox for a local nature center
Build a fence around air conditioners at a local establishment
Conduct a CPR training event
Build a handicap ramp at a community location
As a Boy Scout troop or Venturer crew, offer to cater a pack’s blue and gold banquet
Run a basketball tournament
Volunteer at the Special Olympics — water station, handing out medals, etc.
Construct a soccer field: lines, goals, benches
Construct bat and helmet racks for your school’s baseball/softball teams
Build a horseshoe pit at the local park
Host a dodgeball tournament and donate the proceeds
Refurbish the press box at a local ballfield
Serve as volunteer referees or umpires at a sports tournament
Staff a local run or marathon
Repair and paint bleachers
Plant trees
Hand out voting reminders in the community
Call residents and encourage them to register to vote
Conduct a winter coat drive and clean and distribute the coats
Set up and help run a website or Facebook page for your chartered organization or a local nonprofit
Perform at a local charity talent show
Collect unused makeup, perfume and cosmetics for a center for abused women
Create a poison awareness campaign
Paint over graffiti (but first check with your city/town government)
Sponsor a TV blackout event to encourage families to spend time outside
Host a free camping clinic where you share basic camping skills with residents
Plant, tend and harvest a vegetable garden and donate what you grow
Organize a pet show, with a portion of the proceeds going to the winning dogs and the rest going to a local charity
Design placemats for Meals on Wheels recipients
Rake leaves for elderly neighbors or your chartered organization
Lead a game of bingo at a nursing home
Hold a bike safety rally, where you teach bike skills and inspect the bikes
On being compensated for work
A Scouting friend wrote me to ask whether a pack, troop, team, post, ship or crew can count hours served if the unit is paid for the work.

“It’s my understanding since we are being compensated, the Scouts can’t receive service hours and neither can the troop,” he wrote.

I checked with the expert: Mike Lo Vecchio of the BSA. He writes: “Being compensated for work is not service hours. Service hours are considered to be uncompensated work being done as a service/courtesy.”