21 Days of Services

Care Like Curtis has a simple message: SERVE Curtis lived life to the fullest, with enthusiasm and wholeheartedness. He left us a legacy of inclusion, passion, optimism, connection, and celebration. His life mission was to find and create joy through service every day. Now is your chance to live that legacy.

For 21 days, we will present a daily service theme through videos, stories, or quotes. We invite you to do something with each theme. The most important thing is that you serve, so feel free to add your own activities to ours. For those in the Salt Lake City area, there will be four group service events. Find out more about those here.

Care Like Curtis is about the people Curtis loved and the people who were moved by his life’s mission and example. It’s also about the people Curtis never got to serve, and the people he advocated for. Care Like Curtis seeks to build fearless communities, united through selflessness and soul-to-soul interaction. This is what Curtis cared about most

Join us for 21 days of service in honor of Curtis’s 21st birthday. Day one will begin July 6th, the day after his birthday. Be sure to check out our group events, and don’t forget to share your experiences and ideas using #carelikecurtis. Happy serving!

Care Like Curtis Event Calendar-July 2017 Care Like Curtis Cards

Day 1 - Out & About

  • Leave $20 at a gas pump
  • Leave encouraging notes around town, on cars, and on mirrors
  • Compliment a stranger
  • Leave coins @ a laundromat
  • Pay for the person behind you in a drive through
  • Leave a note or gift card in a popular book
  • Leave a one-dollar bill in a library book
  • Return shopping carts
  • Let people ahead of you in grocery store
  • Open doors
  • Give coupons to customers waiting in line at a store
  • Feed parking meters that are close to expiration
  • Help someone carry something heavy
  • Generously tip a waiter

Day 2 - Elderly

  • Record history of old person
  • Drive them to visit friends
  • Give manicure/pedicure
  • Plant a couple of tomato plants and give them away to elderly
  • Make cards
  • Adopt a grandparent
  • Call or write own grandparent
  • Yard work for the elderly
  • Pick up medicine for a elderly person
  • Pick up morning paper
  • Help with shopping
  • Wash car
  • Go for a walk with
  • Teach how to use computer/internet
  • Read to
  • Help skype/facetime a relative
  • Bake a birthday cake

Day 3 - Government

  • Donate flags to public institutions
  • Thank you card to mailman
  • Leave a treat for your mailman
  • Contact legislators to thank them for their work
  • Collect items for soldiers
  • Honor a family that has lost a veteran
  • Interview a veteran about their life
  • Leave flowers at a grave of a veteran
  • Write to a soldier
  • Check out "Kids in Court" program

Day 4 - Sick & Afflicted

  • Reach out to a sick friend
  • Make get well cards
  • Donate blood
  • Volunteer at a hospital
  • Donate magazines, coloring books, or children's books to medical centers
  • Prepare a freezer meal
  • Make a hospital or beside gift basket
  • Sit with a sick friend or relative
  • Donate toys or games that children can play with while waiting to see the doctor
  • Thank your medical professionals
  • Do a household chore for someone that can't

Day 5 - School

  • Make a new kids survival kit for new students
  • Organize "get acquainted" lunch for new kids that have moved into your neighborhood
  • Tutor ESL students
  • Form a campus safety escort system
  • Tutor a student
  • Set up a program to provide childcare @ a PTA meeting
  • Make simple reading/math cards for preschool/daycare
  • Send a teacher that had an impact on you a note
  • Collect box tops for kids

Day 6 - Family

  • Family history
  • Popcorn surprise @ a redbox
  • Help a family move
  • Help a family unpack
  • Let other watch their favorite TV program for one whole day or even week
  • Make siblings' beds
  • Do an act of service for a family member
  • Order dessert for another family at a restaurant
  • Call a loved one you haven't spoken to in awhile
  • Offer to babysit
  • Take pictures of graves and upload them to Find a Grave
  • Be in charge of a family night
  • Make freezer meals for a family with a new baby or a family in need
  • Volunteer to do a family's grocery shopping

