Winter Break Service Learning

I have not been working much over winter break, but I did get to do a service project with my middle school Red Cross Club. In the past, the group had participated in our local Meals on Wheels program, but this year I found a local Genage Cafes that was in need of volunteers. (They serve meals to seniors for a suggested donation on weekdays) The club members were very excited when I presented the sign-up and we had really good response so we signed up to help for 2 days! (They only serve lunch during the week so break time is the only time the kids can participate without missing school). When we arrived we met the two men who were running the program and they put us to work. Usually, the Genage Cafe visitors stand in line and get their plates themselves and then take them to their seats, but with us there we delivered the meals to all the visitors then sat and ate and enjoyed conversation with them and then cleaned up their dishes when they were finished.

We got a lot of good response from the Cafe-goers. I don't think they see many new faces so it was nice to provide them with some new listening ears. My favorite moment of the day was when I said hello to the women who I sat with yesterday though (yes, this totally took me back to sorority recruitment! get-to-know-you questions, non yes/no questions, going back and saying hello...) - she was so sweet. We asked each other about our afternoons from the day before (we had discussed what we were going to be doing yesterday) and then she introduced me to her niece who she had talked about yesterday and she said that she really wanted to introduce us. It was so cute and sweet. It was a great feeling that she saw us as friends.

After we were done today, we had a little reflection time to talk about what we thought of the project. At the non-profit summit, I went to a session about providing reflection for volunteers. I choose to do a spectrum activity today (one that I had also done at summer camp). While we waited for the club member's rides outside, we defined some spots outside for strongly agree to strongly disagree. Then I read statements that they would respond to by standing where they feel on the spectrum. Then I asked a few of them to share why they were standing where they were standing.

I asked a few of the statements from this list that I made:

• I enjoyed this service project
• I made someone smile today
• Someone made me smile today
• I felt like I made a difference today
• I helped someone today
• I would do this project again
• I would not change anything about this project
• This project was my 1st volunteer experience
• This project made me want to volunteer more
• I learned something from this project
• I feel good about the work I did today

I was so great to see how the kids responded to these statements. I loved hearing why they felt the way they did. 

Hopefully, we will be able to go back and serve another day this year, but it is nice to know that the youth will be able to continue the project next year too without me.