As most know, we had to do 10 hours of community service for our internship. I really struggled to figure out what I wanted to do. I ended up splitting up my hours between 2 different things. I helped with a project at the church I attend and worked for a janitor at a local church.
I spent my first six hours of community service on a project at our church called Soul Quest. So, our Youth Group would go out in the morning and afternoon and do yard work or small projects for people in the community, and then would knock on neighbors’ doors and invite them to dinner at the church. My part of the project was that I helped prepare food and clean up after lunch and dinner. I would go on my lunch break from STAR Rentals, and we would prepare sandwiches, drinks, and cookies for the youth group and adults doing the projects. After lunch I would help clean up and put away the food. Then, after work I would help prepare, set up, and clean up the dinner for the community. We had an Italian night, Mexican night, and grilled burgers and hotdogs. I made Lazy Man’s Lasagna, Tacos, and helped prepare the fixings for the grilled items on the last day. And after we had eaten, I would help clean tables, take out the trash, wash and dry dishes, and put up the leftovers. Some of the other ladies had a wonderful idea of putting the leftovers in individual containers for meals for the elderly, sick, or homebound. I thought that was a wonderful idea because we were still able to help others even though the project was over. I really enjoyed doing this because I meet some new people and helped the community. It was awesome to see all the youth come together and go out and work on their summer break, and hopefully they and the community enjoyed the food that we prepared.
For my final hours I helped clean one of the churches in the community. This church is cleaned by an elderly lady in her 80’s. She is so kind and sweet. She had lost her husband in April. We cleaned windows, bathrooms, classrooms, halls, vacuumed, pretty much everything that needed done. My favorite part of the time was what I called our “Safety Meting”. We would find a couple of chairs and just visit for a while. Sometimes I think we forget that the elderly are lonely and sometimes just want to talk to someone. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life we sometimes miss the point of just stopping to visit for a few minutes about things. That lovely lady is an inspiration in that she is still working at her age. I learned so much from this experience, and it really put some things in perspective for me.
During both community service projects I think that I benefited just as much as the others I was serving. I also feel like I got to work on all three of the goals that I set for myself during this internship.
