Christmas Child Reflection

At a young age I discovered a passion for helping others and I have continued to be passionate about serving my community since then. At the age of eight years old I began the first year of what would soon be my ten year membership of 4-H. Through that program and my church’s youth group I truly began to understand what selfless service was all about. I first began helping others by walking dogs at the local shelter and helping my 4-H club clean the sides of the highways. I later was able to experience several mission trips that opened my eyes to the larger aspect of service. My love for helping people continued to grow as I got older and I continued to find ways to make a difference. One of my favorite experiences was getting to help cook and serve a meal at a homeless

I immediately fell in love with the act of helping people and since I’ve first joined the organization I have visited nursing homes during Christmas time, collected donations for a hospital, and blazed a trail for my community. During my high school career, my fellow troop members and I organized a collection of toiletries for DASI, the women’s domestic abuse shelter in Newton as a way to take action. Being a Girl Scout taught me the importance of helping people and my experiences have inspired me to begin working my Gold Award, the highest level of achievement in Girl

My two main volunteer experiences consist of: Outdoor School, and volunteering for Homework Club at Gordon Russell Middle School. I have only been able to go to Outdoor School twice, but both times were filled with accomplishments. I worked on plants field study, so learning all the information, which seemed overwhelming at first, and then being

I volunteered at the Little Lights Urban Ministries. I had the pleasure of working with adults and kids but, majority were adults in a low income community. Little lights was founded in 1995 by Steven Park. Little Lights is located in Potomac Gardens public housing apartments in Washington DC. It all started off with Steven tutoring one child in an uptown neighborhood. Then he met his wife Mary and things started expanded. They started allowing 15 kids come over after school to do homework and bible study. Sometimes they would order pizza or buy chicken to feed the kids if they stayed over late. A couple of years later they was blessed with the main building and somebody donated a van for transportation. Steven then start his nonprofit and

I was raised in a church, and although I am not religious, I found many great opportunities to volunteer through my church. I loved serving people and volunteering for as many service projects as I could, and this really changed my perspectives for the better and opened my eyes. When I got older I was able to decide for myself if I wanted to attend church or not, and I decided to get involved with the philanthropy side of my church and other churches in my area. We cleaned up roadsides and had multiple canned food drives, but I really enjoyed going into the city and passing out food and goods while getting to talk to people.

This process all started my sophomore year when I really got interested in the club and the ideas that emanate into our small community. The club was having trouble with the participation of members thus many events were not being covered as well and our donations had slowed. I saw that nobody could make it any Wednesday so I quickly built the volunteering into my schedule. With my determination to solve the problem of low participation I jumped into action recruiting members to join me to complete the tasks that the club had set forth for us. That year we raised over 1000 dollars to give the Fisher House to help the families buy the items that they deemed were necessary. The best part of the experience was that I could see that people that were being helped. Seeing what it meant to the families and the president of the house made the whole experience even better and drove me to help the organization even

One of the greatest volunteering opportunities I have ever been a part of is teaching children about the environment. Speaking to a classroom full of children about the importance of our environment is an experience I will always remember. Being around young minds and helping these children grow into more caring humans is something I will always cherish.

I grew up in the small, Dutch, Christian town of Sioux Center, Iowa. I walked 2 blocks to a local Reformed church right across the street from my house. I attended Sunday school and catechism every Sunday and Wednesday. In middle school and high school, I attended many church camps and did countless service projects. Two of my favorite partnerships was with ViBella Jewelry. ViBella is a Christian organization that works with women in Haiti by giving them jobs making jewelry from old plastic bottles. The women color the plastic strips, but first the bottles must be organized and cleaned which often my job. I also very much enjoyed having the chance to teach a Sunday School class for one week. Both my junior and senior year of high school I paired up with a friend to teach a 4th grade girls class. Not only was it an opportunity to teach but also an opportunity for the kids to interact with older kids. I believe that the experience was had a positive impact on both our lives and theirs.

Volunteering distilled unity, patience, and teamwork into my character, without these qualities, any task would be very problematic to complete. When I helped build a house for Habitat for Humanity, this gave room for personal growth because I realized I should

One of the ideas that The League of Leaders proposed was to collaborate with Operation Christmas Child this coming fall and continuing into the winter season. Operation Christmas Child aligns thousands of individuals towards the common goal of packaging gifts for poor children around the world so that they may experience Christmas. Because Operation Christmas Child encourages others to think of people outside of just the United States, it humbles others to realize their gifts and talents and the ability to apply it towards making an impact, motivating students to go every year and experience the joy of giving. Beginning this October, the process of collecting boxes will begin. We plan on fundraising on gofundme.com and use the money to purchase gifts

In the middle of November, I stood in the middle of a loud and dusty warehouse. The floors were covered in filth and the room was filled with a mixed age group ranging from thirteen to eighty-five. I glanced around at all of the workers and volunteers, they were so joyful and enthusiastic. It took me all of five minutes to recognize why I was there. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children across the world. This was the moment in time when I realized just how fortunate my family was and how something as simple as a cardboard shoebox could mean so much to children across the world. Being appreciative of all that God has provided for me became very evident while at Operation Christmas Child. This was a major component of my maturity

For example, my church organized a soup kitchen for the homeless in the city. I volunteered and had to take leadership to make sure that all of the volunteers knew what they had to do. We made beds, care packages and fed those in need. This experience has changed me and I try to go down every year and help out. Every time I go into the city, I create a care package full of objects that everyone needs in their daily life and give it to someone who needs it. I believe that as a member of this wonderful community, it is my duty to help others in need and bring a positive and uplifting attitude to the

For 3 years I volunteered at the Dallas Zoo, during the Summer. I mainly worked with kids and helped the camp counselors set up arts and crafts as well as help supervise the kids. The kids would draw me little pictures and they would hold my hand and tell me sweet things like "Miss Jessica you're the best!" I enjoyed this volunteer opportunity as it not only got me some volunteer hours but it also had nothing to do with anything I wanted to do with my life. I didn't want to work at a zoo, or become a biologist, and as much as I love kids I wasn't looking to someday becoming a teacher. Being there in a classroom surrounded by kinder through first graders, for 3 weeks, Monday through Friday, for 8 hours, in the summer, were the most rewarding moments I have experienced.

One of the activities that I have done is volunteering. I've volunteered at St. Vincint de Paul by helping them get gifts and collecting food cans for people in need during Christmas time and for the pantry. We also helped out when the church had a festivel this includes enteraining the kids, giving out food, and face painting. I have also volunteered at the Samaritan Women Shelter. In the Samaritan I helped them organize the clothes and sort out donations that people would

When I was going into my freshman year of highschool, I attended a mission trip with my youth group at church to Bell county, Kentucky. Before I took this trip I did not involve myself in volunteering and religion because I did not see the value and desire in it. I felt that being involved in a community and doing work to help others , I was making personal gains. Helping two families repair their house from store damages not only made me realize how much I had compared to them, but presented the importance of what I was doing for them. They were unable to repair, repaint, and clean because they had already had so much on their plate with their family, job, and other commitments. The help that I gave began to open my eyes to the positive outcomes of volunteering.