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.