Rehabilitation Nursing Services

When I first started this project, I was originally going to volunteer at the YWCA in Flint, Michigan. I had a hard time getting in contact with the coordinator and between both of our schedules, we never found a day and time for me to do my actual volunteering. When I decided that I needed to find a different organization to work with, I started researching. I finally came across an organization called Rehabilitation Nursing Services. When I called and talked to the coordinator, she said that she had a patient who was in a wheelchair from being in a car accident fifty some years ago. She has been abused throughout her whole life from her past husband, other care givers, and loved ones. She is now in this nursing home so workers from the Rehabilitation Nursing Services can care for her and make sure that she lives a good life. The coordinator said that the patient has wanted to plan a Christmas party for her friends so she may need help getting things together for that. I was very excited to help her out! When I got to her place and first met her, she was such a sweetheart! I could tell right away that she was excited that I was there and she appreciated the help. The first thing we did was bake cookies for her Christmas party. She is in a wheelchair and is a paraplegic so she needs help with a lot of things around the house. It was so much fun making cookies with her and helping her do little things around her house. I could tell that it made her day that I was able to come and be with her for a few hours out of the day. After four hours was up, I had to go because I had to get to my dance studio but I did not want to leave! I learned so much from being with her in such a short amount of time. I never realized how much fun we would have together. I could tell that I made an impact on her day just from spending time with her. It made me realize the importance of this class. You don’t always have to make a huge impact on someone’s life. Even doing the smallest things for them can change their lives. It made me feel wonderful knowing that I brightened her day. I was having a blast with her. I might even stop by sometime soon to visit with her again! When I interviewed the coordinator, I found out exactly why she started this organization up. The main reason she started the Rehabilitation Nursing Services was to help better the patients’ lives. She wanted and still does want to make them feel loved and wanted in this world. She wants her patients to live a happy life despite their past. It made me really happy to hear her say that. Some people start a business just for the money. I could tell right away that the coordinator did not choose to open this business for the money; she wanted to make a difference. I am extremely happy that I decided to volunteer at this organization and I hope to continue volunteering in the future!

Final Take Action Post

My final take action project revolved around a giving tree to give hats, gloves, and scarves to women and children that can’t afford them. I did this project through a church that works with “Shelter of Flint” to reach out to their emergency shelter. There is a woman at the church that runs this program but she let me sort of take over and become the leader of it. It was an awesome experience! Instead of just reaching out to the people of the church like they usually do, I reached out to families in the daycare center at the church, friends of my own, and even more of the community. I put out flyers to the families at the daycare and out in the community. The people of the church that always participate in this program said that this was the most donations they have ever received. The excitement of previous helpers of this program was very touching. They had many kind words to say about me being such a young person wanting to help so much. Along with flyers, I created elaborate emails to be sent out. I started the emails with people I knew and asked for this email to be forwarded. What was most amazing about this is that there was a countless number of people bringing in donations that had heard about this “giving tree” through email! How awesome! It was an awesome feeling to know that my little bit of work put in had such a big outcome. This had an impact on not only the women and children through this program, but the church and community too. I can’t believe how far I reached out on my own. I could extend this project next year by getting these giving trees going in other churches and places. This project extended my learning tremendously from this course. A lot of what we learned and read was outside of the country. For me, it is hard to see these issues being so far away. Finding issues in my own community really opened my eyes to how close to home some issues can be. Realizing that there are women and children so close to me that need things to keep them warm for winter was moving. To me it was awesome to see because it is something I could help with. Another thing I learned from this project that extended onto my learning from this class is how my little help had such a huge impact. It showed me that if every person did something as small as what I did, we could help a ton of people in need. This project just made the thought of helping the needy seem so much more possible than ever before. I also see now how any help can be a big help to people in need. When I thought a little donation won’t do much to educate women that are stuck in sex trafficking, before. Now I think how much that little donation can help! 

Urban Gardening in Genesee County

For the past few years I have been donating time to help educate women and families of the community about the importance of healthy eating and urban gardening.  Obesity is a large epidemic in today’s society and if I can help even a few families see the benefits of gardening I will be happy.  During the semester I have donated approximately 20 hours of my personal time to helping with questions regarding cultivation, installation and maintenance of urban gardens in the Flint community. 

                                                      (above an empty lot transformed - on Mabel Avenue in Flint's Eastside)

              Some topics talked about were disease prevention, composting in the garden, weeding and organic care.  Working with these individuals has been very full filling.  The idea behind urban gardening is taking unused land in Flint and creating a garden that the neighborhood can be proud of.  This not only helps educate the women and members of our community about the importance of healthy eating but also helps to utilize and beautify the area.  I also donated time to apartment communities that wished to establish urban gardens of their own.

  

                                                         (above the garden's installed at Charter Oaks Apartments in Davison)

  I feel that donating my time to help develop urban gardens in Flint has helped to develop has been beneficial to the “stay at home” moms of the community.  While my assistance was for the community in general, most of the donated time was to these women.   During harvest time (late September) we also helped educate these people in the art of canning vegetables for the long winter months.  I hope to continue with this program next season and possibly expand into other areas within Genesee County.   If anyone would like to volunteer to help out next season please let me know and we can get something set up.

