Brandon
After two semesters of schooling, I go back to working as a beach attendant on Okaloosa Island for the summer season. Every day I come across waste that had either washed up from the Gulf or was left on the beach purposely as if nature would take of it. Even years after the BP oil spill, oil from other broken pipelines affect beaches along the Gulf of Mexico. I have lived on beaches my entire life and have learned to love and appreciate the view and the wildlife that thrive from it. Unfortunately, the problem of dirtying beaches and shores lined with garbage is an ongoing issue that is growing whether you see it or not. Our impact on the environment is worsening and if something is not done about it soon then we will experience serious repercussions. Not only humans but also the wildlife in and around the water. Although we cannot completely eliminate our “carbon footprint”, we can always make an action in reducing it. I and a group of co-workers and friends have grouped with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program to walk the Gulf of Mexico shoreline once a week and pick up any garbage in sight. Those of us that participate in water sport activities such as free diving and offshore fishing make an extra effort in properly disposing waste such as cigarette butts, food wrappers, cans, bottles, fishing gear, and other odd items that don’t belong. Our actions will spread to those who need to be reminded or informed
about the destruction of nature from littering and join in on the movement to keep our oceans clean.
Aisha
Once again, I really appreciate you assigning this service project and enforcing or pushing us to help the needy and build our characters to become a well minded and thankful individuals. The service opportunity I would like to complete along with my husband would be to volunteer for Meals on Wheels. This is a volunteer organization my mother has been a part of for years and something she continually speaks of and encourages people to do. The most important part of meals on wheels in my opinion is getting the elderly the nutrition their bodies need but it can become more difficult with age to prepare meals for. Another awesome part of Meals on Wheels for America is that it includes a check in program. As many of us know, when you become older, falling is a major concern and sometimes when the elderly fall their sometimes fragile bones and major injuries prohibit them from being able to get up on their own thus leaving them there on the floor and unable to access any communication to call or alert for help. Finally, the elderly crave social interaction and this service allows them to encounter many kind hearted people in the process. Sometimes with the technology craze we forget that technology hasn’t always been around and affordable and some people were raised without and prefer social interaction more than texting or facebooking someone. My husband and I plan on contacting my mother’s old references and finding out how to sign up to volunteer on a regular basis and start delivering meals and being an accountable resource to families that might not be around their loved ones.
Matthew
I’ve grown up in a family that suffers from addictions, on both sides my mother and father there are long traces of alcoholics and drug addicts. Even though I have been blessed to not be addicted to anything yet in my life, I have however seen and been a part of others addictions, I have seen what it can do to people and I understand how important it is to have someone by your side in a path to recovery. For my service project I would like to visit multiple substance abuse classes one in particular is Alcohol Anonymous considering most of the addictions I have seen happen are related to alcohol. I plan to listen in for a few visits and listen to everyone talk about their problems. Eventually I will get in touch with as many people as I can and listen closely to each of their stories one on one. I hope to be able to help them with their addictions and I hope to guide them in the right path to recovery. I have helped people with addictions before so I am confident that I can do it again. I know that being addicted to something can consume all of someone’s income and a lot of people tend to lose a lot of things when fighting with a serious addiction. I do also work for a company where I have the power to higher employees, and I definitely can offer intro jobs to people who I think have a good work ethic and can work through their weaknesses. I plan to inform the non-addicted, help the addicted, and offer jobs to the recovered.
Jonathan
The service project I would like to accomplish is to deliver for Meals on Wheels America. This is a service for the elderly or people unable to cook for themselves. Currently MOWAA services approximately 2.4 million seniors annually. According to MOWAA, the services that they provide help improve quality of life. MOWAA provides not just meals, but a friendly visit and safety checks. The research MOWAA conducted showed an improvement in reducing isolation from the lack of mobility. The research as well as provided a longer healthy life and fewer hospital visits. The MOWAA website offers 6 ways to volunteer and a map to find a local partner.
