Youth Patriotism Awards Service Award GOLD (Youth 11-18)

Requirements: To earn the Youth Patriotism Award � Service GOLD Medal a youth must complete ALL of the following: Meaning of Service List what service means to you. After you have completed your list, look up service in the dictionary. Explain the differences. Describe for your counselor what YOU think a youth (like you) can do as a service to your community, state, and nation. List at least 5 ways a youth can make a difference. Discuss with your family what service means to them. Talk with them about what your family does for service. Interview at least three other youths and ask them what service means to them. Taking the list of what service means to you (req 1a), compare it with the answers from the other youths. Discuss with your counselor why there are differences. The How of Citizenship Explain the ways a person becomes a citizen of the United States. . With your counselor�s help, find out what a person that immigrates (comes) to the United States has to do. How long must they live in the United States? Either by research or by talking to family members and your counselor, explain the rights, duties, and obligations of US Citizenship. Service from Close to Home to Far Away With approval of your family, decide on an age appropriate project that you can do inside or outside of your home and complete this project. This project should benefit your family and should not be just a �chore� or typical household task. At the completion of the project, discuss with your family how it benefits the family and take turns describing how it makes each family member feel. Plan and carry out a project that involves the participation of your family or family-like members. The project should allow for central participation of the youth. After completing the project, discuss with your counselor the overall goal, who participated, what each person did, overall results, and benefits that were gained by the project. Giving of your Time Complete 4 hours of volunteer service. This volunteer service can aid your community, church, school, or any other organization. Service can be multiple events that add up to 4 hours. Write a short story (at least 500 words) about Service in the United States.

Electives: In addition to the above Requirements, you must also complete some electives. These electives can come from any of the below. Electives from the following list only count once (even if you complete an elective multiple times). Once the number of electives needed for the medal is complete, your counselor can place an order for the medal. Completing additional electives enables you to earn Elective Stars that are placed on the ribbon of the medal. Award Number of Electives Needed Gold Medal 5 Gold Medal and 1 Gold star 10 Gold Medal and 2 Gold stars 15 Gold Medal and 3 Gold stars 20 Visit and Experience: Visit a local fire station or police station. Meet with some of the men and women that work at these locations. Discuss with them what service to their community and country means to them. Visit an active duty soldier or somebody (other than a close family member) that was a soldier. Discuss what service to their country means to them. Visit a battlefield or military cemetery. Discuss with your counselor the soldiers� service to their country. Visit a Hotline service phone center. Discuss with an employee or volunteer what the service does and why it is important to the community. Visit a community medical clinic. Talk to a person that works there and ask them about the service the clinic provides. Ask them what caused them to serve in that facility. Visit a VA hospital and thank the a few patients for their service to our country. Visit with a nurse or a doctor and talk with them about their service to the community. Ask them why they decided to go into medicine. Visit a Red Cross center or any other mobile medical facility. Ask any of the people that support it what the service does and why it is important to the community. Visit a soup kitchen or food drive center. If possible volunteer to help. Visit a work training center. Discuss with the persons working there how the center benefits the community. Learn More: Using the internet (with parent or guardian�s permission), the library, or other resources, research a charitable or service organization. Discuss the good this organization does with your counselor. Have your counselor relate to you a speech or event focusing on service that they remember. Discuss with your why it was memorable and what it means to them. Tell your counselor any event you might remember. With your counselor�s help, find out more information about the Boys Club / Girls Club or some similar organization that cares for youths. What does this organization do? Why is it important? With your counselor�s help, find out more information about Habitat for Humanity or some other similar organization that provides homes. What does this organization do? Why is it important? With your counselor�s approval, choose a speech of national importance speaking to service. Find out about the author and the time/situation in which it was given. Explain the importance of the speech at the time it was given. Tell how it applies to all Americans. Describe what in the speech is significant to you and tell why. Learn by Doing: With your counselor�s help, choose a charitable organization, contact or visit the organization, find out what a young person can do to help, and volunteer to help. Describe how it made you feel and what benefit it added to the community/state/nation. Complete 2 hour of volunteer service. Unlike all other electives this, this elective can be completed multiple times and counts as one elective per 2 hour of volunteer service. Participate in a family, school, unit, or school service project. Participate in a walk-a-thon or other charitable event. Donate an article of clothing or toy to a charitable organization (i.e. The Salvation Army, Goodwill, or the like). Talk to your school teacher about their service to the youths they teach. Ask them to explain why they decided to teach and what service means to them. Create a poem about Service. Make a �Thank You� card and send it to a volunteer in your community. Participate in �Keep America Beautiful�, Adopt a Highway, or some other beautification project. Discuss with a religious leader in the community or your church the opportunity to serve the community through the church. Participate or witness a church service project. Participate in �Scouting for Food� or another similar food drive. Participate in a Holiday Charity drive.