Volunteer

i volunteer on thursdays to help this girl with math homework, and i love it. it’s the best part of my week =)

i volunteered today for an hour in an SOS program. i helped a girl named alexis navigate through algebra word problems that were confusing and set up equations and define variables. we ran into a lot of problems we kept doing one problem wrong over and over again but i was happy that she was so patient. we finally asked the teacher for help who told us we forgot a parenthesis. i realized that math is really hard. and i respect people who can figure out that language

i volunteered again for 2 hours yesterday. i helped this 8th grade boy with his math homework. He had to find the area of some triangles and then some random shapes. it was hard for me to connect with him because he was so quiet, just listening to what i was trying to say. i had to ask over and over “are you getting this” “do you think i’m crazy” “this is really the way you do it” “do you sorta get this” because he really barely responded. i felt bad, because he didn’t know the formulas for the math problems, so i just had to tell him A=1/2bh, just because, it is. and then when we had to find the area of irregular shapes he didn’t almost believe me that you just count up the number of squares you see. in the end he told me his name was abdi. he put on his jacket and was relatively nice and said well, i’m leaving. even if he doesn’t have any great affinity for school i was happy that he homework for the night was one less thing he had to worry about. he was semi-responsive though because he asked me how to spell “squares” and said something about it getting dark out so early i think and we worked through the problems together with the equation so we had minor contact =).

i volunteered two times, for 3 hours total at an afterschool program through literary volunteers helping refugee children who english is their second language. it can be dull though at times, sometimes there’s not enough people to help, i just leave early those days

i volunteered for 2 hours afterschool last wednesday and i plan on continuing to go for literary volunteers, helping kids who english isn’t their first language accomplish homework and a better background in the language, these kids were from Sudan and Somalia. although interacting with really little kids isn’t my cup of tea at all, it’s good to help.

volunteered today.

between today and yesterday 5 hours.

did today at the soup kitchen again for 2 and a half hours.

except today they didn’t need our help in the kitchen so we helped with their little library that they never can keep open because there’s noone to watch it.

it was fun today because we actually got to interact with people rather than just setting a tray in front of them.

oh my gosh the people were a riot, they just talked so much. the one lady was like i wanna read a mystery, soemthing about killing can you help me? she said she wanted to read a good book , one she couldn’t put down. so i tried to help her look for one but i had no idea her taste. i was like uhh do you like shakespeare? theres a lot of killing in that haha. she was like noo. so she finally found a book that actually said mystery right on it and it had a creepy looking lake with a boat on it so she got it.

it was just real encouraging that people care about what resources they are provided. i was surprised how many people looked in the library. at school and everything everyone just takes them for granted.

i was happy that people were takign advantage of their resources and trying to expand their knowledge.

tommorrow though we’ll prolly get to work on serving again, which will be fun. =)

volunteered this morning for an hour by myself. they called me because they needed help. i talked to a few new volunteers today.

everything gets easier once they know your name. =)

i volunteered today with a friend for 4 hours at a soup kitchen and it was so worth it.

there was so much to help with.

we washed tables, put salt and pepper shakers on them all, wrapped silverware,loaded up food trays in an assembly like fashion, waitressed the tables where new people came in and dried trays later.

it was a lot of fun and really busy. they said they serve about 120 people for lunch a day, but today i think they served alot more.

it feels real rewarding to put a warm hot meal on the table in front of someone.

a couple people gave us a little bit of trouble with second helpings, because the kitchen didn’t have enough to do that.

the meal was good too it was porkchops with mash potatoes, corn, applesauce, a roll and piece of cake. me and chelsea had some.

i was so happy we did it, because i really organized it. i called about it, and we followed through on helping, and we met the coordinator who my connection forgot to introduce us to, and there was a lot of sweet old people we introduced ourselves to.

we wore aprons and it was alot of fun running around and helping eachother spot newcomers to feed. chelsea and i conferred on things.

i really feel like we made a difference today.

maybe me and chelsea will get waitressing jobs together =)

fun day.

volunteered for 3 hours so far with Mudpies Children’s Museum.

we recycled paper, there are special dumpsters that you put the paper into and the company who owns the dumpsters gets $100 and usually gives it to charity or something like Mudpies.

i was so glad to help because i realized how much work Mudpies is. they create interactive exhibits for kids in all areas of study, music, math ,science,history, architecture etc.
I inquired as to what exactly they did and they have different exhibits, like a water one for example and first there’s like a lecture, and afterwards the kids get to experiment with toys pertaining to the topic, like water guns/ costumes/monitored experiments with dried ice etc. it just sounded like a lot of fun.

she said, if you came to watch it kinda looks like a free for all, but there’s a lot of planning that goes into it.

i just feel like i made a small difference and i plan on volunteering next week. i was surprised she didn’t ask me to do more.

i was happy because the owner is my bf’s mom and i got to know her a lot more. she reminded me of grandpa mike because she’s a visionary. she kept telling me that she just wants to have a positive effect on her boys and hopes that they will do something for the community along the lines of a non-profit organization like hers. she said something like “jordan can’t see what i’m doing, but you have to just keep trying, you know it’s just about creating something out of nothing.”

i was just so impressed by her worth ethic and commitment to teaching kids, especially through fun methods of learning.

i also realized her genuine love for her kids as a wonderful mom.

we talked about everything under the sun. she’s a real nice lady. jordan helped us too.

i plan to volunteer at the church/soup kitchen next and continue helping mudpies =)

volunteering makes me feel like i’m making a difference no matter how little or big the task is, it all goes towards a good cause =)