With finals coming up, Sterling High School offers students to exempt one final if they meet the following requirements: zero disciplinary referrals, all A’s, B’s, and C’s, and a 95% attendance rate. In addition, students between the 90-94.9% attendance rate are allowed to serve three community service hours to fulfill the remaining absences. If you are having trouble deciding where to serve the hours, here is a list of places and ideas that offer community service. 

  Animal Shelters At an animal shelter you can clean cages, walk dogs, or help with any other assistance needed. There is an animal shelter in Rock Falls called “Happy Tails” and another in Dixon called “Granny Rose Animal Shelter.” An animal shelter is a fun place to serve hours, not to mention the adorable furry friends you will be able to see.

  CGH Medical Center CGH Medical Center offers many different opportunities, such as the reception desk where volunteers greet hospital visitors and help patients who need wheelchair support, and emergency department liaisons where volunteers provide information and comfort to patients and families. Opportunities are also available at the gift shop where volunteers assist gift shop staff and greet and assist customers in the hospital gift shop as well as floor workers who deliver mail, newspapers, and flowers to patients in the hospital. CGH Hospital is a great location to serve your community service hours. There are many different tasks to choose from, and this helps ease up the work. 

  Elementary Buildings Elementary buildings such as Jefferson Elementary, Franklin Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, and Washington Elementary allow you to work with teachers. While at these schools you can help organize and create materials for students. Considering that the holidays are coming up, a lot of assistance for Christmas crafts will be needed. 

  Janitorial Work Helping our janitors at S.H.S. is beneficial as it keeps our school looking fresh and clean. You can help after school or after lunch if you have a study hall or open hour. You can also stay directly after sporting events and help clean up. 

  Neighbors If you are stuck on where to serve your community service hours, you can always walk next door and ask your neighbors if they need any assistance. This can include walking dogs, raking leaves, shoveling the driveway, or washing cars. Helping anywhere in the community is appreciated. 

  Retirement Homes Retirement homes always look for volunteers to read and play board games with their residents. With the holidays coming up, the residents are in more need of company to help uplift the Christmas spirit. 

  Overall, there are many different locations around the community that offer volunteer services. With finals right around the corner, it is important to turn in your community service hour form to the main office in order to still qualify to exempt a final. There are a variety of choices you can choose from.