PROJECTS

Over the past five years, our program has taken on dozens of projects across Kurland Village, ranging in all shapes and sizes. We know every volunteer comes to Kurland with a different and unique set of skills. SOAS believes anyone can make an impact, and we encourage volunteers to curate projects in Kurland Village before, during, and after their session. In 2019, we had an extremely talented pair of horticulturists join us for a volunteer session. A few days later, they approached the team lead and expressed their desire to build a sustainable spiral garden for the local Kindergarten school. They designed the garden, teamed up with a local nursery to procure a plant order, built the garden, and, ultimately, planted it. That garden is flourishing to this day and remains a staple at the school. These types of projects are highly encouraged throughout our program as we can see the volunteer has used their skills and knowledge to create their own unique impact. We also understand some volunteers want to try to learn skills and or participate in projects in which they haven’t had the chance to before - We encourage this just the same. There is a job for anyone and everyone.

We have participated in everything from masonry and carpentry, art-and-crafts, after school sports camps, gardening, English and Math assistance, painting, remodels, cleaning, and read-alouds, all the way to helping local feeding programs with food preparation, cooking, distribution and more. Our program has taken on some awesome projects, such as the construction of the “Smile Center” Learning Center, and the brick walkways and sustainable garden at Kurland Educare Kindergarten. SOAS refurbishes two of the largest playgrounds in the village annually; we have painted classrooms, community buildings, sponsored land clearing, and built a community vegetable garden. Just in the last 2 years we have rehabbed over 70 homes as a part of our housing improvement project. We’ve done face paintings with the kids, soccer, rugby, skateboarding, disc golf, and chess. In 2022, we brought over 800 pounds of books to start a small, free library at the Learning Center, and we give out roughly 500 new pairs of sandals in the community. Since 2023 we have been funding soup kitchens in all different areas in Kurland serving over 500 meals a week.