What Gifts Can I Offer?

In Youth Core we spend a lot of time cooking meals for those staying at the Ronald McDonald house, which is a place for families to stay who have children at Children’s Mercy Hospital under long term care. These families always walk in with their faces down and bags weighing heavily under their eyes and when they walk in and see that a large dinner is already being served, a smile can be seen stretching across their face. For them to be able to come back to the house and not having to worry about dinner during such a stressful time really helps them. After dinner they always come up and make sure to thanks us for what we've done. Through Youth Core I have also helped with the many city events such as Breakfast with Santa, the Daddy-Daughter Dance, The Princess Party, City Garage Sale, and a Fishing Derby. These events have led to me getting to know many community members and getting to know a lot of people around the city, as well as building connections and feeling like I truly am helping my community. I know these events have helped children enjoy their time as youth. My favorite experience was helping a little girl make a craft that said “baby girl’s first Christmas” due to her mom being pregnant, and once she went back to her mom, her mom looked at me with a genuine smile and said thank you. Seeing other people happy truly makes me happy, even if it’s just over the smallest things. I’m there to help those who are making memories and knowing this has made me a happier

One of my first volunteering positions growing up was at a local elementary school assisting children in core math and reading subjects. Not only did I help the students but I also helped the teacher with grading and developing new assignments. This experience gave me great insight into how one can effectively explain education materials to young children.

I am a volunteer for Camp Kesem, a program that provides support and puts on a summer camp for children and teens whose parents have been affected by cancer. The past year I have volunteered with the organization at "bar-canning" and "tailgate-canning" events, where I have fundraised for and informed people about Camp Kesem. I also organized a flag-football team for one of our largest campus fundraisers, "Football for the Fight." Lastly, I was accepted as a volunteer counselor for this year's summer camp, where I will be a cabin leader for 11-12 year-old

Since I was five years old I would always give my community a help hand, whether in beautifying my community by planting flowers, or by volunteering at local places. From the ages from five to ten my after school program would go around the neighborhood to plant flowers. In my town library I donated my time to help the children with hands-on activities to promote original ideas such as creating objects with everyday items. I have also volunteered a total of 36 hours for the American Cancer Society.

My fourth grade class has participated in a service-learning project for the past eight years. Before the Christmas season, we read several books about giving, including a children’s version of “The Gift of the Magi”. Then we discuss how the money that parents send for the students’ Christmas five dollar gift exchange could be used for something else. The children vote whether or not they want to keep the normal gift exchange or donate the money to another cause (every year the students have chosen to donate their gift money to others). Then the students brainstorm organizations or ideas for the money. After the list is narrowed down to five ideas, the children are broken into groups and given one of the organizations to research, and then they write a persuasive report to present to the class. After the students have heard the persuasive reports, a final vote is taken to choose the organization. Next, the students are responsible for writing a letter home to their parents explaining why they have chosen to donate their gift exchange money to the charity or organization. We have sent care packages to overseas soldiers, bought goodie bags for nursing home patients, and sent money to Heifer

When it comes to death the typical person is not that knowledgeable about or understanding of death. People are very scared when the topic of death arises. We all want to live forever with no fear of having to explore the aspect of us dying and having to plan a funeral or their own funeral. Death is never an openly discussed topic. With death and dealing with it we are lucky to have the book Final Gifts by Callanan and Kelley. They have provided a ton of information to help us to grow strong and at ease with the area of death. I will tell my feelings on the book and how it has impacted me.

During my childhood, I would always want to help out with moving materials and fixing them. These brought me to volunteer at some bigger activities that require to sell and give to individuals. At my school’s concession stores, I sold products for a basketball game. While doing these

I have participated in many activities that served to help others such as, taking my time to help at the Adult’s Day Care, help with anything that is needed at the nursing home, and on the weekends I would volunteer at the Youth Basketball Summer League by working at the concession stand, collecting ticket money, work for the scoreboard, and coach for my team. I also believe it is better to give than to receive. I donate money and toys to the St. Jude Children Research Hospital as well as giving to the Wounded Warriors. In addition to giving to the Wounded Warriors, my father and I participated in the cook off in honor of the warriors that have fought for our

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

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

After this camp, I continued my volunteer hours by job shadowing at a nursing home for alzheimer and dementia patients. This helped me to know how to better communicate with not only younger children,

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

Both junior and senior year, I was able to volunteer as a camp counselor. Every Tuesday and Thursday during summer, around 30 middle schoolers would come to camp and we would go on runs in small groups. My group included four girls, all going into 8th grade, named Pria, Caitlin, Jenna, and Nicole. During runs I was able to get to know these girls, including their favorite activities and what they wanted to be when they grow up. I was also able to teach them from my experiences, such as encouraging them to get involved in high school and to always care for one another. It was awesome to see their growth, not only as runners but as people, throughout the two

Throughout high school I participated in numerous volunteer opportunities. I had the opportunity to be my high school's basketball team manager my junior year of high school. As the lady blazers manager I was in charge of attending games, practices, recording fouls and games, as well as organizing the food for the players after their games. However, I also devoted my time to things other than sports. I also volunteered every year at my school's registration for new student. My school, IDEA Quest, places a lot of emphasis on new student registration because new students are given an opportunity to preview their life at IDEA. Therefore as a volunteer of the new student registration I would speak at the student panel about my experience as an

Additionally, in response to the question why did I play Simon Says while volunteering at the YMCA, the councilors had me aid students in games during activity time. Another example of this is, when I would help students learn how to play the games and direct them to stay safe. Kickball, sharks and minnows, junk yard, you name it, I would play along with the students as a guide or have every student take part in the activity.