The reason I am choosing the option to deliver is because it gives me the opportunity explore Tallahassee and maybe meet some veterans. This delivery option gives me the chance to go to communities I might not ever think existed. I use to do pest control and the best part of my job was driving into small communities. I am hoping this might happen again and I can do this on my free time. There might be some seniors that witnessed the westward expansion or maybe helped build the Transcontinental Railroad. Being in the retirement state this gives the latter statement a higher chance that might be true. I am confidant that delivering this meals will help me get a better sense of direction around town and maybe find events that are not as publicized, like FSU sports. This is my planned service learning project and I hope it will be a lasting volunteer association.
Nicholas
In my project I will be discussing my experience in Nicaragua as I served there on a mission trip twice. These trips were very humbling and made me very thankful for what we have here in this country. I have a lot to talk about and I would love to share this experience. It was very rewarding and something very interesting to discuss. These trips were a little over a year ago. If you are looking for me to do a project in present time I can serve at a local food house that gives to the needy that my church operates. I would personally rather discuss my project in Nicaragua. (Answer: Do something, here and now, every day matters, there is more work to be done!!!)
George
Giving back to the community is always a good thing to do. I would like to do my Service Project volunteering with the homeless shelter. My blessing comes from helping people from the heart. In other words, it would not matter if I had to serve food, prepare beds, or clean up to help someone that is homeless. We need more people in the world to give up some of their personal time to donate, or help improve shelter operations for the homeless. Companies and restaurants throw away so much food at night, rather than donate it to shelters that could desperately feed enormous amount of people with it. Furthermore, majority of the communityreally thinks about the homeless families when holidays come or bad weather. Everyday homelessness is hitting hard in America. Due to economic problems in this country, unfortunately, homelessness can happen to anyone.
Homelessness can happen to anyone, due to economic problems this country has. Many Americans had either lost their job, or wages were too low to maintain household bills. Situations like this can lead to being homeless. Sometimes this could mean the entire family of all ages could be forced to live on the streets. The shelters and church facilities may be the only Alamo they have. People should devote some of their time into fixing up these places and feeding the homeless. Homeless shelters are not the greatest looking hotel resort, but home for someone without any place to go. I prefer the direct physical approach of helping people, because the smile and gratitude given is priceless. Believe it or not, some of the richest people you could know can be walking in or out of a homeless shelter door. Everyone should give back to someone in need, because you never know if it can be you, friend, family member, or the neighbor next door can face being homeless.
Spencer
For my service project I would like to continuing doing some work for the organization
that I worked for during high school to complete my 30 hours per semester of community service require by my school. My sophomore year of high school I was introduced to a charity on Sanibel Island (which is right off of the coast of Fort Myers, Florida) called FISH, which stands for friends in service here. FISH is a group of older ladies who receive food from some of the people living on Sanibel, package it together, and have it delivered to food banks around Southwest Florida. Sanibel is mostly home to older folks who are retired so they are not as physically capable as they once were, so they ask for help from younger people, like myself. My job at FISH was to bring my mom’s large SUV to the building and load boxes and boxes of food into the car until it was full. After I loaded the car I was told which food bank in my area to drive to and drop the food off at. The ladies at FISH are older so they weren’t able to lift the boxes and driving long distances (sometimes around 4 hours, round trip) was too exhausting for them, so they called upon some of the younger members of Sanibel.
That I basically what I plan to do for this service project. I will be helping bring food to those in need around my area, helping the ladies at FISH, and I will be doing something that I found very enjoyable for the past few years. I really enjoyed seeing the appreciation in the eyes of the people at the food banks when a SUV pulled in, filled to the roof with boxes of food. Theyknew that the food came from FISH and that the ladies at that organization have a hard time with deliveries, but it still feels really good being able to help multiple demographics of people while doing something that also makes me feel good. During this summer I would like to take as many deliveries around the area as I possible can. I don’t know if there has been a new wave of helpers, but if not there will be a build up of food to be delivered, and I would like to move all of those boxes to their desired locations by the end of this summer.
