During my community service hours I helped with running the rides during two events, HallOVeen and Magical Forest. The first time I helped with their new ride called “The Avalanche Slide”. A partner and I stood at the very top, awaited the herds of children to come, and then helped them safely get onto the slide. The second event did not divert much from the first as I also helped with running a ride, this time it was the Christmas train. The third time I volunteered I helped with transforming HallOVeen into Magical Forest. We were able to put up decorations to make the Christmas theme more festive. I thought the repetition made the volunteer experience very tedious. Although the experience was fun the work was overwhelming. The volunteer …show more content…
Other than volunteering a couple hours of my service there was not any unique service I provided. In all honesty, anyone could have replaced me and no one would have notice my absence. I do not believe it was my fault, I would have definitely tried giving some kind of personalized service, but there was not an opportunity to do it. The interactions with the people attending the events were less than a minute, so I couldn 't even give the kids personalized service, other than trying my best for them to not get hurt within the seconds they were under my care. Even though my service made no particular changed I think my help was still a benefit to the organization since I helped run the …show more content…
First of, when I initially selected this site I expected to have been able to volunteer closely with the adults who had the intellectual disabilities and to have been able to connect with them. I wanted to learn more about what they go through, their challenges, and how they learn. Considering their website does not clearly state that volunteers do not generally do this, I was not aware. Later through some inquiring, I discovered they had different program where they allowed volunteers to help with the intellectually challenged people. Unfortunately to apply to this program I had to go through a background check, a drug test, and follow a strict schedule. The process mirrored that of an actual job. I think I would have actually done it, but the schedule was too difficult to squeeze into my already full
This semester I have been volunteering at the Youth Detention Center (YDC). YDC is a youth center for those youth ages 13-18 that have committed crimes, from running away from home to cutting the hydraulic brake lines of their parent's car. When is is concluded that the youth can no longer be active members in their communities, they are sent to YDC. There are four different units: H is for the youth that are in court right now but cannot stay at home, E is the girls unit, G unit is for the boys who committed minor crimes and felonies, and F unit is for the boys who committed major crimes and felonies such as sexual assault and dealing drugs. What first drew me to YDC was the fact that an ex-boyfriend of mine almost went there in the eighth grade, and was a troubled kid just like them. I could see a little bit of him in each of the residents and by trying to help them it felt like I was helping him in some strange way. Being a nursing major also makes me think that I can just mother the world, so I wanted to work at a service learning site that made me feel like I was fulfilling my mothering goals.
The service experience that I enjoyed the most was the Festivice. The Festivice is run by the Special Olympics of York County and was held on January 16, 2016 in downtown York. While I was volunteering at the Festivice, my friends and I had to run the ice sled and supervise kids going on the bouncy house. At the ice sled, I had to collect the sleds after they have been used and return them back to the top. I also had to catch kids at the end of the ice hill. While at the bouncy house, I had to set a timer for three minutes , so that every kid gets a fair amount of time to play in the bouncy house and I had to supervise the kids.
A community is to help and support each other to be successful. Everyone is involved in a certain community regardless of anything. A community I am commit with is CAMP from CSUMB which stands for College Assistance Migrant Program. My community is a federally funded program that assists first year freshmen who have a migrant background and students whose parents are seasonal farmworkers. CAMP assist their students with many useful services such as with a grant of up to 1,200 dollars. My community is very important to me for the reason they are guiding me to be successful while encouraging me to graduate from college. In my community we tend to communicate really often such as in the article "Learning to Serve" by Toni Mirabelli. As in the article, my community also communicates by using various literacy such as writing, reading , and speaking.
The first time I started volunteering was last year and it changed my perspective towards a lot of things; from the way of looking at people to how my mind works. The impact it's had on my life has been immense and life changing. From there, I constantly tried getting myself involved in giving a hand and at the same time, to widen my knowledge.
