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ReadMe File

Getting kids involved in their community helps them learn a sense of responsibility, that one person can make a difference, and even job skills that will serve them well in any career. However, it is not always easy to get kids to give up time that they could be playing video games, hanging out with friends or involved with numerous sports and volunteer instead. Our web app, The Rising Forest, makes it fun for kids to do community service and to keep volunteering by making it a game!

The kids create a chari-pet (dog, cat or bear) that lives in the Rising Forest. The school teachers have administrator privledges on the site, allowing them to put weekly community service challenges up on the site. As kids complete the challenges each week, the teacher enters a code to award points for that child's chari-pet. The points are used to rank a class leaderboard, inspiring competition among the kids to complete more volunteer challenges. The points are also used to reach certain milestones, where the chari-pet evolves into a larger pet.

During the planning phase, we were concerned that people would try to claim they did the community service to get points but not actually do the service. By giving the teachers anministrative privledges, the onus is on them to verify the challenges have actually been completed. In addition, the administrators can choose challenges that highlight different people or organizations in need and help the kids be involved in a wide variety of volunteer opportunities.

In conclusion, there are many benefits to kids and the community if they get involved in voulunteering. Unfortunately, there is not always the motivation for kids to get involved. The Rising Forest helps motivate them by turning community service into a game where they can grow a chari-pet and compete with their friends and classmates.

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