Steven
Isaiah 12:33-34
Giving back to the community is something that I always enjoy doing. I work with my church closely with outreach whether it be for the homeless, for veterans affairs and even outreach to our police, our EMT’s and our fire fighters. My service proposal is that I would like to give more back to the community. I would like with the help of other to take up a collection for clothing, food and water so that we may give to the homeless. As you can see Tallahassee is not getting any colder this summer and we need to make sure that those who are less fortunate have a way of staying cool and hydrated to help them with this summer heat. Now I’m not asking anyone to give money or anything just a simple bottle of water will help the people with no home and no air conditioning to survive and stay cool through this very hot Florida summer. If you can think of anything that will help, to keep the homeless cool and hydrated it will help I assure you. I will be trying to work in partnership with my church to take up collections. Once everything is organized I will send out contact information for all those who want to support and help. So hopefully people will open their hearts and open their minds, so that the less fortunate won’t have to suffer. This will help them tremendously.
“If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.”
Isaac
When I first read about this assignment on the syllabus, I took a moment and pondered what I wanted to do. The assignment is rather unique and I feel is very important. This assignment gives you the opportunity to give back, and hopefully in a way of your own, help someone in need. It allows for a single individual to have a personal impact on someone or something else. It allows us to connect with others, and in some small way, make their lives a little bit better. My intention from the start was to find a way that I might be able to provide food for a group or individual in need. I really love to cook; I find it not only personally enjoyable, but it allows you to connect with people on a personal level. Of course there are many different groups of people that I could cook for, but I chose to sign up to volunteer at the Veteran’s Village. I feel no greater honor than having the opportunity to give back to a group of people who have sacrificed so much for me and my country. We don’t really think of the effect that military service has on the day to day lives of our veterans, and by cooking for them hopefully I can alleviate some of the franticness in their lives by providing them with a delicious meal. Conveniently the theme of this meal was Barbeque which happens to be my favorite form of cooking. There is no greater feeling than knowing you had an influence on someone’s daily life, especially when you provide them with something that they need. All I hope to accomplish is to make a Veterans day a little bit better, and I see no better way to do that then with some delicious southern barbeque.
Ashley
For my service project, I would like to help my grandfather. With my grandmother being gone for some years now, he is always doing something around the house on his own. At almost eighty years old and practically one “good” leg, he could definitely use an extra hand. I plan to go by at least once a week to help clean, organize, or help with any project he’s working on that week. From rigging a gutter, or hanging a light in his car port, he is always doing something. Climbing on ladders at that age and with a bad leg isn’t the safest choice. My mother usually goes by to help him clean, but I will take her place. I hope to keep him company and give a little entertainment during these visits too. Growing up I always visited with my dad’s parents, my grandmother on his side baby sat me. I wasn’t as close to my mom’s parents. This grandfather is on my mom’s side. I hope to grow closer to him and get to know him and my family more during these visits. I hope to hear childhood memories about my mother and how she grew to be the woman she is today.
Rebekah
This summer I am planning on volunteering with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)
organization. FCA has many branches across Florida, including a North Florida branch in Tallahassee. The one here is Lakeland is their West Central Florida branch. They have expressed to me numerous ways that I can serve them this summer. I will be doing smaller things like scanning and data entry and will also be available to help with their leadership came at the end of June. The leadership camp takes place at Southeastern University and I will volunteer at registration, and throughout the day as a photographer and social media coordinator. I will also help out as with planning and setting up food, drinks, watercoolers... etc. I have always had a heart for sports and a heart for the Lord, and FCA is the perfect place for me to give my time for other people. Recently, my mom has taken a job there which has helped me to get to know the staff and help in any way they need. I have volunteered with the organization over many holiday breaks and have also taken part in doing most of their graphics. I believe that sports is a great was to minister and prepare young people for their journey ahead. This kids will come from all walks of life which will make our message that much more impactful! I am excited to see how the Lord continues to use me with and for this organization this summer.
