Just Kidding, One More Thing

   So I forgot to mention one thing that I think is really important when it comes to my service.  Since one of the big discussions we had in class was about whether we'd continue with our service work at all I feel like I should mention something.
     I knew for sure that I'd continue volunteering at Bridgepointe by the end of the semester, but I wanted to think of a way that I could take it a step further and do more for them than just volunteer a few hours every week.  Last time I volunteered I came up with an idea that I hope is going to be a success.
     So there is this old man at Bridgepointe who wheels himself up to the nurses station every day and asks if he has any "letters, phone calls, or telegrams."  Every time I had to see the nurses tell him "no" and see the disappointment on his face it killed me a little inside.  So I decided to contact both Bridgepointe and my English teacher from high school to suggest an idea.  Students could get writing practice and help out the community by writing letters to the residents and they could get a sort of pen pal.  If I've seen any issues at Bridgepointe a big one is that the residents get very lonely sometimes.  These letters could help them feel less lonely and I'm sure it would help.  I haven't gotten everything for it figured out yet but I'm really excited about it.
    Since I get home for Christmas break much earlier than the local schools in my town do, I'll have time to talk with teachers and try to figure something out for next semester.  I really hope it works out because I feel like it would make the residents so happy!

Last Thoughts

     I can't believe we're already done for the semester!  This is crazy to me.  I have to say that  this class was by far my favorite.  I'm in a science major and having my one and only non science class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday kept me sane!  I will admit that I was not expecting the class to be how it was.  I've mentioned in class before that my English classes in high school were all about structure and book reports.  Although very different, I welcomed the change I experienced in this english class. I found that writing papers was much easier when I didn't have to constantly worry about not using the word "it" or failing the whole assignment if I had one comma splice.
     I would have to say that my favorite thing about the class was how flexible it was.  I think the best part of that was how Professor Reimer took our ideas into consideration when planning the daily lessons instead of just following the book word for word everyday.  This made me actually want to come to class and I always had a good time.
     Although not my favorite part of the course, I was glad that some of our assignments required using technology.  It's no surprise to any of you that I am not technology savvy, but I will say that this course has helped me expand my knowledge in that area a little (no matter how frustrating).
     And lastly I guess I'll talk about the service.  I really REALLY did not want to do this at first.  But now I'm so glad that I did.  I certainly changed my mind about my perspective on service work and I'm really glad this course helped me to do so.  I can definitely say that this course was well worth it and I would recommend it to others.

Hours: Complete!

     Over break I had the opportunity to complete my service hours!  I was really excited to finally have my English class service hours done but that doesn't mean that I will stop volunteering at Bridgepointe.  I've been volunteering there since my junior year of high school and I really don't see myself stopping.  Although I probably won't be there as much now that I've completed my required service hours, I will most certainly still make my way over there to volunteer for a few hours here and there when I visit home again. The hours over break were a little tiring, however.  I had to go in for at least four hours every day and that got a little annoying considering I was on Thanksgiving break, but it was worth it to be able to say that I'm finally finished with them and I don't have to worry about going back home between now and finals.
     While I was completing my hours I decided to show some of the employees at Bridgepointe the digital poster that I made for our assignment.  At first I kind of regretted even mentioning the fact that I made one because I didn't want them to think that I did a really bad job on it.  I for one thought the poster was really bad, I spent hours trying to figure out the Aviary program to no avail.  Some of the tools really frustrated me to no end.  But they loved it!  They did admit that they could tell it was obviously not professional (which I was not offended by at all) but they said it was really cute that I've spent so much time doing stuff for Bridgepointe and they really appreciated it.  I was glad to hear that considering all the hard work that I have done for this class and in turn for them.  I do feel like it was all worth it though! And I'm sure when I go home for Christmas break I'll end up volunteering a little bit then too.

