Reflection Essay : My Most Important Experiences Of The Community

As surprising as it may sound, I have been doing community service since the sixth grade and it is a new experience each time. It all began with a community clean up known as 'Keep McAllen Beautiful' as we got there everyone seemed excited to be there. It was beautiful to see such unity inside of my community, and I decided from then on that I would like continue helping out where it is needed. As I joined the National Honor Society my chances of providing my services increased, and I decided that I would assume a position of leadership when needed. I became the society's president, which allowed me to develop my time management skills, creativity, and efficiency. I organized an fundraiser for the hurricane Harvey disaster victims where all

Furthermore, I have also done quite a few acts of service to my town and school even though I realize that it is not necessary for me to do so, I believe that by serving others without a reward is the best way to become a better person and leader. As a matter a fact I am a member of Frisco’s Teens4Green and have volunteered to play “Rufus the Recycling Dog” at local elementary schools, which was a very enjoyable and rewarding experience. In addition, with my early release periods, rather than go home early most days, I choose to go assist some teachers if needed. By assisting them I can learn more about following in one’s footsteps to achieve a certain goal and how to aid another in a time of need. Since then, I knew that I had to serve my school in different ways rather than just teachers. I wanted to demonstrate to my class that I could be a worthy asset, and that I was there for them in wanting to make our senior year extravagant, yet

I participated in my schools Beautification Project by cleaning up the school grounds and surrounding area. I pulled weeds, planted flowers, laid mulch, picked up trash and painted. This was important to me because it allowed me to give back to the area I both live and attend school. I have baked and distributed cookies to families at the Ronald Me Donald House. I have also prepared snack packs for families at the Ronald Me Donald House- prepared bags with pudding cups cheese crackers, chips, granola bars and muffins. These were provided to families so that they could have access to a snack while at the hospital with their child. I have sort/packed food at the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, volunteered as a community meal server and donate blood regularly. I also assisted with coordinating the blood drive at my

Acts of service always created a desire in me to help make people’s lives better. People often put forth their best when

One particular activity that I feel has made a difference in the community is my participation in Mini-THON, a student-led philanthropic organization that raises money for research in pediatric cancer and benefits Four Diamonds and Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. I have served as the Junior and Senior Co-Chair, or President, for the past two years, respectively. Each year, my responsibilities have expanded from simply attending meetings and contributing ideas for fundraisers, to actively coordinating meetings and organizing fundraisers with local businesses. For example, our club held our first annual “Teenie-THON” for elementary school students. We spent countless hours creating advertisements and permission slips for the participants.

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.

When I began my Civics class, thinking it potentially difficult and boring, I did not initially look forward to this project. However, as I did each activity, I found myself enjoying each and every one. From sitting in a board meeting to collecting trash, I discovered something new in all of the ways I volunteered. Not only did the people I volunteered for gain something through my service, but I feel that I gained a lot as well.

Over the course of my academic career, I have volunteered with Key Club at my school and other various places, such as the Poe Center for Health Education and WakeMed Health and Hospitals. Involvement with each organization has had a tremendous impact on my character. Often, while at the Poe Center, I had hours alone to create educational tools, file papers, and enter data into spreadsheets which taught me responsibility and integrity. I always strived for the best when I completed tasks at the Poe Center and at WakeMed. Each organization has been impacted through my volunteer services. With Key Club, we had monthly trips to the senior home. Each time I visited the senior home, the elder’s faces would light up because many of them did not have

Assisted young children between the grades of preschool to 8th grade in their education. I decided to volunteer because the children of today will be the children of the future and the more smart and educated they are the better they will be in the future. Another reason I helped was because it is hard for young children to adapt to the lifestyle of constantly moving from one place to another. Since their parents are migrants it can have a negative impact on them and their education. I remember one little girl is from Florida but every summer her parents move up to Michigan to work in the fields, but once the harvest is over they move back to Florida. She was behind in school and with the help of teachers and myself we motivated and helped her out so she was able to catch up. I really enjoyed volunteering the past two summers ago at the summer migrant program. If I had another opportunity to help I