Sergey
For my Service Project I plan on helping my mother with her garden and other yard work. My mother enjoys being outdoors and working on her garden, it is a sign of pride for her. Although, often times she asks me to pitch in, I do not do very much. So why not help the very person who has done nothing but sacrifice for you their entire life. So far, she’s done a great job of the front yard. She’s made a new flower bed that blankets the front, although I’ve had a hand in it’s arrangement I didn’t actually help in the placement. So far there are all sorts of different colored flowers, along with some fruits and vegetables. Most notably there’s a raspberry bush. I’d like to get an apricot tree, as they smell great when in bloom.
Qaasim
When I was younger I was always interested in computers and it was something that I was fortunate enough to enjoy these things but when I got older and more curious. I noticed how hard it was for people less fortunate to acquire these things. Even though public assistance such as Libraries exist there is still no way to bring something home or work on an assignment longer than the library is open. That’s why I wanted to make an organization that is able to take donated computers/laptops freshen them up and then redistribute them to the less fortunate. This would take so much to actually get started but I hope one day I get enough free time and resources to actually go ahead and do it, but I already started it with the little that I owned. I met a couple of refugees from the war that lived in a camp in Luxembourg. I was taken over about how they fought all the way and struggled to escape their country of war and to my surprise they were learning English to get jobs and earn a living to have something to themselves. So when they both told me they didn’t have computers I felt that it was my chance. I immediately thought of something to do. So to my luck I had an extra laptop I brought just in case something were to happen to mine so I installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu (Free Software) and then I searched the local computer shops for another laptop and I was able to find a small computer shop that had some spare cash so then I was able to buy a laptop for 60 euros and then did the same that I did to the first one. I was able to present them with the laptops and they were so thankful and excited! Just knowing that they have lost everything and still fighting to survive I was able to make them smile and have hope for the future by sharing the same thing I love. I can’t wait to get another feeling like that and continue to help others.
Julie
My service project proposal is this, I want to do something different but yet something simple. For a dollar a month I am going to sign up to be a letter writing team member. You may ask what is that and how could that make difference.Well as a letter writing team member I will be part of a group call Soldiers Angels.This group sends care packages, cards during holidays and letters to our troops overseas.
You might still be thinking okay but Julie how does writing a letter be considered a service project? Well let me explain how it works. First you sign up and pay only a dollar and you get a name. That name is someone who is in the army or maybe even the navy, national guard, marines which ever branch it maybe you can write to any of them, that person you get is someone who is requesting a letter from anyone because they have no one to write to. Thats right you read correctly there are some servicemen and women that have noone to write home to. So they reach out for some human contact that isn’t apart of the war. Someone to help ease their pain and worried minds and bring some cheer into their lives while they are overseas.
So the dollar a month I pay I get to send a letter to a soldier of ours and just maybe make a difference by giving them a little peace and if the letter is good enough and possibly funny I can bring them a smile something our troops are lacking. A lot of troops become depressed so I like to think my letters can make a difference.
Devin
As a service project, I have decided that it’s the perfect time for me to give to those who are in need. My plan is to make fill individual gallon size bags with different items based on gender to hand out to the homeless. On my daily route to and from work I see quite a few homeless people and I only travel along North Monroe street and Tennessee St to Mahan Drive. I have decided to take the gallon size bags and for the women I will put feminine products, sanitary products, toothbrush, toothepaste, deoderant, socks and a snack or two within the bag. Surprisingly, feminine and sanitary products are seldomly given out to those in need, yet they still need them just as those who are not in need. For the men in need, my plan is to put socks, toothbrush, toothepaste, deoderant, and also a snack or two. My hope in the exchange of these few minor items, is that I can make an impact among our community as a whole. I want those men and women In need to know that there are people out there that do care for them and I want them to see that there is more to life. I would love for those that have the oppurtunity to give to those in need to understand that it is the small things in life that matter the most, like giving to others even when you don’t feel like the little things are enough those little things could mean the world to someone else.
