Personal Narrative: Operation Christmas Day

The Easter egg hunt was designed for children in the church community. Another event I volunteered in was making prayer blankets for the homeless. A prayer blanket is two pieces of fabric connected by knots, and with every knot tied, a prayer is said for the person the blanket is going to. I also participated in volunteering for the vet. Similarly, my family was a member of the Missouri House Rabbit Society and fostered a total of eight bunnies. We eventually adopted two bunnies named Shannon and Clover. I love to make a difference in my community, even if it was a small deed.

I raised money for scholarships to camp; helping hundreds of kids come to camp that would be unable to afford it otherwise. Development of a diverse staff was important to me. So I recruited, interviewed and hired central city staff to be part of camp. This involved going to their neighborhood for interviews because they had no means of getting to camp.

Cleaning out a barn, organizing a hoarder’s collection, painting a garage, hanging siding on a house, pouring concrete for a walkway, making meals for families--all projects promoting my life goal of helping make communities better and serving others, especially the less fortunate. I have been able to go on several mission trips with members of my church volunteering their efforts in completing helpful community projects where needed. These trips changed my life and made me a better person.

While volunteering at Discovery Challenger I have exclusively worked with a blind man named Geno. My service to the Discovery Challenger Program has positively affected the community in that the athletes that required a helper were able to have me as one despite the limited number of volunteers who helped the athletes. Another community service I committed myself to while in high school was the club Life is Delicious. Life is Delicious is a club that between two and three times Year members of the club cook a warm meal at the high school, and then some go to the St. Vincent DePaul Homeless Shelter in Waterbury. At the end of my sophomore year I was named Co-President of the club. As a member of the club I went to all of the cooking and serving activities and was able to help the homeless of Waterbury by giving them a warm meal. The most impactful service I performed in my opinion was during my junior year when I was the organizer for the Penguin Plunge. During my junior year I thought that it would be a good idea for the basketball team to do the Penguin Plunge in order to raise money for Special Olympics Connecticut as I had done so in the previous two years. So, I approached the athletic director

We donated our time to a charity during the fall, the JROTC program decided to do the Mana Cafe to help those in need. It was a food drive and people would help gather food together to deliver it to families that needed it for the winter. Everyone was pitching together and doing their part to get the food together and in the people’s car. Even in the cold weather, everyone was having fun, knowing that they were doing excellent in their hearts. Therefore that day families were allowed to eat despite their economic struggle and all as a result of the service we did to help them.

Most recently I have organized a project that helps students and staff in Parkland, Florida that were affected by the school shooting. Group of friends wrote letters expressing our support and condolences. This was the

My most defining community service activity is my volunteer work at Kaiser Permanente. One time when I was escorting a disabled patient to the pharmacy, I chose to stay past my shift and take a detour to the cafeteria to help her purchase lunch as she did not have spare time throughout the day to eat. Being the only two people in the cafeteria, I wheeled her around, assisting her in ordering her food and carrying her meal. As she graciously thanked me for being patient with her, the expression on her face showed genuine appreciation for my action which filled me with satisfaction from my selfless deeds.

I have participated in the program Lunch Is Served, held at the First United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls. The goal of this program is to gather volunteers to pack lunches to aid the working poor, ultimately fixing the major hunger problem in Sioux Falls. I have attended this volunteer opportunity five times, and plan to volunteer again in the future. Essentially, those who participate pack as many brown paper bag lunches as possible in a streamlined fashion. Included in the bag is usually various nutritious snacks and a wrapped sandwich that will be given to those in need. My experiences there was very humbling, due to the fact that it made me realize the impact one person can have on the community. All it takes is a half hour of

Most notably I constructed my Eagle Scout project for the Parks and Rec., which is a library box that provides sustainable access of books for the finically challenged areas around one of their parks. I have done other miscellaneous volunteer work such as tutoring my football teammates, helped raise money at my church, and registered bikers for the assault on Mt. Mitchell charity race. All of the volunteer work gave me a higher physical and spiritual state of mind because I knew that what I did has positively impacted someone else’s life. I am forever thankful for all the leaders who volunteer their weekends and Mondays to scouting, your guidance has affected positively the lives of every scout in troop

I also helped with building emergency non-perishable food boxes for individuals and families, and worked with a team of volunteers to fill backpacks with a set menu of nutritious foods that kids can help themselves to all weekend long.I learned that you don’t have to be a student looking for practicum hours. Or have a court order to touch other peoples life .you can donate your time and touch so many life, anybody can volunteer to help at the Kansas food bank .I met a lot of people who brought their family just to help ,also I leaned that do not take life for

I helped build a house for a needy family in Haiti. While there, I realized the impact one action could have on others. When I returned home from the trip, I carried out this realization through volunteer work in a nursing home- something I never thought I would be doing.

During my freshman year, I drove to Portland, Oregon with a group of peers to serve, understand, and immerse ourselves in the homeless community. We wandered the city with nothing but our sleeping bags and, with permission, waited with the homeless for a local soup kitchen to open. I

I volunteered through the Social Sciences Club on campus to participate in Project Homeless Connect. My job during this event was to be a homeless advocate and walk the person I was assigned to through all of the booths set up for them. I was there to make sure the man I was assigned to went to each booth and listened to the information that was provided in order to help him find out what options he had. I enjoyed my time meeting this man and learning more about him as we went from booth to booth. I was able to hear some of his story and be there for him as he went through this setup. I was with him for the entirety of the event and spent time with him as he played bingo with the group and enjoyed his morning. I can't say that I made a huge

I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity in part of my religious community from reference of my pastor to assist construction of a house to provide housing to people who are homeless and are in need of a home. Habitat for Humanity vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. This had a big significance to me because this made me realize that everyone requires a decent, affordable place to live regardless of race, religion, age, gender,

My first activity that I was involved in with Catholic Social Services was the food pantry. As my children progressed through high school, I knew certain classes or clubs were involved with participating in food drives. Our house was one of the most targeted homes for quite some time as we live directly across the street from St. Michael’s Elementary School which is where some of the organizations met. St. Cecilia’s is also a school that requires wearing a uniform and, occasionally, the kids could have a free jeans day if each student brought in so many items for the food pantry and my children were no different than a lot of the others…they wanted to wear jeans so they would raid my pantry to take food to school. I did not really give it much thought at the time when I was pulling food from my pantry of how this small act of kindness would help others. I knew there was a need for the food otherwise the food drive would not take place. I was so naïve in my thought process at that time. The night that I helped sort food at the food pantry was a major eye opener.