When I walked in, the setting was a gym that was filled with people running around and things all over the floors. I was filtered through a line and given a name tag, then sent to the back of the gym to begin cutting fabric and stuffing for the blankets.
The recent MLK Bink-A-Thon in Beaverton, OR brought together over 130 volunteers ranging in age from 4 – 85. Over 230 blankets were made that day. This is the story of one volunteerr who was seeking community service hours.
As a start to the new year, I thought it would be fitting to do some volunteering in my free time with friends. And so, I gathered a group of 7 people from the National Honors Society, signed a waiver online, and attended the event at 9 AM. The location was:
Village Church 330 SW Murray Blvd, Beaverton, OR 97005
When I walked in, the setting was a gym that was filled with people running around and things all over the floors. I was filtered through a line and given a name tag, then sent to the back of the gym to begin cutting fabric and stuffing for the blankets. We were asked to cut two 3 ft x 3 ft squares of fabric from a company that donated lots, then cutting 1-inch thick stuffing to slightly smaller dimensions (by about a couple of inches). The most important thing about this process was making sure that the fabric did not have rips in it, otherwise, the blanket would instantly be worth far less. We would compile the stuffing in between the two fabric squares and hand the unfinished blanket to the pinning station, where they would pin the two pieces of fabric together around the border, approximately every 5 inches.
I transitioned to the pinning stage after multiple hours of cutting fabric and stuffing. Throughout the cutting stage, I was working with Charlie, one of my friends, and a woman that we met who was from New Zealand. She was very sweet and told us about her wife and her experiences studying in New Zealand and Australia.
After hours of working on the individual blankets, I ended up introducing a family of three to the process, explaining to them how to place, cut, and who to give the fabrics to once complete. The family came from China and explained to me how their home was filled with cameras and that many of the places, particularly cities, were monitored similarly to how I had seen in the news and how I had seen in documentaries. It was very surreal to hear someone’s first-hand experience with something so traumatic.I took a break to eat some food – Charlie did not bring any, so I also fed him. Ayu, one of our other friends sat with us, and within 10 minutes, we were asked to make one of the bought blankets prettier by cutting small strips on the edges of the felt sheet and tying them together to create a large knotted train blanket for a child or family. We were then asked by Susan Finch, the person running the event, to continue to help by taking large cardboard boxes across the parking lot in the back of the property and recycling them.
What I learned from this experience was that volunteering and individual effort can grandly help both people and need and people whom you are working with. What primarily drove this event was the sheer number of people that helped. I also pondered how much money some people in the world earn from work such as this; we volunteer to help others, be with friends, or earn hours for education that we do not pay for. Others do this work in order to make a living for their families.
How did you address an issue of procrastination in your CAS programme? What was the effect and what did you learn? Explain a roadblock that you had to overcome. Explain how you handled the role of outside forces that negatively impacted your CAS portfolio. How is learning in CAS different than learning in the classroom?
The procrastination within the reaches of this event includes planning to attend the event, to which I waited until the last minute because of my busy schedule. I signed up for the event through the National Honors Society Club, and I initially attended solely for the hours that I would get, though, I did choose this event because I am passionate about working with my hands and contributing to the needs of children, of whom I also work with. And so, the effect was solely having to sign up and sign a form later than recommended and showing up at the same time with my friends to get started. A large roadblock that I have had to overcome for the last two years is simply finding time to do volunteering or other activities without losing additional sleep: time management. Otherwise, throughout the event, I was very attentive in my activities and cut my food break short in order to make the most of the opportunity to help.
Her school had this elaborate questionnaire to prompt students to relate their experience. It’s been shortened a bit below.
How did you address an issue of procrastination in your CAS programme? What was the effect and what did you learn? Explain a roadblock that you had to overcomeThe procrastination within the reaches of this event includes planning to attend the event, to which I waited until the last minute because of my busy schedule. I signed up for the event through the National Honors Society Club, and I initially attended solely for the hours that I would get, though, I did choose this event because I am passionate about working with my hands and contributing to the needs of children, of whom I also work with. And so, the effect was solely having to sign up and sign a form later than recommended and showing up at the same time with my friends to get started. A large roadblock that I have had to overcome for the last two years is simply finding time to do volunteering or other activities without losing additional sleep: time management. Otherwise, throughout the event, I was very attentive in my activities and cut my food break short in order to make the most of the opportunity to help.
Is working with others generally easy or hard for you? Why? So, based on your answer to the above question, was this particular activity easy or hard for you to work with others? Did you have to work with anyone difficult? How did you handle it?
Working with others is very easy for me, hence my photos working with different families, the leader of the event, foreigners, friends, and other people that I met. Due to my strong communication skills, I was asked by the person running the event to help new people coming in get settled, teaching them along the way. This was a unique activity because I did not work with anyone difficult, rather, everyone was supportive and good at working together.
Explain what learner profile attributes you developed through this experience.
I am clearly showing the actions of a communicator, as I am working with others constantly and showing my merit through my words. Otherwise, I would consider myself also to be caring, both towards the people that we are giving the blankets to, but also to the people that I worked with and helped during the event.
If you could do this activity again, what would you do differently?
If I could do this activity again, I would contact the people who ran the event earlier and try to earn a position on the sewing machines because I want additional experience using the machines; I learned through middle school, but I have lost many of my skills.