Terri
I think having a service project is a great idea. Most people don’t do community service after they have done their 100 hours in high school for bright futures. For my service project I will be feeding the homeless. Once a month, my church feeds the homeless in an area of town that is known to be a hangout for the homeless. Last month my church went to the pavilions at Lake Ella, I was unable to go due to travel, which are a home to many homeless people. I know that on a regular basis there is at least 25 homeless people that live there. I am not sure the location my group will feed this month but I am looking forward to it. We do a potluck, basically everyone makes and brings something. I am not sure what I am going to cook yet. I think that doing this will help a lot of people. I also sometimes feed the homeless at the new shelter with my mom’s friend from work. The thing with that is the homeless person has to have ticket before we serve them food. To get that ticket they have to be a “regular” at the shelter. As a human with a brain, I know that homeless people cannot afford to get a bus ticket. Therefore, the homeless at Lake Ello and outside of Costco have a long, long way to walk everyday if they want to be considered a regular and get a meal ticket. I think that is unfair. That is why I love feeding the homeless with my church. We go to them; they do not have to worry about being somewhere just so that they can eat. You and I wake up every day full and they have to wake up not knowing when they will ever eat again. From this I just hope to accomplish happiness. I love putting a smile of someone’s face. I hope that I can make the homeless happy with a meal and a little conversation. I think that is something they deserve. We could have it a lot worse and I want them to feel that way as well.
Jacquelin
Showers, clean clothes, our next meal, and a comfortable place to sleep are all things that
we take for granted. Anyone who has driven down the Tennessee strip has seen people who are without a job or homeless and sitting outside of the homeless shelter in hopes of being one of the lucky ones to have a bed to sleep in on any particular night.
Grace Mission is a ministry who has been dedicated to serving the less fortunate since the mid-1990’s and is located in downtown Tallahassee. It serves, in collaboration with other agencies, the Frenchtown Community. The Ministries of Grace Mission offers a variety of services to the homeless or those who are on the verge of being homeless. An assortment of volunteer opportunities are available and very much needed at Grace Mission. A need is always available for individuals to prepare food, serve meals, pass out towels to those who want or need to take a shower, and to assist in laundry services. We often associate homelessness with adults and tend to forget that there is a large population of children who are homeless as well. Grace Mission also offers volunteer opportunities for individuals to assist in their after-school care and tutoring services to children in need.
My goal in my service project is to assist Grace Mission in their operation of helping the homeless in Tallahassee. Giving a part of yourself, some of your time, and compassion and understanding will help not only the person you are serving, but help you grow as a person. A small act of kindness on my part can make a huge difference for someone else. I hope to learn from the people I will be aiding while encouraging others to help Grace Mission with their cause.
Tajha
For my service project, I plan to volunteer at the hospital. I have to do s o anyways to gain experience to be considered for a job offer there, but this will really be a way to find myself, and figure out what it is I really want to do in my life. I would love to help on the pediatric floor. I love helping children and it gives me a sense of pride in knowing that the nurses are a part of the equation of this kid surviving one more night. Children are so helpless so they deserve more than anyone to be helped.
Anna
I have a deep passion for caring and loving people. I currently visit the Nursing home once a month with other sisters and we sing, pray, and encourage residents.
I have a greater passion for helping many parents and children who are in the low income and poverty brackets. I have a desire to give back to my city. I have a desire to give of my time talent, finances to help build better lives and productive citizens.
My plan is to begin a prevention and intervention program for parents and children who are in single family home and living in a project or apartment complex.
My plan is to build a team of educators from different professions such as; teachers, police, nurses, nutritionist, psychologist, corner and financial advisors. My goal is to assist families with bridging the gap with their needs. I would like to introduce low income families to this profession because most time when families began to struggle it is because information from this profession is missing.
My Goal is to help single parent’s understand how to bridge the gap and help build communication with their children. This ultimate plans is help families bond because many parents are busy working and not able to communicate with their children. Many children from low income families are often neglected because their parent spend more time working rather than spend quality time with their children. There are many situation in instance that children issues start small and end troublesome or tragedy. Troublesome and Tragedy happens because the children are being neglected. I plan to build an intervention program to decrease the rate of youth who are place in juvenile.Parents are my primary attention. I desire to build a plan to help them find balance to be better parents. My program will be design to connect the parent to resources that will help them spiritual and emotionally.
