A central point of being an Ogallala Common intern is community service. All OC interns are required to complete 10 hours of community service, but encouraged to engage in as many service projects as possible. I have done a lot of different jobs over the past two summers in order to complete my community service hours, but this summer looked a bit different.
There were a lot of hoops to jump through this summer due to COVID-19 restrictions, but nonetheless, I managed to give back to my community in a variety of different activities. My personal favorite community service activity of this summer was volunteering in the concessions stand of our local baseball field. While local elementary and middle school kids had the opportunity to play against their peers in a friendly game of T-ball, I could be found serving popcorn, hot dogs and Haxtun’s world famous ballpark burgers. I enjoyed working in concessions the most because it gave me the opportunity to catch up with community members I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic hit.
The second community service activity I participated in was simple, but hard work. I spent an afternoon pulling weeds around Haxtun. Living in the Northeastern corner of Colorado, I am no stranger to doing some gardening, so I actually enjoyed pulling all the weeds!
The third community service activity I participated in was much more in my wheelhouse than the other two. I designed a local “Mask Drive” flyer. Our school district is requiring all students to wear a mask this upcoming school year so many community members organized a mask and lanyard drive to ensure that all Haxtun students could attend school protected. I really enjoyed this activity and it wasn’t too difficult because a majority of my internship work is spent designing graphics for local events.