What connections do you make between your service-learning experiences and some of the themes addressed in class (justice, love, rights, responsibility, relationships, etc.)?
I find myself extremely passionate in Community Service, I have volunteered at Emmanuel Apostolic Church during Vacation Bible School for the past two summers, preparing food, coming up with creative ideas to keep children occupied, and making sure children are safe. During this time my leadership and conversational skills have strengthened. In addition to that, I have also volunteered there on numerous occasions to feed the homeless. In high school, I also volunteered at an Elderly home on bingo night to interact with the elderly, gave a listening ear, it was extremely rewarding to see them smile, laugh, and interact with me as if they had known me for a while; that showed me how much they appreciate having company. I take huge delight in
Over the years I have been very involved in my community and school. Being a part of something helps to define who you are as a person and the principles and values you hold as important. A personal experience that helps to show my talents and skills can be illustrated by my trip to Italy last April with the MHS Language Department.
During my 2 years as a member of The National Honor Society, I have done multiple community services. The best part of doing services is watching others smile because of what I have done to help them better their lives. When I was part of Earth Day at my school, I traveled to the historical paterson great falls. To interact with children on how to reuse our resources to help our community become cleaner. The best part of doing this is that a week after our service, the children were beginning to take small steps by picking up trash off the parks.
What does community service mean to you? What experiences, if any, have you had that have shaped your definition of service?
When I found out that I had to do seven hours of volunteer work I immediately knew that I wanted it to involve children. I attended the volunteer fair that was held earlier in the semester and signed up for programs such as Louie’s Kids and Wings for Kids. Unfortunately I could not volunteer for either of these programs because they were not in walking distance of the college and I did not have transportation. A couple weeks after that I saw a flyer advertising for “Reading Partners.” I attended an informational event that they held and signed up to volunteer at Memminger Elementary, which is about two blocks from the college.
I have always considered myself a very promising student. I have worked extremely hard and received high grades. I have a close knit group of friends and my teachers and I have mutual respect for each other .Although I would consider myself at this present stage ‘fulfilled’ something was missing. I realized it wasn’t a materialistic aspect of my life. Through a tragic incident I finally discovered what fit perfectly in that vacancy. The consecutive hospitalizations of my grandparents evoked great pain and sorrow. However, out of the scorching intensity of this tragedy I was warmed and comforted by realizing what I was devoid of: community service.
My responsibilities during my community service were as followed: I go to the synagogue Montreal Torah Center down my street. They have a group for teens my age called Cteens. It is a group where lots of teens my age come and do something different each time to help the community. This year my friend Anabelle and I got invited to participate. Considering it is a Jewish synagogue, we sometimes base what we do on the holidays. To me, community service is simply helping out your community or city. I always thought that ‘hey, what will one basket make a difference to a child’ but one time I actually went to deliver the basket to whom I made it for. The smile on the child’s face showed me that one basket does actually make a difference and...
I really enjoyed volunteering at a soup kitchen offering a bit of my time to serve those that are at a down point of their live. However, it is unlikely I will continue the service after I met the 12-hour requirement. The location is simply too far away, and the gas is just not worth it, however, I would seek other volunteer organizations in the future in my area.
A reflection of my volunteering experience can be summarized in two words: Life-changing. It is hard to explain the feelings that occur when you involve yourself in selfless acts for your community, such as volunteering. There is a feeling in your heart that you cannot ignore, maybe it is the happiness you feel or the overflow of emotions in helping others. In other words, it is a feeling in which you want to share with others. Maybe with a friend, maybe a classmate, maybe a family member, or maybe even a stranger. Either way, spreading how life-changing volunteering can be is a great start to making a positive change in your community by simply by involving others.
This year, I had the opportunity to give back to the community in many ways. I volunteered at Helping Hands, Meals on Wheels, and the county Science Museum. These volunteering experiences further opened my eyes to the needs of my community and the many opportunities to serve by volunteering.