Madison
For my service project I decided to do Veteran’s Village. I attended the first one this summer and I really enjoyed it. Getting to know you was great, you were very welcoming and made walking into a new environment comforting. Meeting you in person was kinda making me wish I actually took your class in school because I would enjoy listening your lectures. Veteran’s village reminded me of when I would serve the veterans around the holiday times with my church back in my hometown, when I was younger. I enjoyed taking time out of my day to give to others in need. Sometimes I get upset over not being able to buy something or being able to go somewhere but some people have it a lot worse. I also get so wrapped up in my life, along with homework it feels good to just take a break and do something nice for other people. Participating in events like Veteran’s village makes me thankful for all little things. It seemed like it brightened their day seeing us there and that they truly were thankful. I know that there is another chance to serve the veterans on July 7th and I'm thinking of attending it. My birthday is the 8th but I will be in tallahassee for it, so I don't see why I cant make it work and attend the second one!
Monte
I’ve always had a passion for helping people less fortunate. It all started with a homeless man that I talked to some years ago. I started by asking him general question about what he used to do before becoming homeless. He explained to me that he had lost his wife and kids at the same time due to a car accident. He also talked about plans he had for his family, and mostly important how he loved them. I would like to do more in helping homeless people get back on their feet simply because you never know what situation that person was in to lead them to being homeless. I would also like to find a better way to build relationships the homeless. I already help bag groceries and Big Bend Cares, volunteer at a local shelter, and donate food and clothes. I don’t have the resources to do a lot, but if I did, I would like to have a place not only to house homeless but also educate families, especially for homeless kids who don’t go to a normal school. Being an illiterate person causes a great deal of trouble since they cannot read newspapers, get a driver’s license or even attempt to fill out a job application. The lack of education is causing more and more people to become homeless every day. Setting up a good long term solution for affordable housing, seeing that you can’t get a job without an address. Between the work force and the laws that the government creates, it is impossible for a homeless person to support his or herself. Helping people less fortunate would be something that I would like to do, after all I believe we are put here to help one another through life challenges.
Nicholas
For my service learning project I will be participating in an event a few of my friends and
I put together for some underprivileged kids in my community once a year. I live in a small town in Central Florida that revolves around fishing and the youth in the community. I have grown up fishing and spending time on the water my whole life and nothing makes me happier than to extend my resources (boats, fishing rods, tackle, etc.) to kids in the community that don't have it as well as me. At least once a year my friends, who also have boats, and I talk to some of our parents friends, who work with underprivileged kids in the community, and have them extend invitations to come on the boat with us fishing to as many kids as we can bring with us. Once we meet the kids at the dock in the morning we load them up on the boats and each of my friends and I have a little fishing tournament and then whatever fish we catch we bring them home and cook them up and have a little fish fry with them. The looks on these kids faces at the end of the day is something else. Most of the kids we take out are between the ages of 1216 and all love to fish but usually only do it from the local pier and don't really ever catch nice size game fish (snook, redfish, tarpon) that taste very good. We enjoy spending this time with these kids so much because of how appreciative and the smiles these kids have on their faces when we are hooked up to a nice fish.
Monique
I have always wanted to help serve not just my community, but figure out how to serve the world. For my service project I would like to go around to the cancer societies in my area and find out how I can be of help to each society. I not only want to give donations, but I would like to be hands on. I have been affected with Cancer not only in my immediate family but within friends also. After my current experience with my fiancé having his life taken from Cancer, I decided that I wanted to go around speaking to others about the experience. I would like to give motivation to families who may have gone through the same situation, but did not know how to cope or who to turn to during the roughest times. I even want to help patients. I want to go around and speak to them about the importance of fighting this horrible disease even when you feel like giving up. Speaking with loved ones and patients about how great it is to have support during this will really make me feel exuberant. Knowing that you have substantial people around giving you what you need is very important. Cancer has affected many, and me being able to show and share what I have been through, while knowing what I did and didn’t know I think will be a really big help to many not just within my community, but also around the world.
