[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Amelia’s Good!” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Hello! My name is Amelia and I like to do a lot of things for the community. I was born into a caring family; my mom founded and ran a nonprofit business to help people with disabilities enjoy the arts. So, it was easy for me to find joy in helping others, as I grew up around people caring about other people and saw kindness on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
This blog post got me thinking about what community service is and why it is important. I moved to a new elementary school at the beginning of 4th grade. Immediately I signed up for Girl Scouts and we began some service projects for our community; many that had to do with literacy.<\/p>\n
As I think about the different community projects that I have completed in my time at my elementary school, they seem to break into several categories:<\/p>\n
1.) Access to literacy
\n2.) Assisting students with disabilities
\n3.) Assisting others with food donations
\n4.) Creating a daily in-school Study Buddy program<\/p>\n
Since the 4th grade I have volunteered in a program for students with disabilities two days a week. Those days are Thursday and Friday. I enjoy hanging out with the kids. I probably have way more fun than they do participating in the counting songs with them on the iPad. I get motivated to keep going to visit because I love all the smiles I get to see. Once I even got to go to the library with them and listen to a read aloud. I felt part of a group and I hope they felt the same way. Community Service is about being part of a group and doing good deeds for others. Something I feel our world needs a whole lot more of.<\/p>\n
For my church I organized a neighborhood food drive and collected over 100 pounds of food worth a value of $147. I learned from my local food pantry that a lot of families suffer from what is called \u201cfood insecurity\u201d. This means that families struggle to know if they have enough money to buy food each week. I personally want to continue making sure that my neighbors always have enough food. This will be a focus for me when I start going to my middle school in August.<\/p>\n
In the 5th grade, I started a Study Buddy program with some other friends. For a few months we helped 4th graders with their math and spelling. This program was a big success and helped me earn the Boomerang award. Unfortunately, it had to end abruptly, it was part of the school policy to have adult supervision, and for months I was running the program with some of my 5th grade friends. When the administration realized this was a risk, our program ended.<\/p>\n
Finally, I help volunteer with a nationwide literacy program called Bess the Book Bus. This mobile bus is stocked with books and comes to our county every year. I help the founder, Jennifer Frances, give out books to kids in my community which raises awareness about the importance of reading.<\/p>\n
Community Service is about giving back. It is about continuing to be motivated to help people and to find the joy in doing good. I plan to continue with my service at my next school and find new and different ways to be useful and contribute to a better world. Imagine if all the kids at every school did this, we\u2019d solve many of our world problems with this multiplication of good!<\/p>\n
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