The summer before high school, I decided it was time to get involved in the community. A close family friend who attended my church offered a volunteer position with her organization called Clothes to You that supplies low-income families with free attire. The non-profit organization resonated closely with me as my tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, suffers from severe financial hardships, and realizing how life changing an organization such as this could be I promptly accepted her offer. On designated days we drove the mobile van to predetermined locations and transformed the desolate parking lot to a bustling shopping center. People of all ages filled the aisles and I assisted shoppers searching for outfits as varied as interview

Over the course of a month, I dedicated time to volunteer with agencies that focus on providing safe and productive programs for children. Stop Child Abuse Now also known as SCAN, focuses on stopping/preventing child abuse in homes. This agency teams with many different agencies around Richmond to help parents and children coop and learn way to avoid situations of abuse. My duty for volunteering was teaming with Virginia Commonwealth University Health Services and making SCAN a known organization throughout Richmond community. VCU threw a wellness block party that included many different health services but also gave members of the community to learn and seek help with many different organizations that were there promoting their business or organization. I sat with one other girl and passed out flyers and contact information to those who were interested in the organizations. I explained to individuals what the program was about and the benefits of the program. I had one particular interaction with this young mother who explained she was in a situation where children were being abused and the authorities were notified and now she’s seeking counseling for her and the children involved. I and the other young lady volunteering with me were able to give her information on the program and also contact numbers to individuals that could help her situation. This young woman was very grateful and happy she found an organization that could assist her with her situation. From this

For my third trimester service project, I provided help to my school. I went to daycare for two hours helping Mrs. Riley. I helped kindergarteners with their homework inside so that they wouldn’t have any homework to do when they got home. I also helped run a couple games and make sure everyone was making smart decisions on the playground. I then helped Ms. Maynes in the 5th grade classroom for two hours as well. I helped her with cleaning the students desks, I helped with correcting papers and putting them in numerical order, I finished coloring a Mary drawing to put on the bulletin board, and I also helped punch out some letters so she can use them in the classroom. Ms. Maynes was also kind enough to bring me down to the Kindergarten classroom

Our advisory was invited again to volunteer at YMCA since we did such a successful and fun job last time for the Healthy Kids Day event in April. For this community service, we helped set up a talent show they were hosting. This show was where kids had been preparing for weeks to this day. The kids got to sing, dance, and just mess around. While the kids were partying, the volunteers were at stations where the kids could create things. One station was for crafting with pencils, one was for creating grape caterpillars, and the last one was for serving people popcorn and drinks which was the one I worked at. The kids were very hungry because four pounds of popcorn was all gone before the show started. Four pounds is a lot especially since popcorn

I felt that I needed to give back to them. Thanks to the Southwest Rotary Club, I was able to participate in Rotary International’s Student Exchange Program. So upon hearing about this assignment, I contacted my former exchange advisor and she informed me about this program. The “Feed the Homeless” program is held once a month at Christ Episcopal Church. There are two main jobs there and since I was there for three different months, I got to do both. The first job is preparing meals in the kitchen. The kitchen worked like an assembly line, each person manned one food item and the sandwiches were assembled as it went across the kitchen before arriving at a window where they would be picked up by the homeless. There was always one person directing how many sandwiches needed to be made and assigning people to different roles. It was necessary to have a boss in the kitchen since we had to move fast to keep up with the line of people, and if there was no clear authority, people would be tripping over each other and progress would be slowed. This was illustrated the second time I volunteered, I arrived a little too early and there were only teens from the church youth group present. We decided to start preparing the food early to save us more work later. This did not work well since half the people stood around confused (including myself), and the other half just

For example, on a Friday in October, there was a homecoming football game that me and my little sister went and volunteered for. Before the game started, the school wanted to do a barbecue for the people. We had to set up the grill for the barbecue, grab the utensils and the condiments to put near the table beside the grill, and get the beverages that was already in a ice chest prepped earlier. Then we had to set up signs for the game, made the stations for face painting, a snowball stand, a table for desserts, and a table for buying spirit shirts. Before the barbecue ended, and the game about the start, me, my little sister, and a few other volunteers helped to set up the concession stand to prop it up.