ALERT: to see special holiday volunteer opportunities, click here

By Cade Greenwald

Alert: Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS) Drama Tech Crew- Ponte Vedra High School’s drama program performs 2-3 shows every year. In order to put on these fantastic shows, they need a technical crew made up of PVHS students who create the sets, maintain the curtains, and control the lights and microphones.  These tasks require the students to sacrifice much of their time but the rewards 24 hours per show. To be a part of the tech crew, find the PVHS drama teacher, Mr. Nettle, in the drama room.

• Top Soccer- Top Soccer is a non-profit organization that gathers an abundance of high school students to coach young special needs kids for 2 hours a week. It starts in the beginning of December when students meet at Patton Park to be assigned to a child. In the following weeks, students must get the children accustomed to them through positive words and fun training sessions. In summary, Top Soccer is an amazing way to share the beautiful game to kids who are not as fortunate as others. To obtain more information, email i2scoop88@gmail.com.

• Jax Thrive– Jax Thrive is a youth led, non-profit organization whose task is to tutor and inspire refugee children. Students meet in Jacksonville every Saturday to teach the children math, reading, vocab, STEM.

• Epic Cure- Epic Cure is a charity organization dedicated to eliminating all food waste by obtaining food, that would normally be thrown out, from grocery stores and sharing it to people in the St. Augustine area that need it. Middle to high school students come each week of the year to help carry extreme loads of food boxes from grocery trucks and organize them on their tremendous amounts of shelves. Then, each Thursday evening, volunteers open up the epic cure warehouse and help distribute the foods to the people in need. To obtain more information, email info@stjohnsvolunteers.org.

• Jax Humane Society– Jax Humane Society (JHS) is an independent, non-profit organization in Jacksonville that takes in and cares for dogs in need. With donations from locals and help from volunteers, dogs are fed properly and are given a health amount of exercise. In order to join their cause as a high schooler, students must join the JHS Summer program where they have to volunteer one to two times a week for 12 weeks.

• Habitat for Humanity (HabiJax) – HabiJax is the largest non-profit affordable house building organization in Duval County. Volunteers perform a variety of tasks such as house wrap, window install, caulking, vinyl siding, painting, landscaping, laying sod, and lot clean up. In order to volunteer for construction, it is required that the volunteer is 16 years of age or older.

• Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS) Drama Tech Crew- Ponte Vedra High School’s drama program performs 2-3 shows every year. In order to put on these fantastic shows, they need a technical crew made up of PVHS students who create the sets, maintain the curtains, and control the lights and microphones.  These tasks require the students to sacrifice much of their time but the rewards 24 hours per show. To be a part of the tech crew, find the PVHS drama teacher, Mr. Nettle, in the drama room.

• American Red Cross– American Red Cross, one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world, serves to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. Student volunteers can obtain jobs like the “Boots on the Ground” position where they work irregular hours, do physical labor, and serve in communities under strain from a natural disaster.

• Epic Cure- Epic Cure is a charity organization dedicated to eliminating all food waste by obtaining food, that would normally be thrown out, from grocery stores and sharing it to people in the St. Augustine area that need it. Middle to high school students come each week of the year to help carry extreme loads of food boxes from grocery trucks and organize them on their tremendous amounts of shelves. Then, each Thursday evening, volunteers open up the epic cure warehouse and help distribute the foods to the people in need. To obtain more information, email info@stjohnsvolunteers.org.

• School Clubs- Once every year Ponte Vedra High School hosts a club fair to advertise the student-created clubs. Although some are based around fun activities or sports, there are many clubs that offer service hours for spending time with that specific club. For example, beach clean-up clubs like Beaches Go Green and Sand Sharks are the most popular for students at the school because of the opportunities for hours they offer each week. However, since the club fair was months ago, students wanting to join a club need to ask around PVHS to find out who the club leaders are. The leaders are the people who add new members into clubs.

• Meals on Wheels– Meals on Wheels is a nationwide network of community-based, non-profit programs dedicated to providing seniors with the support that enables them to remain living in their own homes. When volunteering for Meals on Wheels, the most common job is delivering meals and friendly greetings to homebound seniors. The job often involves picking up meals at a central location and bringing them to pre-determined homes of several seniors in a community.