By: Kaylee Denny
I did all my community service at the Grant County Public Library. I was a little late to help out with the Summer reading program for kids but got to help with the water party that wrapped it all up. This was super fun because I got to be a team captain and soak little kids in water. We had all sorts of fun with water balloons, water guns, and much more. After the water activities were done I helped clean up all the little pieces of balloons and picked up stuff that was left behind on the field. I then headed over to the picnic area where they were serving Capri suns and chocolate chip cookies. I also helped haul all of the pools and hoses back and forth from the library to the soccer fields.
The next time I went, I got handed Clorox wipes and was told to clean all of the library toys. I didn’t mind though because it was neat seeing all the different generations of toys that had been donated. I went through every single toy they had and scrubbed them squeaky clean. I even went through everything and organized the toys, so they were where they were supposed to be.
On the third day of community service, I had to take down the under the sea theme for new decorations. I had been babysitting my little brother, so he got to play with the toys while I took all the decorations down. I felt really bad because I accidentally tore down a tree that was supposed to stay on the wall and they changed the decorations on it seasonally. I apologized multiple times and I even offered to rebuild it. The librarian was super nice about it though. She told me she needed to renovate the decoration wall anyway.
On my very last day of community service, I helped put together the new wall decoration that was going to replace the tree I accidentally tore down. The librarian told me she wanted to make a homemade bulletin board. I was down to do whatever to make the wall less bland. The design of it was going to have the bulletin part a white wood theme and then it would be outlined with colorful apple trim. I was only supposed to draw out the fake planks but when the librarian saw how straight my line work was she asked if I could do the whole design. I didn’t mind and got to work on it.
The reason why I chose the library as my community service is that it is full of fun things to do and you’re usually never bored. My friend also recommended it to me because one of their hired teenage employees had the whole month of July off and they needed the extra help. Probably the most challenging thing for me was getting days scheduled that didn’t conflict with my schedule that I already had. I am a pretty busy person and I am usually doing something every day. This experience impacted me with how much joy can go through a library. I am not a big reader and when I was younger I was never brought to the library. I believe it is a fun way to open your imagination to newer things and ideas.
