Sacred Service Commendation (SSC)

Members must complete seventy five (75) hours of faith-centered service and a 500-word essay.

Administrative, hospitality, and behind-the-scenes support, such as preparing mailings, assembling packets, organizing supplies, making decorations, helping with registration, greeting attendees, preparing food, serving meals, parking cars, assisting clergy or staff, or supporting the daily work of the faith community, shall qualify.

Childcare and youth support such as assisting in nurseries, children’s programs, youth activities, religious camps, family events, or supervised programs for younger members of the faith community, shall qualify.

Congregational and faith-community service, such as setting up or cleaning up for services, classes, celebrations, meals, receptions, fellowship events, holiday observances, religious festivals, youth group events, retreats, or other gatherings hosted by the faith community, shall qualify.

Facility and grounds service such as painting, cleaning, organizing, repairing, landscaping, raking, planting, decorating, preparing classrooms, arranging chairs, maintaining worship or education spaces, or helping care for the physical needs of a church, synagogue, mosque, temple, gurdwara, parish, religious school, or other faith-based institution shall qualify.

Faith-community events and fundraisers such as helping with bake sales, bazaars, yard sales, holiday markets, car washes, dinners, auctions, festivals, or other fundraising or community-building events that benefit the applicant’s own house of worship or faith-based organization shall qualify.

Mission, pilgrimage, or service-trip work, when the member is actively performing volunteer labor in support of the religious or charitable purpose of the trip. Qualifying hours may include teaching, assisting with faith-based programs, preparing materials, serving meals, repairing buildings, supporting community outreach, or helping with organized service activities. Travel time, sleeping, eating, recreation, sightseeing, and personal participation time may not be counted.

Religious education support, such as assisting with Sunday school, Hebrew school, Quranic school, religious education classes, vacation Bible school, youth faith formation programs, sacramental preparation, children’s ministry, or other instructional programs offered by a faith community, shall qualify.

Worship service support, such as serving as an altar server, acolyte, usher, greeter, reader, cantor, choir assistant, music volunteer, livestream or sound booth volunteer, projection/media assistant, program distributor, prayer book or hymnal assistant, or other role that helps prepare for, conduct, or support worship services, shall qualify.

Candidates for the SSC award must submit an essay in their own words. The essay shall be no more than 500 words and shall answer the question,

In 500 words, reflect on what it means to serve a faith community. How did your sacred service help you better understand responsibility, humility, commitment, the tenets of your faith, and the idea of faith in action? Your essay should focus less on listing what you did and more on what the experience taught you about showing up for others in a meaningful and dependable way.

All essays must be typed or copied into the designated text field of the member portal. Younger members who do not type independently are encouraged to dictate their response to a parent or teacher who can type their reply online. Responses emailed or uploaded as attachments will not be accepted.

The complete written response must reflect the member’s own words, thoughts, and personal reflection. Artificial intelligence may not be used to draft, write, or substantially revise the response. Volunteer Scholars reserves the right to use AI-detection tools and other review methods to evaluate the authenticity of submitted essays. Responses determined to be generated by AI, copied, or otherwise not the member’s original work may be rejected.

Members must have a valid, current membership in Volunteer Scholars at the Elite or Elite Senior level to pursue the Sacred Service Commendation.

There is no US citizenship requirement for this award.

A member must be age 6 by August 31 (in other words, the student may have completed some activities while 5 years old, but must turn 6 by the end of the award cycle). There is no upper age limit for the SSC. Although Volunteer Scholars is predominantly a student organization, adults are also welcome to enroll.

The SSC award year shall run from September 1 through August 31 each year. All SSC activities, hours, and documentation must be entered in the Volunteer Scholars online portal by 11:59 pm on August 31. Applications received after that time cannot be counted for the closing year, nor can they be carried forward to the next year.

All faith service activities and hours must be entered in discrete entries in the Volunteer Scholars online portal with dates, benefitting organization, detailed descriptions, and accompanying documentation.

