Service Learning

One of the activities that my Red Cross clubs can do is service learning (or teaching one the health and safety classes that I usually teach to elementary/preschool students). As their January activity, one club has been going a few of their feeder schools to teach Scrubby Bear (hand washing).
So, as part of Scrubby Bear, there is a person who dresses up as Scrubby the Bear (who LOVES washing his hands/paws). The costume is your basic bear costume: head, gloves, feet, and the body (which has a stuffed belly, a tail, and Velcro in the back to close it) along with a Red Cross Disaster Volunteer vest. I usually have an adult (school nurse, parent volunteer, para etc) dress up as Scrubby so I don't always explain what you have to do to get Scrubby ready. For these service learning classes, I have one of the club members dress up. For my third/forth classes, I had a boy club member volunteer so he went to the bathroom to change as the rest of us went into the classroom to start the presentation. Scrubby waits in the hall until we are ready for his visit. When we were ready, a student went out into the hall to bring Scrubby into the classroom. As I was introducing Scrubby, I noticed that his tail was in the front so I broke out into laughter. Soon the other club members and the teachers noticed and all started laughing. While we laughed, the kids just looked at us like we were crazy. They had no idea why were laughing and I didn't want to tell them in case they actually believed Scrubby was real. My other Scrubby's were also awesome but had the costume on the correct way! haha :)

These classes were so fun to do with the club members. It was so neat to see them as the teachers. Some of them struggled with a few things, but mostly they were awesome! We didn't have a lot of time to prepare and they caught on very quickly. It was neat to see how they reacted to the kids answers to questions. You could tell which ones had a lot of experience working with little kids and ones who were having a new experience. Most of the club members got more comfortable and confident as the class went forward and the youth we were teaching seemed engaged and captivated. I felt so proud watching them teach the class!

I think all of the club members enjoyed teaching which was really neat! Hopefully, I will get a chance to have them teach more classes!

MLK Day of Service

As an AmeriCorps member, I have a few Days of Service when I get to do something a little different/special to serve my community and support AmeriCorps as well as my programs ideals.

For MLK Day, I volunteered and attended a local event about music and MLK with many other AmeriCorps members. The event, Let Freedom Ring - Rhythm, Soul, and the Dream, included a few speakers (about River Music Experience, AmeriCorps, MLK, and music in Memphis during the civil rights movement), a drum circle (for the kids), and a performance by a local band. (More about the event) This event has been going on for a few years, but this year the attendance more than tripled from last year. It was also really neat to see the variety of people that attended the event - old, young, families...

I enjoyed that I got to work with other AmeriCorps members as well as celebrate Martin Luther King Jr's work. I had no idea that there were so many AmeriCorps in the area! I'm sure we'll get to work together for our upcoming service days!

AmeriCorps Alums are encouraged to participate in these days too so hopefully, I will participate in the MLK Day of Service again next year!

[Side note: I also got an awesome coosie from River Music Experience since we have the same initials!]

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Joplin

Last night Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: Joplin aired. I watched most of the two episodes. It was so sad (but hopeful) - I saw a few buildings that I had seen while I visited! I heard about this project while in Joplin (7 houses for 7 families in 7 days) and I thought it was a bit bittersweet: amazing for those families helped, but sad for the others who still won't have homes for a while (about 8,000 houses were destroyed). After watching (and having a few tears), I was happy to see that they did do a few things to help the community of Joplin in general. They worked to fix up a park that had been torn up by the tornado as well as helped with some clean up and gave a big bus to an art therapy program. Seeing the episode made me wish that I would have been able to talk to more people effected by the tornado. Anyway, maybe the episode of the show will help redraw some more attention to Joplin as they still need help as the people of Joplin continue work to rebuild.

FEMA Temporary Housing Neighborhood



Are you Clara Barton's daughter?

This week I got to teach a lot of classes (mostly handwashing). Before I even introduced myself in one class, a student (either 1st or 2nd grade) asked me if I was Clara Barton's daughter. It was so cute! I guess he saw the Red Cross on my name tag and they had recently read about Clara Barton in school. [Fun fact: I did a project/presentation about Clara Barton when I was in 4th grade and now I get to work for the organization that she created!] It is amazing the number of kids see my name tag and ask me about my job just from seeing the Red Cross (a lot of them ask if I'm a doctor or nurse).
This coming week is full of a bunch of new things. Monday is Martin Luther King Day which is a day of service for AmeriCorps. On Monday, I'm volunteering at an event for youth and families that is about music and MLK. Then, I'm helping some of my Red Cross Club members teach the Scrubby Bear Handwashing Program in some of their feeder schools. Finally, on Saturday I get to volunteer with one of my other clubs at King's Harvest again! It is going to be a fun week and I'll have a lot to write about!