Day 7 - Safety

  • Deliver baked goods to firemen or policemen
  • Work with local police department to set up a booth for parents to fill out information about their children in case they go missing
  • Take a life-saving class
  • Create a play to teach children how to stay safe at home
  • Conduct a bicycle rodeo to help children learn bicycle safety
  • Volunteer at a police station
  • Become a certified lifeguard and volunteer at a swimming pool
  • Teach kids how to fix their bikes
  • Conduct bike safety checks for neighborhood
  • Spread awareness about teen suicide
  • Organize or join the neighborhood watch
  • Create and distribute a list of hotlines for kids who might need help

Day 8 - Sports & Performing Arts

  • Compose a song for someone
  • Hand out water bottles to runners
  • Volunteer to teach a class or sport
  • Form a band and give a free concert
  • Help someone learn to play a sport or instrument
  • Serve as an usher at a sporting event
  • Provide refreshments at local race or sporting event
  • Host a neighborhood pick-up game
  • Give a demonstration at a youth center or nursing home
  • Serve as a coach for a youth team
  • Volunteer as a referee
  • Start a collection for used sports equipment and donate to needy families
  • Organize an expedition to the park for neighborhood kids
  • Be a cheerleader for a sports team of someone you know

Day 9 - Mental Health

  • Drop off a favorite drink or snack to a friend
  • Call someone you know is struggling and listen to them as long as they need it
  • Let someone know you are thinking of them
  • Create a joyful experience that you can share with someone
  • Leave a flower for a friend
  • Donate to a local drug & alcohol facility
  • Thank a mental health professional for their work
  • Post about your own experience with mental health
  • Withhold judgement
  • Show an increased amount of empathy
  • Take care of a chore for them

Day 10 - Neighborhood Enhancement

  • Organize a newcomer group for families who movie in
  • Volunteer to help set up for an event
  • Build park benches
  • Identify corners where bushes and trees make it hard to see
  • Bring donuts to construction workers
  • Organize clean up party at a park
  • Present a tree to parents with new babies
  • Paint over graffiti
  • Paint a community mural
  • Help neighbor paint/ repair their home
  • Plant a community garden
  • Adopt a pothole and raise funds to repair it
  • Help fix a rundown playground
  • Participate in a parade
  • Organize a blood drive
  • Mow lawns and care for the plants of neighbors who are away on vacation

Day 11 - Parents

  • Assemble new parent kits for arrival of newborn
  • Wake up early & make breakfast or lunch for parents
  • Tell parents you love them
  • Offer to babysit for your parents or other parents
  • Clean your room
  • Help someone at church or other activity with young children
  • Record your parents’ history
  • Cheer up your siblings
  • Give a parent a sincere compliment
  • Ignore your phone while you are with your parents
  • Do a chore that your parents usually reserve for themselves
  • Spend time with a new mom or dad and offer support

Day 12 - Positivity

  • Spend a day saying only nice things to people
  • Leave heads up pennies on the sidewalk
  • Smile at everyone you see
  • Reach out to a friend or loved one and tell them you believe in them
  • Forgive and forget
  • Share a positive post
  • Give a genuine compliment to a stranger
  • Celebrate another's small successes
  • Write a positive note on a sticky note and leave it for someone else to see
  • Write a note to someone telling them things you like about them

Day 13 - Animals

  • Walk dogs for people
  • Buy animal toys to donate to the humane society
  • Volunteer at a center
  • Become a foster parent for animals waiting to be adopt
  • Learn about raising a dog for a person with a disability
  • Set up donations for pet products for the needy
  • Volunteer your pet to be used in pet therapy
  • Take care of neighbors’ pets
  • Organize community dog wash
  • Clean out animal shelters
  • Collect newspaper to donate to a shelter

