Opportunities From: Get Connected

This Global Youth Service Day, help us prepare and open our community garden for the 2026 growing season! Enjoy the outdoors and be part of a community-wide effort to increase the amount of fresh vegetables in the hands of families!

Volunteer help requested includes:

Sam Center is partnering with Serve Ohio for Global Youth Service Day to work on our outdoor spaces, reset and build Flags with "Operation Flags for Freedom", build shelving for our attic space, and spend time reorganizing and restructuring our outdoor storage and our attic storage spaces. 

Serving Area Military and Veterans depends on volunteers to serve our veterans, and we are excited to partner with the community for these events.  

We are hosting multiple workdays between April 4 and April 25th for volunteers to come assist us with these projects for Global Youth Service Day.

What is the Summer Bridge to Success Outreach? Research shows that students can lose about 20% to 30% of their school-year gains during the summer months.  To help combat the summer slide, the United Way of Greater Stark County is offering a resource for our Strong Neighborhoods, Strong Families partner schools.  Through generous donations from the community, United Way will be distributing over 400 Summer Bridge to Success Learning Kits, at the end of the school year to Kindergarteners.

Volunteers will work in assembly line fashion, placing items in bags to create kits. Each kit will include: a Summer Bridge Activity Workbook, a selection of healthy snacks, and other learning tools and resources as available. Volunteers will gather a greater understanding around the need and leave the event, understanding the positive impact these kits can have.

We are creating postcards and greeting cards with messages of care and honor to remind recipients that they are not alone and have the "Right To Heal".  Cards will be mailed to victims and survivors of crime or placed in our We Care Hope & Kindness Bags.    

Join the New Roots Mentoring team as we work together with students in the Tecumseh Local School District! Students will create and install outdoor art displays to encourage and spread positivity throughout their school and community! 

April is when many gardens and farms begin preparing their soil and planting seeds for the growing season. Because frost can linger through March, growers often have to wait until the ground stays warm overnight. This spring, our youth volunteers and staff will support community gardens and farms by helping with tilling—a service the city once provided for free but has paused due to administrative and funding changes.

Join the Urban Farm Church as we plant native fruit trees along our Storybook Trail! 

PROJECT DATE/TIME: Saturday, April 18, 2026 @ 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

PROJECT LOCATION: Cleveland Cultural Gardens & Rockefeller Park

PROJECT ADDRESS: 7 Martin Luther King Jr Drive, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

PROJECT WEBSITE: Earth Day Stream Sweep - Doan Brook Watershed Partnership

This annual volunteer event, hosted in partnership by the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes (NCSL) and the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership (DBWP), focuses on removing litter and debris from the Doan Brook stream corridor as it flows through the Cleveland Cultural Gardens - an iconic city landmark established in 1916 that continues to grow today.  This public space blends natural areas with themed heritage gardens representing diverse cultural communities across Northeast Ohio.

Litter and illegal dumping along the stream and surrounding hillsides pose ongoing environmental challenges.  Through this event, more than 100 volunteers will work together to reduce pollution, restore the landscape, and protect the ecological health of this important urban waterway.

Project activities will include distributing trash bags, litter grabbers, gloves, and reflective vests to volunteers as they remove debris from the Doan Brook stream and surrounding landscapes of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens.  Collected trash will be transported to a designated berm for municipal pickup.  Volunteers will work in mixed groups of youth and adults.  Light refreshments and a portable restroom will be provided to support participants throughout the event.

Gardening and Grace will allow youth in Shelby County, Ohio to volunteer at the Mercy Mission House shelter on April 26, 2026 by helping our residents plant our garden. This volunteer opportunity will provide youth to tour the homeless shelter, meet residents, work alongside them to build our garden, yard clean up and prepare and serve the resident dinner. The garden provides vegetables for our meals throughout the summer. Gardening is known to be very good for many who struggle with mental health disorders or stress.  

Repair and replace the fence in the front of the building by the basketball court yard. 

Repair and rebuild fence in the front of the building around the basketball courtyard. 

Join Brown Hands Literacy, Rockdale Academy students, families, and community volunteers for a Spring Clean-Up Day at the Rockdale Academy HBCU Literacy Hub. During this community event, volunteers will help plant flowers, paint sidewalk spaces, pick up trash, and support general spring cleaning around the school grounds to help beautify and maintain the HBCU Literacy Hub. This day is about bringing the community together to care for the school, create a welcoming environment for students, and support literacy spaces that inspire young scholars to learn about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Together, we can build pride in our school, strengthen our community, and create spaces that encourage reading, learning, and dreaming big.

Our organization will help to provide accessible garden beds, and planters that support individuals with special needs as well as our local community through meaningful work, skill development, and community connections.  We will work together to build raised garden beds and planters and plant vegetables from seed, and plant flowers creating a welcoming garden for our community.