Shawna
One of the things I like to do best is to help others, I’ve always had a big heart and believe that when you help others the blessing comes back to you ten folds when you least expect it. Now, that is not to say I go around helping folks for a return but I agree that giving and helping others is not only a humane thing to do but something that God has gifted us to do. For my service project I plan to volunteer to feed the homeless at the shelter in Tallahassee. I have a good friend who volunteers there every Saturday and she enjoys it. I decided to use my gift and talent of giving to feed the homeless because the issue of homelessness is very dear to me and I am living proof that when you help others you will continuously be blessed. I had just graduated grad school in 2009 and I could not find a job, long story short I had to move out of the apartment I was staying in and was homeless for 3 days. I lived out of my car those days, wondering what could I have done different in my life to prevent this. I would have never thought in a million years I would be in that situation, I was thankful and lucky to have found a job and an apartment in which the first month rent was free. I often think to myself if I lived someplace else or if I wasn’t such a kind person would I have remained homeless. I look forward to serving at the shelter, I want to be a blessing and while I’m there I hope to interact with the people and perhaps hear someone else’s story.
Jessica
For my service project, I would like to make a list of “100 songs to save your life.” Now this may not sound like a huge thing to you, but to me music is everything, and I know personally that I am not the only person to feel this way towards music. Music is an escape, it is the one thing that can make you feel one hundred different emotions in a matte of minutes. I myself have suffered through depression, and I found that music could save me. I learned to play the piano, the guitar, and the ukulele, and I have developed a deep respect and appreciation for all genres of music. This list would not just be a list of 100 songs that I like, but a list of songs from all genres, across all boards, whose lyrics mean something. An example would be The Rising, by Bruce Springsteen. He wrote this album in response to the attacks of 9/11, it is about empowerment and rising up together to move forward in the face of pain and destruction. Not all the songs will be positive, some will be about loss, some about fear, etc, but in the end all the songs will tell a story and make the listener feel something, which is sometimes all we need, to feel again.
Devonte
For my service project, I would like to be able to work with United Big Bend like I did last semester.I started working with them last semester under Mr.Arnold and Mrs.Kendra for an internship and it was a pretty cool experience, so I would most likely be serving with them since I know them and worked with them. Only thing I can think of that I would like to accomplish with them is just being able give back to to community by helping out as much as I can. Not only that I really do enjoy working with them there and helping them get organized for different organizations they may have coming. Meeting new people and establishing connections with new organizations that I can meet and perhaps be able to experience new different challenges that they will provide. Just being able to actually hear from Kendra or Arnold that they appreciate my help, makes me feel like a better person. A few of the things they would have me do would be putting up signs to direct people about where an event will be taking place at, putting together books, or mabye even just helping them move furniture and stuff around their office. Working with them has helped me establish connection with people not just from United Big Bend, but different organizations that I met along the way as well. My hope with working with them, is that mabye I can come into contact with organizations that deal with counseling since that is what I’m working on becoming, and that it could lead to an internship with them. But if it doesn’t then at least I am able to meet different organizations and be able to open up doors of opportunities.
Kelli
My service project proposal is to work at a food donation center, helping families put food on their tables in a time of need. I know of a donation center who is always grateful for a helping hand. The food is transported to a local church, bagged, loaded and then transported to a local school for distribution. I will be helping from the very beginning of gathering all the food from the church and transporting it to the school. Food that is donated from all over the community. Every week many of the same people donate their time, gas, and strength to help others in need. Many families of different backgrounds, race, and ethnicity line up to receive food for their families. Every day I open my refrigerator and know that there will be food to feed my family. I am grateful that I have never endured starvation or the hurt of my children being hungry. I see so much waste and wonder how many would give anything for the few bites of food that we throw away without even a second thought. I know that handing a bag of food to someone is far from actually changing someone life but it is the connection with others that sometimes moves us beyond words. I have volunteered in many ways and seen a remarkable change but just the love that a person can show another. The reward of volunteering is greater than any amount of money! My plan is to also take my children with me to know the great reward of giving and helping others.