Day 14 - Neighbors

  • Draw a chalk message for your neighbors to see
  • Have a block party
  • Mail a neighbor a note to volunteer to help that day
  • Catalog/donate neighbors’ items to goodwill
  • Wash someone's car
  • Organize a dinner or potluck for a neighbor
  • Have a neighborhood activity day
  • Mow a neighbor’s yard
  • Heart attack a neighbor
  • Welcome a new neighbor
  • Babysit for a neighbor
  • Organize a ride share

Day 15 - Random

  • Collect unused scout uniforms and donate to a scout troop
  • Offer people rides to meetings and activities
  • Book drive for a library
  • Serve dinner to church group
  • Buy 5$ gift card to give out to someone that makes your day
  • Find a gofundme and make a donation
  • Donate all spare change to a charity
  • Donate clothes and books
  • School supplies for a teacher
  • Celebrate a birthday by asking friends to donate to something you support instead of buying you presents
  • Become pen pals with a younger person or someone overseas
  • Write to missionaries
  • Help clean up after activity

Day 16 - Children

  • Volunteer to do story time @ a library
  • Knit/crochet baby blankets
  • Donate clothes to a daycare for dress up
  • Assist with babysitting for a woman's activity
  • Read a book to a child
  • Put quarters on a gumball machine
  • Donate children's pjs to Sleep Train for foster children
  • Stop @ a kid’s lemonade stand and buy something
  • Collect coloring books for children's hospital
  • Leave bubbles/hula hoop/ chalk @ a park
  • Give out stickers
  • Donate a toy to Toy for Tots
  • Teach a child a skill
  • Teach a child a game you played as a kid
  • Go on a walk with a child
  • Design a game for young children

Day 17 - Environment

  • Clean grounds of a cemetery
  • Spend the day with family and friends enjoying the beauty of the world
  • Plant a tree in honor of someone
  • Create a children's nature garden
  • Create a nature scavenger hunt and invite others to join
  • Volunteer to mow someone's lawn
  • Pick up litter
  • Donate to a zoo
  • Plant a garden
  • Organize a car-pooling system for your neighborhood
  • Grow fresh flowers and deliver them to someone
  • Pick up a trail
  • Adopt a park
  • Build bird feeders
  • Organize a hike or picnic
  • Use a bike instead of a car

Day 18 - Special Needs

  • Clean yard of someone who can't do it
  • Read a book to a blind person/ special needs
  • Volunteer/host special Olympics
  • Visit rehab center/volunteer
  • Set up buddy system for kids with special needs for school or neighborhood
  • Volunteer at agency that works with disabled people
  • Work with disabled person on an art project
  • Build a ramp for a person in a wheelchair
  • Plan disability day
  • Check neighborhood for possible barriers for disabled

Day 19 - Sunshine Day

  • Go out of your way to make a new friend
  • Listen
  • Smile at everyone you see
  • Sit down and really talk to someone
  • Wave at neighbors
  • Leave a creative smiley face for your loved ones (use banana and apples)
  • Share an experience with someone you love (sunset/walk)
  • Leave an inspirational book on the bus

Day 20 - Gratitude

  • Thank someone who has done a service for you
  • Stick a note somewhere to make someone smile
  • Write letter/note
  • Send meaningful text to someone in your contacts
  • Facebook a genuine compliment to 3 people
  • Treat a friend to lunch
  • Tell someone that has had an impact on you how much they mean to you
    • >

Day 21 - Homeless

  • Help cook/serve a meal at a homeless shelter
  • Food donation
  • Make activity kits for children in a shelter
  • Make sock puppets for shelters/ hospital/ disabled
  • Buy a gallon of water for someone
  • Donate used coats
  • Homeless bags
  • Toiletries bags
  • Conduct a clothing repair/ sewing class for the needy
  • Donate old eyeglasses
  • Habitat for humanity
  • Become a Big Buddy
  • Organize a food scavenger hunt to donate to needy
  • Help with repairs at a shelter
  • Gather clothes and donate
  • Pack/hand out food at a food bank
  • Sponsor a food drive
  • Prepare a home cooked meal for residents of a nearby shelter
  • Set up a reading hour to read to homeless and leave books