The “Big Clean” is our annual day to pick up trash as a community – and compete with our neighbors in Collinwood – to see which community can pick up more trash. The free event grows in popularity every year and all ages and abilities are encouraged to join in. Participants must register themselves or their groups, and can do so here: https://www.cityofeuclid.gov/big-clean

Here's how The Big Clean works:

1.) On Saturday, April 25th between 9 and 10 AM, stop by your closest pick-up location for cleanup supply kits (gloves, bags, pickers, and other goodies from community partners). Weather permitting, volunteers will be outdoors handing supply kits to vehicles as they drive through. In Euclid, supply pickup will occur along Milton Dr in Memorial Park near the tennis courts (please enter via East 222nd Street and exit via Babbitt Road). In the case of rain, supply pick-up will be inside C.E. Orr Ice Arena (22550 Milton). For those cleaning in Collinwood, supply kits can be picked up at Villa Angela-St. Joseph High school located at E 185th St. and Lakeshore Blvd.

2.) With supply kits in hand, head out to your pre-selected cleanup location (selections made by you during online registration) and get cleaning!

3.) Once you / your group has finished cleaning your designated area, bring your haul back to the massive dumpster near C.E. Ice Arena to be counted, then stay for Earth Day after-party! Food, drinks, music, raffle prizes and more await you from 12pm to 1pm. Trash tallies will start being counted right at noon, so don’t be late!

4.) If you cannot make it back to the dumpster location near C.E. Orr Ice Arena, trash bags can also be placed in your city trash can. Before you throw your bag away though, please take a selfie with your trash bags and post it to social media (Facebook, Instagram) with your 1) bag count, 2) cleanup city (Euclid or Collinwood) and 3) the hashtag #thebigclean before NOON. Cleanup organizers will use your posts to tally total trash bags.  

While the Big Clean is a competition, in the end, it’s all of us who win. The Big Clean is about bringing neighbors together during Earth Day weekend to build community in support of cleaner streets, a cleaner Lake Erie and a cleaner Planet for us all!

The “Big Clean” is our annual day to pick up trash as a community – and compete with our neighbors in Collinwood – to see which community can pick up more trash. The free event grows in popularity every year and all ages and abilities are encouraged to join in. To participate, please register at: https://www.cityofeuclid.gov/big-clean

Here's how The Big Clean works:

1.) On Saturday, April 25th between 9 and 10 AM, stop by your closest pick-up location for cleanup supply kits (gloves, bags, pickers, and other goodies from community partners). Weather permitting, volunteers will be outdoors handing supply kits to vehicles as they drive through. In Euclid, supply pickup will occur along Milton Dr in Memorial Park near the tennis courts (please enter via East 222nd Street and exit via Babbitt Road). In the case of rain, supply pick-up will be inside C.E. Orr Ice Arena (22550 Milton). For those cleaning in Collinwood, supply kits can be picked up at Villa Angela-St. Joseph High school located at E 185th St. and Lakeshore Blvd.

2.) With supply kits in hand, head out to your pre-selected cleanup location (selections made by you during online registration) and get cleaning!

3.) Once you / your group has finished cleaning your designated area, bring your haul back to the massive dumpster near C.E. Ice Arena to be counted, then stay for Earth Day after-party and Eco Fair! Food, drinks, music, raffle prizes and an environmental resource fair await you from 12pm to 1pm. Trash tallies will start being counted right at noon, so don’t be late!

4.) If you cannot make it back to the dumpster location near C.E. Orr Ice Arena, trash bags can also be placed in your city trash can. Before you throw your bag away though, please take a selfie with your trash bags and post it to social media (Facebook, Instagram) with your 1) bag count, 2) cleanup city (Euclid or Collinwood) and 3) the hashtag #thebigclean before NOON. Cleanup organizers will use your posts to tally total trash bags.  

While the Big Clean is a competition, in the end, it’s all of us who win. The Big Clean is about bringing neighbors together during Earth Day weekend to build community in support of cleaner streets, a cleaner Lake Erie and a cleaner Planet for us all!

Wyandot County Public Health is looking for some volunteers for our upcoming Wyandot County Community Garden Spring Fling Volunteer Day, 2-6 p.m., Saturday, April 25, at the community garden, located in downtown Upper Sandusky at the corner of Hicks St. and South Sandusky Avenue. (Note: Rain date in case of severe weather is Sunday, April 26). We'll be adding new garden boxes to expand the availability of gardening spaces for community use.

Volunteers are needed to help:
- Build new garden boxes
- Lay weed blocking materials (cardboard and/or garden fabric)
- Fill garden boxes with soil and compost
- Lay mats around the new boxes to improve accessibility and reduce weeds

April 25 is going to be a day filled with spring fun during the Wyandot Chamber's Spring Fling event in downtown Upper Sandusky. It also is the Global Youth Service Day (April 24-26, 2026) which celebrates and mobilizes the millions of young people who improve their communities through service. While this event is aimed at youth volunteers, we welcome and encourage adults to volunteer as well. This is a volunteer opportunity that is open to the community.