What is Make A Difference Day? Make A Difference Day is the most encompassing national day of helping others — a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors. Everyone can participate. Created by USA WEEKEND Magazine, Make A Difference Day is an annual event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October. The next event is Saturday, October 23, 2010. Nationally, millions have participated. In 2009, 3 million people cared enough about their communities to volunteer on that day, accomplishing thousands of projects in hundreds of towns. Locally, The Tribune Chronicle has coordinated projects in Trumbull and Mahoning County since 2003. In 2009, more than one thousand people volunteered working on 100 projects. What can I do? Your project can be as large or as small as you wish! Look around your community and see what needs to be done. A project idea generator is available at: www.makeadifferenceday.com. You can organize projects such as a coat drive, making or collecting blankets for a homeless shelter, collecting baby items for a crisis pregnancy center, clean ups at a park or vacant lot, painting or serving lunch at a shelter or senior citizen housing complex, visit senior health care centers; the choice is yours!
Make A Difference Day projects can create a video or essay of their project. The "Trumbull Challenge" will award three cash prizes. Capture your project on DVD and create a video submission of not more than 10 minutes or write an essay of 500 words or less describing your project and its impact on the community. Prizes will be awarded at a rally on Nov. 4 at the Ralph Infante Wellness Center in Niles. The deadline for video and essay submission is Oct. 26th. Click on the "Trumbull Challenge" link above and download your registration form. Volunteers Honored In 2003, the first year projects were coordinated by the Tribune Chronicle, USA WEEKEND honored Trumbull County Make A Difference Day with a $10,000 award for being one of the 10 best projects in the United States that year. In 2004 Make A Difference Day Ohio chose the event as one of the 10 best projects in Ohio. The Associated Press honored the Tribune Chronicle for Make A Difference Day in 2005 as the best community service project by a newspaper. Then in 2006, Trumbull County Make A Difference Day was named the national Encore Award winner by USA WEEKEND and received another $10,000 award. The award checks are used to fund local Make A Difference Day projects each year. Supplies are available through a grant process. Request a grant form when registering your project. The deadline for a supply grant is Friday, Sept. 3, 2010.
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