One of the best things you can do in your life is give back to the community.
There are literally tons of creative ways that you can explore to give your community a sense of purpose and a wonderful feeling of anticipation.
Get Involved
Using these 13 exciting community activities, you can be the one to stir a sense of community and ownership in your community and bring everyone together.
Depending on the neighborhood, it may take a while to get everyone on the same page, but it is worth the effort. And the effort is well worth it in the end.
We have a number of ways for you to get involved in our projects.
See some of our popular options below.
13 Exciting Community Activities For You To Do
1.Become A Volunteer
Become a weekend volunteer at your favorite Charity!
I occasionally visit Hope Children’s Home in Nairobi where we give out toys, clothes and play with the babies.
You can do the same thing too!
In the process, you can help them mow the grass, clean the clothes, prepare a meal, or teach them a new skill – like how to sing, play the piano, play football and more. If you have more time, you could spend more than a day at the center.
Ripples International regularly allows volunteers too in case you are in Meru. If you are an international student and seeking a work-study program, we have been privileged to host over 10 international students in the last five years.
We have a Volunteer form that you are required to fill in. Once you fill it in and send to the Executive Director, you will be notified of the outcome of your application.
2. Offer A Quick Prayer
I fully believe that prayer changes the world.
And for Charities that rely on our goodwill, a daily prayer could make the difference in ways you could never imagine.
Here at Ripples International, we can never get enough of prayer.
In fact, we begin all our days with prayer and bible study.
God is the reason we are here. So we always keep Him at the forefront of everything we do.
That means one of the most important ways you can help us is by praying for our organization every day.
We have a daily prayer list and knowing that you are committing us to God every day through our ‘Say-A-Prayer” daily marathon would be the most amazing thing you can do for anyone.
3. Become A Partner
Become a partner with your favorite Charity where you uphold a certain commitment to the cause.
It could be a financial contribution or a visit.
You will never know just how priceless a simple visit is. It’s one of the best things you can do for the workers. Surprise them with a quick lunch like pizza, french fries and sodas just to say ‘thank you.’
Imagine how long they would remember such a kind gesture!
Here at Rippes International, you can also become a #TeamRipples partner!
4. Put On A Film Screening!
Who doesn’t enjoy watching a great movie on a big screen with a tub of tasty popcorn?
You can organize a film screening at a local school, church, community center or even outside, under the stars. Choose to screen a popular family film like ‘Sound of Music’, ‘Baby’s Day Out’ or ‘Lion King.’
Who can forget the Lion King??!
Just don’t air ‘The Jesus Movie” It’s been overdone.
4. Mobilize A Gardening Crew
I’ve just had my garden trimmed while writing this and I thought, “Why not?”
Here are a group of four guys, one with a lawn mower, the other with shears and the other two with rakes and forks. They spent two hours trimming the garden, pruning all the flowers and by the sound of it, they had fun!
You could do the same thing too! There’s nothing like a bit of company to keep you in good spirits as you are doing this activity.
Gather four of your friends and visit every home with the offer to prune their garden for a small fee.
say you approach twenty homes, there are at least nine that will accept your offer, especially if you are well known in your neighborhood.
Who knows? it could turn out to be a very profitable side business!
You can go further.
Restore your community to its former glory by relating trees and flowers. I know we desperately need someone in Nairobi to do that! Too many trees have been cut down in residential areas for no good reason!
Why not organize a group of volunteers to restore it to its former glory? Digging out weeds, picking litter and planting flowers will transform it into something for all to enjoy and encourage people to take an active part in caring for their local area.
And then ask a fee for your time and effort. All proceeds go to Charity.
5. Organize An Arts & Crafts Festival
I would really love to see a Meru Art And Craft Festival.
I really hope someone reads this and runs away with the idea.
Every community has talented artists.
Mobilize them to be exhibitors at the first ever Art And Craft Festival in your town.
Obviously, they will pay you a vendor fee for the right to exhibit their paintings. This festival is also open to the public at a entry fee, all of which goes to charity after you’ve deducted your expenses.
Art and Craft covers so many type of activities that you won’t run out of vendors any time soon.
Plus your local brands and businesses can be your first sponsors.
You could sell anything from paintings to flower pots, knitted wear, handmade jewelry, ornaments, baskets and fabrics and more.
Explore some of the top festivals around the world and model that.
A community in Highams Park, created a community arts festival and managed to get a local street artist hub to come down and create some live art. If you’re trying to reach younger members of the community, live street art is a great way to get them to your festival.
6. Start A Workplace Campaign
Mobilize your friends to pay a Charity or local community center a visit!
Perhaps, you can gather your friends together and hold a charity-related activity. This is what I mean.
You could use your lunchtime to visit the center and clean it up, offer some much needed supplies or cook them lunch.
You could spend your lunchtime praying for the organization.
You could post a list of the Charities in your office and list their pressing needs. Then every week, visit the Charity and surprise them with the much needed item/gift/service.
They will never forget you!!!
7.Spread The Word Via Twitter
Use your social influence to spread the word about your community and all the exciting things happening in your part oft he world.
With twitter, the more info you have, the more people like it!
While we are on the topic, you could join our ever expanding twitter community and help keep the conversation going by sharing insightful tweets, retweeting our messages or posting inspirational messages.
8. Car Boot Sale
Pull your friends, family and church members to participate in a Car boot sale.
As the name suggests, each vendor sells household items in the boot of their car. A portion of the funds goes to Charity in your community.
9. Barbecue
This is one of the most engaging events you could hold. Get a couple of vendors. You could be the vendor yourself!
Produce some posters and spread them around town.
As some of the local brands to sponsor the event and showcase their products and services during the party. Whip up a sumptuous menu and get the event started.
For a small cover charge, each visitor gets a massive discount at one of the stalls. All proceeds go to charity.
10. Community Sports Tournament
We’ve held these tournaments below in Meru North and Samburu to resounding success! You can build on that to organize your own Charity sports tournament.
Spend 3 weeks promoting the idea to local groups in your area – from Church groups to schools, sports clubs, women groups, etc.Each of them have two weeks to form and train as a team.
Make an exciting roster of activities like ‘7-A-Side football’ to netball, ‘4-Man basketball’, the 50 meter dash, obstacle race, the strongest man/woman contest, ‘King-of-Ugali’ contest and more.
11. Talent Show
One of the most exciting things you can do that will leave a world of good is a talent show.
Everyone has a talent. And everyone wishes that they could show their talent to the world. Here’s your chance! this is how the kings of comedy we see in ‘Churchill Live’ are born.
Again, spend three weeks promoting the idea to your local groups and institute a cover charge for participation. Approach your local sports center and ask them to sponsor as a venue partner. Give everyone two weeks to practice until perfect.
Then on the final day, open the doors to the public who pay a cover charge to see the greatest talent of the town on display!
12. Singing Competition
Similar to the talent competition, you can actually hold this one as a separate entity instead of combining it with the talent show.
Approach the local brands and ask them to sponsor the prizes for the Overall winner, 1st and 2nd runners-up.
13. Mini Walk
Choose a Sunday and get your friends, family and church members to stage a walk around town, all for a worthy cause.
All these activities are cost efficient and don’t require significant money to implement. You could even use our facility to carry them out.
For all these activities, you charge patrons a cover charge for attendance and draw a lot of excited publicity because of the community nature of the event.
Conclusion
In case you are interested in pursuing any of these ideas or seeing how you can develop a local event chapter, contact our Public Relations Office.
They will be more than happy to help out!