Members must submit back-up documentation demonstrating that they have completed the hours they reported on their Volunteer Activity Logs. Back-up documentation must contain the beneficiary organization’s name, institutional address and website; supervisor’s or volunteer coordinator’s name, signature, phone number, and email, and either the start/end or duration and date(s) worked or the total number of hours worked. Forms of accepted back-up documentation include:

• Letter from organizer/supervisor at the beneficiary organization on the organization’s letterhead.
• Email from organizer/supervisor at the beneficiary organization from the organization’s email account, not a personal email.
• Certificate from the beneficiary organization
• ‘Thank You’ Note from the beneficiary organization
• An Organization’s Time Tracking Log from a single charitable organization, such as a public library’s log or hospital volunteer management system, provided it comes from their system and contains a clear identifier such as the organization’s logo and/or contact information. (See note below about school and organization logs that are not accepted.)
• Logbook where each entry shows date worked, start/end times, total time worked, beneficiary organization name, task(s) completed, and beneficiary organization’s representative’s name, phone number, email address, and signature.
• Photographs of you performing the work
• Volunteer Scholars Time Tracking Sheet

Participation in religious education, catechism, confirmation classes, Hebrew school, Quranic study, Bible study, youth group lessons, required sacramental preparation, or similar religious instruction does not qualify. These activities are educational or faith-formation activities for the participant, not volunteer service.

Reading religious texts, books about religion, theology, church history, world religions, ethics, or philosophy does not qualify. Attending classes, lectures, retreats, seminars, or discussion groups as a participant also does not qualify. These may be valuable educational experiences, but they are not service hours.

Attending worship services, prayer services, Mass, temple services, mosque services, meditation sessions, religious festivals, youth group meetings, retreats, or other faith activities as a participant does not qualify. Only active volunteer roles that support the event, program, or faith community may be counted.

Service performed through a house of worship or religious organization that primarily benefits the broader community does not qualify as sacred service. Instead, this type of work may qualify as community service for the American Volunteer Service Award (AVSA).

Examples include:

• food drives
• food pantries
• meals for the homeless
• clothing drives
• disaster-relief collections
• refugee assistance
• community cleanups
• blood drives
• fundraising for an outside charitable cause

Even if these activities are organized by a church, synagogue, mosque, temple, youth group, or faith community, they are considered community service when the primary beneficiary is the broader public or an outside charitable cause.

Time spent attending meals, parties, lock-ins, retreats, camps, conferences, dances, fellowship events, games, recreation, sightseeing, travel, sleeping, or informal social time does not qualify unless the student is actively volunteering in a documented service role, such as organizing, setting up, running, staffing, or cleaning up from such event.

Members who have carefully reviewed these Guidelines and do not see their faith-based service type addressed may contact Volunteer Scholars to ask whether the activity is likely to qualify. A Volunteer Scholars team member may provide an opinion and general guidance; however, this correspondence is not a guarantee of approval. Additional details, context, or supporting documentation may show that an activity does not meet Volunteer Scholars’ criteria.

Please note that approval by a school, club, or other organization does not guarantee that Volunteer Scholars will accept the hours. Activities must meet Volunteer Scholars’ guidelines, even if another group has approved, awarded, or recognized the hours.

Volunteer Scholars is unable to provide individualized guidance about qualifying activities to non-members.

All activities must be reported in the online Activity Log within the member’s Volunteer Scholars portal. Each activity entered by date or shift must include appropriate supporting documentation, as described above, and must be submitted for review and approval. Activities left in “Draft” status will not be reviewed.

Activities may be approved upon first review or returned to the member with one of the following flags: Documentation Requested, Revision Needed, or Question. The member must make the required changes, attach supporting documentation, and/or respond to reviewer questions, then re-submit the activity for review.

Please note: Updating an activity, attaching documentation, answering a question in the Message Center, or sending supplemental details by email does not automatically send the activity back to reviewers. The activity must be re-submitted before it can be reviewed again for approval.

Members who have submitted all faith service activities and/or reached the required number of hours may consider themselves finished for the award year. If they do not plan to submit any additional hours for review and certification before the August 31 award deadline, they must indicate completion by checking the “Entries Complete” box in their member profile.

If this box is not checked, Volunteer Scholars will assume the member is still actively adding hours and is not yet ready for final award review.

For the Sacred Service Commendation, Volunteer Scholars covers the cost of furnishing and shipping the award. All SSC recipients will receive a print-ready, downloadable digital certificate and a 3″ medal on a purple neck ribbon.

Volunteer Scholars will review all faith service entries and maintains the right to contact beneficiary organizations to verify work completed. Volunteer Scholars may reject any entries that are incorrectly documented, unsubstantiated, or that are of an excluded type of participation.

Rejection of one or more of member’s faith service activities shall not be grounds for a refund of the annual membership fees.