Over the summer between my junior and senior years of high school I completed the largest voluntary project of my life. By voluntary I mean two things; both that I chose to do it under no sort of requirement and that the point of the entire project was to volunteer and involve others in volunteering.
The project was in fulfillment of one of the requirements for my Eagle Scout rank. The requirement says “While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community.” Simple enough, right? All I have to do is to get a few people to do something nice and someone else to sign my book. Not quite. I am a member of Boy Scout Troop 307 and we are over-achievers. One of our Scouts built a 200 foot board-walk, another got donations and built shelves to stock an entire new food pantry, and his brother did the same for the corresponding clothing closet. As you can see, I had a rather high bar set for me.
I asked some people for suggestions and ultimately came to the conclusion that I would like to do something for the Indiana Veterans Home. They are good and friendly people with an obviously good mission. They provide retirement community and nursing home type care for veterans who have seen active service and their spouses. I personally had benefitted from their benevolence because they have allowed the homeschool soccer team I play on to use a large field of theirs for soccer practices and games for some five or six years now.
I asked some people for suggestions and ultimately came to the conclusion that I would like to do something for the Indiana Veterans Home. They are good and friendly people with an obviously good mission. They provide retirement community and nursing home type care for veterans who have seen active service and their spouses. I personally had benefitted from their benevolence because they have allowed the homeschool soccer team I play on to use a large field of theirs for soccer practices and games for some five or six years now.
Over the hundreds of times that I had come there for soccer practices and games I had noticed that the massive military graveyard adjacent to the Veterans Home receives relatively little care. It is not overgrown, but the stones are discolored and many were slanted. Because the Veterans Home’s budget is perpetually tight they do not spend any more time or money on the graveyard than is necessary to keep it decent. Therefore, I proposed to them that I might be able to serve them and honor the deceased veterans by cleaning the stones in the graveyard. There is a rather long story about what happened in the middle, but in the end, I was able to straighten the stones instead. I got many other individuals I knew - and a number I didn’t - to help me and we wound up putting in about 350 volunteer hours and straightening nearly a thousand stones.
When I was informed that I would need to spend time volunteering somewhere for English 108, the first place that popped into my mind was the Indiana Veterans Home. They have literally hundreds of volunteers that put in thousands of hours each year. Volunteers are such a vital part of their operation that I honestly think they would have difficulty staying open without volunteers.
I am very excited to get to work with Carolyn Johnson and all my friends at the Veterans Home again. But it makes me even more excited that a number of my class mates will be joining me there too, as the Veterans Home’s motto says, Serve Those Who Served.
I am very excited to get to work with Carolyn Johnson and all my friends at the Veterans Home again. But it makes me even more excited that a number of my class mates will be joining me there too, as the Veterans Home’s motto says, Serve Those Who Served.
That's really awesome that you can work at a place where you've already been involved in. :) Usually in the summer we would actually have a fun/relaxing vacation, so I admire that you would put in effort to volunteer hours to better the veterans' lives...even if it's to fulfill a requirement! I'm sure you'll have an awesome experience again, especially now that some classmates will be joining you in your endeavors.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of gravestones...I admit I would feel a little unnerved if I decided to put in lots of hours straightening gravestones. Thankfully you have a strong heart and probably are not the type to be affected by any horror movies that would dissuade me from such a task, haha.
I'm interested as to what other activities you would do as a volunteer at the veterans' home. Straightening the gravestones is an important and respectful task, and playing bingo with them can be a genuine time for them. What are the other ways to serving them that you were thinking of? Whatever you guys do, I hope it turns out really well!
I remember back in the day *clears out corn cob pipe and sits in rocking chair* when I was in scouts. I helped with a ridiculous amount of eagle scout projects. Most of the time we would be called to a local church to do some landscaping or light construction for a homeless shelter or the food distribution center for those in need (we called it the harvest house). Eagle scout projects are awesome not only because they get boys of all ages into the community and helping, but also because it can provide an opportunity for them to gain a fundamental understanding of a skill or trade.
ReplyDeleteI definitely share your excitement at the prospect of aiding the home. Being from a military family, the motto "Serve Those who Served" was pounded into my head. I love that a lot of our classmates jumped at the chance that was given to them to help the veterans.