Silver Cord Opportunities

Silver Cord is a program in the Waukee district, where students volunteer for organizations permitted by the district. Silver Cord is a great opportunity for students who like volunteering or want to try it. To complete the Silver Cord program you need 150 hours of volunteering completed by April 15th of your senior year and you will receive a silver cord at graduation. If you want to try Silver Cord but don’t end up reaching all of the hours there is no consequence, just no silver cord at graduation. One way to find Silver Cord opportunities is through the Waukee Community Education website, which is also where you log your Silver Cord hours after volunteering. However, here are some organizations that have many volunteering opportunities.

First, is a non-profit organization called Can Play. Can Play was created for people who have possible hurdles, like special needs or limited budgets that can prevent them from playing sports, doing crafts, or hanging out with friends. This organization gives people the opportunities to do all of these things and more by finding volunteers and receiving donations from people who want to give back to their community. Can Play is not affiliated with the Waukee school district and has many different events to sign up for. One of the volunteer opportunities they have hosted in the past is “Courage on the Court”, which is a wheelchair basketball tournament that brings awareness to people who wouldn’t be able to or would struggle to play basketball and give them that opportunity. If you are looking for opportunities soon, you can go to the Silver Cord website to sign up for upcoming events. However, if you are looking to become a long-term volunteer for this organization you can go to their website and sign up to receive emails or texts for future opportunities to volunteer. Overall, there are many fun activities hosted by this organization, and volunteering with them can help you build community, and relationships, improve mental health, and give your Silver Cord hours.

Next, is almost any church in the area. Some examples are the Lutheran Church of Hope Waukee, Valley Church, Waukee Community Church, and more. Depending on your religion this could be a good volunteering opportunity for you. Many churches in the area have volunteering programs for helping during worship, helping behind the scenes, helping set up events within the church, and VBS. VBS stands for Vacation Bible School and is a week-long camp for kids during the summertime. Depending on the church you want to go to you could likely be a craft helper, nursery helper, snack helper, or one of the leaders of the group who stays with the kids and leads them to the different activities. Sophomore Lila Bower said, “My favorite organization to volunteer for is Valley Church Children’s Ministry. I volunteer here every Wednesday night and I get to help out kids! This church is amazing and everyone is so welcoming. Helping out with the kids doesn’t feel like I’m volunteering, because it’s so fun!” This is a fun opportunity and can give you skills working with kids and co-leading a group. Along with life skills VBS and any church on the Silver Cord organizations list, can give you good Silver Cord hours.

Another option if you like animals is an animal rescue, a zoo, or a camp for animals. You can go to the Waukee Community Education website, then the organizations section, and put animals in the category option to find all of the organizations. But some good options are the Blank Park Zoo where you can be a zoo crew volunteer. If you don’t want to volunteer at the zoo you could go to the Animal Rescue League or the Hope Animal Rescue of Iowa. At the Animal Rescue League, you can help feed and walk the animals. As well as cleaning around and assisting with events at the ARL. 

Additionally, if you’re interested in athletics you can do volunteer work for many different sports. If you want to help out with sports at WHS or NWHS then you might have to wait until it’s the season for those sports so you can help out. Sophomore Lydia Bennet said, “My favorite event I’ve volunteered for so far has been the Drake Relays because it’s track and I enjoy track. So I got to see the behind-the-scenes side of track.” You can go to the Silver Cord website or wait for them to pop into your email with sign-up links. There are many fun clubs and less common sports to sign up for like fencing club, pickleball club, figure skating, and rowing. But you can also volunteer for almost every sport at some point throughout the year.

Lastly, there are many other organizations and great opportunities to volunteer for, which can all be found on the Waukee Community Education website. A few more organizations you can volunteer for are the Des Moines Playhouse, Meals From the Heartland, elementary schools, parks, clubs, and more. Senior James Bohnenkamp, who completed the Silver Cord program said, “My favorite organization I volunteered for was the Des Moines Playhouse because it let me do something I enjoy and helped me get closer to the theater community.” 

Silver Cord is an optional program but has so many benefits for students who want to help give back to the community. James Bohnenkamp said, “I would recommend Silver Cord because it’s a great way to help out your community and grow as an individual.” Silver Cord is a low-stakes program and is a great option for you if you’re interested. Doing community service with your friends can also be very fun and rewarding. Lila Bower said, “My favorite part about Silver Cord is that sometimes I get to volunteer for organizations with my friends. I also love that feeling of getting to help out people and organizations.”

Graphic by Tori Bohnenkamp using Canva