Final Part of Our Project - Shelter of Flint

                     My project was helping out at the shelter of flint. I worked in a group and I was really glad I had worked with them. The first time we went we made different things out of paper and little other things. We made snowmen and Santa and a lot of others that was really cool! This time we went back and did other things as well. We ended up decorating cookies and had them color and even after that Roger, Desiree and I helped with the balloon race. The kids looked so happy that we had brought cookies and pictures for them so they could color. I hope they had a ton of fun. I sat with a few of the older kids and they told me that they really liked decorating the cookies.  For the balloon race we would blow up a balloon and have them hold it and they would let go to see whose went the furthest. This time less parents came down because they had things to do. During this time we went to go do things with the kids, their mom or dad were able to do things that needed to be done or even just to have a few moments to themselves. This helped me learn that when people like us come and help it makes them feel happy and maybe hopeful that people are willing to help them. Even though there were mostly single moms, there were a few single fathers who were there as well. Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time with Petra who was our coordinator so we didn’t get to have a full interview but she did tell us that it is very great to have the community involved and she was thrilled that we came and let the kids have fun. Overall we had a lot of fun and I know I was excited to see that all the kids were happy!

Final Post!

The Shelter of Flint has been an awakening and spiritual experience for me. It's near and dear to my heart for many reasons. The first day that our group participated in the family night, as the parents dropped children off to us, I noticed a few familiar faces. One of the residents I went to elementary school with and another I attended high school with. I had conversations with the both of them about our times together in school. I told them both It was good to see them. (But not to see them in a shelter) After I left that night I meditated on what I could do to help them, I thought about how fortunate I am to  live where I live,  I have full family support, and I get opportunities some don't. My heart goes out to all the people at the Shelter of Flint, let alone, all the people in the world that are less fortunate to have a home. However, the people I saw had an immediate effect on my heart and souls motivation to serve. When you are young and living life you are not conscious of the fact that the people around you as well as yourself, will be privileged or less fortunate. I’ve been homeless before so I know what it feels to not have a home, so I know the need to have one. Through this experience I vow to treat everybody right and do to others as I would like for myself.  Which reminds me of a quote I saw on a door I passed in the French Hall. It says, “A good way to find yourself is get lost in serving other” Unknown Author.

 

I want to give people all that I have, I that I know, all that I will ever be, and more.

 

 

 

Peace and Love, Denaro O. Hennings

 

1L1G

Take Action Project Final Post

I did my volunteer at the North End Soup Kitchen. The kitchen serves food to people who are homeless or having disabilities. My job was making food and then serving food to those people. I also did my interview with one of the cook in the kitchen.

         For the first two hours, I made sandwiches with other volunteers and cooks. I started with cutting vegetables, and it was not hard for me. After that, we need to make 200 sandwiches. I never made sandwiches before, so I asked the cook to show me. I got it pretty fast, so I was making sandwiches with another volunteer while the other two volunteers were putting sandwiches into bags. They put two sandwiches into a bag, so we were trying to make 100 servings. We didn’t have enough volunteers so we didn’t make soup that day. The cook put some cookies in each bag to make it not too bad. She also offered apples.

         We served food at a table from 4 to 5. People who needed to get food need to register first, so the cook knew how many servings they would make. As people came in, they needed to sign in first, and then grab a juice, a bag and an apple. I noticed that people didn’t really want apples because they were not fresh. Some people ignored me when I said hello, and then walked away really quick. However, some people were really nice, and they smiled and said hello to me, and they also said thank you after they got food.

         After working, I did my interview with one of the cook. She chose to work at the North End Soup Kitchen because she loved helping people. She enjoyed seeing people getting helps. Her job was significant because it reached many in need. People could get food from the kitchen so they wouldn’t be starving any more. She said she helped women and their children to get food, which were their basic needs, and she also helped men if they needed help.

         Finally, I enjoyed my volunteer hours, and I would like to go to help again.The most impressed part of this project was I felt it was really interesting to see people getting help. The impact of the project was for me to learn how I could help people. I might do my volunteer at another organization to extend this project. Added to my learning, I met some people who really needed help. I never saw people like them before. I learned a lot from them and doing this project, and I would like to help more people.

Take Action check in

I have finished my take action project by now all I have to do is have my interview with my club leader so that my assignment would be finished. I didn't really work with any classmates as a team but a few of them was there volunteering as well. I have learned that people really appreciate when someone take time out of there day to help them with there problems or help them meet there goals. I made a lot of families happy for Thanksgiving this year. We had a food drive here at U of M and there where many families that came out to receive what we had to offer. The families where very grateful, one family even screamed go blue. I also did the breast cancer awareness walk. We made shirts and my whole club walked and raised money to help them with their stand. Even though it was early in the morning I had a great time and it made me feel good that I was doing something to make a difference in somebody else's life. I have learned that when I do things for other people it make me feel better about myself and it also affects the people as well.