• Initially, you may think of your school’s anniversary as a one-day thing. You may plan a pretty cake with a candle for every year you’ve been in business, perhaps streamers and balloons and maybe even a speech as staff gathers around to make a toast to continued success.

But it can be more – much more.

Krupinski Academy of Dance took making more of their celebration heart.

2015 marked Krupinski’s 40^th anniversary year. Owners Mark and Caren Krupinski hatched a plan to make their anniversary celebration last for the entire year and they wanted to benefit their community along the way.

The plan was to do a community service project every month. While it sounds potentially overwhelming, Mark, Caren, their daughter Ashley and office manager Abbey knew that their enthusiastic, energetic and creative team could accomplish it with pride.

“The trick is simplicity. Don’t make the projects elaborate and your instructors, students and their parents will jump in with both feet. People love to help others and this is especially true for kids. Giving them an avenue to help is an incredible experience for them and for us and we’re actively helping the community.”  Abbey Wagoner, Office Manager, Krupinski Academy of Dance

Here are some tips:

• Maintain simplicity, doing only projects that are reasonably attainable.
• Marry fun activities with projects to make it even more exciting for the kids.
• Make the result visible for the participants.
• Get all requirements, details, limitations from the organizations you’re going to help.
• Communicate all details of each project completely and clearly with students, parents and staff.

Here are some of the projects from Krupinski Academy of Dance’s plan:

Ruby Red Week. To celebrate the traditional 40^th anniversary gift – a ruby – students collected birthday supplies to donate to children’s charities so children in foster care/shelters can celebrate their birthdays.

Think Pink Week. Wore pink and donated to Breast Cancer Research in honor of a staff member who is a survivor.

Old Costume Week. Wore an old costume and donated new and used clothing to a shelter.

PJ Week. Donated blankets to homeless shelters. They actually donated enough that they took the fun, handmade fleece blankets to St. Louis Children’s Hospital as comfort items for patients.

Crazy Hair Week. Donated travel toiletries for those in need.

Show Your Krupinski Love Week. Wore Krupinski spirit wear or hearts and donated dance shoes and leotards to Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs.

St. Patrick’s Pride Week. Donated canned goods to large shelter.

Patriotic Week. Wore red, white and blue and donated snacks to send to troops.

Doing a variety of projects allows you to figure out what resonates with your group and your initial project gives you a good introduction into the organization so that you can provide continuous support and become an avid community service organization. Community involvement is an important component to growth and helps your organization to become embedded in the community and your core values to be outwardly visible.