PUDM

     I wanted to wait until Sunday to blog this week because I knew I would be able to talk about my most recent experience with volunteering if I did.  This weekend was  PUDM.  For those of you who don't know what that is it stands for Purdue University Dance Marathon.  It's held every year to raise money for Riley Children's Hospital.  I just wanted to share my experience through my blog since it is relevant to the blog's topic.
     We had to go to the armory at 5:30 on Saturday.  I'm going to be honest and say that I was not looking forward to being on my feet for 18 hours.  And once we got there I still really wasn't motivated.  But once the Riley kids came in and shared their stories, I was more than happy to stand for that long.  Their stories were so inspiring and it was so crazy hearing some of the things these kids have to go through at such a young age.  Even crazier is how strong they are.  In fact I danced like crazy and participated in all of the games and activities provided for the dancers.  It was just like a big party with everyone dancing and having fun.
     After the first 14 hours, however, the urge to sit down was almost unbearable.  But the kids kept me inspired plus every dancer had a wristband with the name and age of a kid from Riley on it.  Anytime I really thought I was going to give up and sit down, I just looked at my wristband and told myself that Jess L., age 7 from Riley Hospital really needs me.  That always kept me going.  That and knowing that some of the kids at Riley don't have the ability to stand at all.  It was truly and inspirational experience and we raised over $300,000 dollars for the kids.  I was so proud of everyone involved and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Some More Service

So last weekend I went home to complete some more service work so that I can fulfill the thirty hours required by the deadline.  This weekend was a really interesting experience because I dedicated my entire Saturday to service work.  It was a very busy day.  I arrived around 9 am and I got started right away.  I was doing some boring stuff for a couple hours so it really wasn't that interesting.  But around noon was activities and snack time so I went with one of the nurses to pass out snacks to some of the residents who were participating in activities that day.  Residents can choose from a variety of activities every Saturday afternoon.  The facility tries to accommodate every resident so that they can find something that suits their interests.  I found it really interesting to see which activities which residents were participating in because I never would have guessed that some of them were interested in certain things by just knowing them.
There were all kinds of different activities that the residents could participate in.  Some of them sat in the main dining room and played board games.  Some of them got manicures and pedicures and their hair done by the employees.  And some of them played the Wii.  This was by far my favorite because they were playing the game "Just Dance" and some of them were playing in their wheelchairs.  It was so nice to see how much fun they were having and I couldn't resist stopping to play with them for a little bit.  The residents always enjoy having young people around to talk to and interact with so I was happy to jump in and provide some fun for them and for myself.  Needless to say, my service this weekend went really well.

Frisbee Fling

So this week I really do not have anything to report in regard to my service learning at Bridgepointe.  Like I've said previously I most likely won't be going back to do any work there until Thanksgiving break so there isn't really much to say along the lines of that.

The editorial assignment turned out to be much easier than I thought it was going to be.  I was a little worried about it but once I sat down to actually write it the paper pretty much went together fairly easily.  That is as long as I did it correctly!  I'm more worried about the upcoming assignment: the digital poster.  I know we don't have to be extremely creative to get a good grade but I still feel as though I'm my poster is going to be TERRIBLE because I have no clue how to use the website we were given as a tool.  I'll do my best though and I'm sure it will all come together in the end.

On another note, I have some other actual service work news that I can share.  Since my sorority provides so much philanthropy opportunities I will be receiving some hours through that.  This week I've attended Delta Upsilon and Theta Chi's haunted houses which both benefit their philanthropies.  As for my own Greek organization, this week I've spent an hour total selling purple ribbons in Stewart Center in support for victims of domestic violence.  In addition to that, this Sunday is my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega's, philanthropy event, Frisbee Fling.  It's basically just a competition between fraternities that the girls in the sorority "coach."  All of the donations go to the YWCA to domestic violence victims so it's for a really great cause and it should be a lot of fun!

Meanwhile in Vincennes...

I could not be more happy to blog right now after the week I have just experienced.  Crazy exams in my three toughest classes and I could not be more glad that they are all over.  I am still working on exactly what I want to do with this editorial.  I've never actually written one before so it will be interesting for me in my attempts.  Anyhow, I received an email this week from my Bridgepointe, my place of service work.  It was really great to hear from them.  They were basically just thanking me for coming back this semester and for all of the time and service I've provided for them.  This was a really encouraging email and it made me think about our research paper and how it was about the main problem at Bridgepointe being a lack of consistency in volunteers.  Simple things like that email made me feel good about volunteering and would persuade me to keep coming back and helping even if it weren't required for a class.  This is really good because the facility is doing something for itself to help the problem that they have been experiencing with volunteers.  I then decided to send them our research paper because I'm sure that some of the employees were curious to see what had been written about the place that they work.  I hope they enjoy what we wrote and that it's helpful for them because we worked really hard on it!  I feel like the solutions we presented could be really beneficial to Bridgepointe.  If they took into account some of the tips we included in the paper about improving things for volunteers they could be keeping their volunteers for a really long time!  But other than that news I don't really have anything to report as far as recent volunteering, I won't be doing any more hours until Thanksgiving break.