Groove With Me is celebrating the end of the spring semester with a dance recital performed by their girls – this time at the Apollo Theatre!

Can you assist these young dancers at recitals on May 15 and June 5? We need female volunteers with solid chaperoning, mentoring, or teaching experience. Contact Rachel Turnowski for more info.

As summer approaches and outdoor distractions abound, NYC students can often use a little extra help making sure they stay focused on their school work and end the year with great grades.

We have several new after school Homework Help programs ready to go in Queens, but our partners at I.S. 5 Q in Elmhurst, Elmcor Youth and Adult Activities in Corona, and St. Michael’s School in Flushing have been waiting months on Team Leaders to launch these projects!

Help us get them off the ground – contact Priscilla.Lam@newyorkcares.org about becoming a Homework Help Team Leader. You can choose to work with students from kindergarten to middle school age, reviewing assignments and providing academic support through the end of the school year.

Our volunteers tell us that one of the best things about volunteering with New York Cares is the variety of projects we offer. No matter how you’re looking to improve your community, we’ve got a little something for everyone. If you’re looking for more ways to get involved at New York Cares, you can help us launch dozens of new projects like these by becoming a Team Leader:

• Math Games – Review basic math concepts with elementary school students before or after school.
• Homework Help – Tutor students of all ages at one of several partner agencies in Queens, Brooklyn, or Manhattan.
• Yoga – Teach children basic yoga poses and breathing exercises on a daytime project in the Bronx or Manhattan.
• Food Pantry Distribution – Distribute bagged food to those in need in Washington Heights-Inwood.
• Citizenship Through English – Assist immigrants preparing for the U.S. Citizenship Exam through informal conversation.

Contact Takisha.Dozier@newyorkcares.org if you’re interested in any of these projects. View the full list of projects in need of a Team Leader here.

In just three weeks, thousands of generous New Yorkers have signed up to answer 17,000 gift requests through our Winter Wishes program. A huge thanks to all of the individuals and teams from companies and groups around the city who make this program possible.

We still have 15,000 letters for volunteers to answer, so please spread the word about this program to everyone you know. You can learn more about how to get involved by watching NY1′s interview with ED Gary Bagley, view sample letters on Facebook, or register at www.newyorkcares.org/winterwishes.

We’re always looking for ways to better our educational programs, and sometimes basic resources can make a huge difference in what volunteers and the students with which they work are able to accomplish. Help us improve the quality of activities on our projects – purchase a book, a game, lab equipment, or other supplies on our Amazon wishlist.

The strategy and word games on this list will help students in our Homework Help and Math Games programs practice critical thinking and literacy skills, and the labcoats, microscopes, and thermometers will enhance our Mad Scientists programs.

Share this list with your friends and help us get the word out to more people who can support our programs.

Our office has been getting a cute overload for the past couple of weeks as we’ve been sorting through children’s letters that come in through our Winter Wishes program.

One eight-year-old boy asks for a piggy bank because he wants to save money. “I also want a piggy bank because I can sleep with it. I can read the piggy bank stories and tickle it,” he says.

You can make winter wishes like this boy’s come true by taking one of the 32,000 letters we’ve received from low-income children and families this year. Take a look at some of the letters we’ve received on our Facebook page.

We know you won’t be able to resist these adorable letters and you’ll want to take them all, so start a team of friends and family to help you purchase gifts. Register at www.newyorkcares.org/winterwishes.

For their last project of the school year, the children and volunteers at P.S. 297 K took a break from their usual Sports Explorers program to revitalize one of their local community gardens. The kids had a blast beautifying Patrick J. Van Doren Pocket Park, especially painting new signs for the garden.

Can you think of more fun crossover projects like this that we could try? Post your suggestions here as a comment.

Just because school’s out doesn’t mean kids stop learning. Summer is the perfect time for students – and New York Cares volunteers – to dig deeper into their favorite subjects.

If you’ve ever wondered about the temperature at which ice cream freezes or how you could use science to solve a crime, consider joining our Mad Scientist program that kicks off this week for elementary school students.

Volunteers and students work on simple hands-on experiments.  It’s a great way to exercise creativity while analyzing information, making predictions, and testing hypotheses on fun science projects. To learn more, contact Elizabeth.John@newyorkcares.org.

As the deadline for our Winter Wishes program approaches, we still have 12,000 letters from kids, teens and families to give out.  Each letter is a request for a holiday gift from someone who may not get anything else special this holiday season.  Can you help?

If you, your family, company, church or synagogue, or community group would like to give gifts to families in need this season, please sign up today for Winter Wishes.