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Service Learning Paper

Doug Kennedy

Cornerstone MWF 11-11:50

4/27/15

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Despite not being able to go to the Special Olympic event that most of the Cornerstone

students went to, I was granted the opportunity to volunteer at two different locations. I

volunteered for the “Waterloo Boys and Girls Club” and for the “Make a Wish: Walk for

Wishes” event. At the “Waterloo Boys and Girls Club” I volunteered along with a few other Sig

Ep and sorority members. A few of us were responsible for looking after the 50-75 kids who

were at recess at the time. After retrieving basketballs for the some of the younger kids for a

while, some of our volunteers, including me, ended up playing basketball with some of the

older kids. Some of them were very good, so I had to try my best to play against them.

A week and a half later, I volunteered at the “Make a Wish: Walk for Wishes” fundraiser.

Essentially, two other Sig Ep brothers and I first helped set up by moving tables, and helped put

together parking signs. Then, we had to tell people where to park their cars. I was responsible

for directing most of the people to the main parking grass area. After an hour or so, each of us

had to stand at a different spot within the route and help tell the runners and walkers where to

go next. After the race was done, we were dismissed, because the event was over. This whole

volunteering event lasted between 6:30-10:30 in the morning.

I chose to volunteer with the “Boys and Girls Club”, because there were opportunities

for members within Sig Ep to attend, and I was free during that time. Also, I hadn’t volunteered

for any “Boys and Girls Club”. I decided to volunteer at the “Make a Wish: Walk for Wishes”

fundraiser, because I really needed the volunteer hours for both this class and within Sig Ep.

Also, I had nothing going on, even though I knew I was going to be really tired.

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What I was thinking what I would get out of the “Boys and Girls Club” was an improved

ability to communicate with kids. Going in, for the “Make a Wish: Walk for Wishes”, there really

wasn’t anything I desired to learn, I just wanted to get the hours.

After volunteering at the “Boys and Girls Club” I realized that I’m bad at communicating

with elementary age kids, but I’m alright with Middle and High school kids. Within the “Make a

Wish: Walk for Wishes”, I learned how to show where people need to park. As stated earlier,

this was my first time doing that, and I struggled at first but I gained a solid grasp of it before

the end of the hour. Also, I saw a fellow Glee Club member, a hall-mate, UNI President Bill

Ruud, and even UNI Men’s Basketball Coach Ben Jacobson.

After completing my volunteering experiences, my opinions of the organizations

changed somewhat. For the “Waterloo Boys and Girls Club” volunteering, I realized how hard it

is to control young kids within a huge age range between 3-18 years old. It was hard for me to

get them to do what I told them. It’s probably because they didn’t know who I was, and they

were possibly confused if they should even listen to me. I respect even more what the paid

workers do to take of the kids. For the “Make a Wish: Walk for Wishes”, I became more

impressed by their abilities to host events like this. A person in charge of the event told me that

this was their inaugural “Walk for Wishes”, so I was surprised that it went together this well.

Also, as stated earlier, they got the UNI Men’s Basketball Coach and his assistant coaches to

attend and fundraise for it, so it showed their abilities to coordinate really well.

This didn’t really change how I viewed myself dramatically, but I feel like it did a little bit.

At the “Boys and Girls Club”, I feel like I found that I am better at interacting with kids than I

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thought. Earlier I said that I didn’t communicate well with the youngest kids, but even then I

was able to do just fine with them. I grew up as the youngest brother in my family, so I never

had to routinely interact with siblings or other kids much younger than me. Especially since I

see college kids and professors daily, I felt like I improved with dealing with people younger

than me.

At the “Make a Wish: Walk for Wishes” I realized that I can direct people pretty well. As I

said earlier, I directed where cars parked and where people ran and walked. I was kind of

worried about accidentally telling people to go to the wrong way or not stopping them in time.

Despite those worries, I was able to tell people to the correct directions and all of the runners

cooperated. Some of the cars did not, but that just meant they parked closer than they should

of. The opposite happened to, because I was kind of in a pattern of telling people to go to grass

parking, and I was told by one of Sig Ep brothers that I accidentally sent President Ruud to that

area. I felt kind of bad, but then later I thought it was funny.

To me, civility means to expect yourself to do something positive to make someone’s

day. I definitely improved my sense of civility, because I feel like I did make or improved

someone’s day. When I was playing with kids during their recess time, I was helping them enjoy

playing while giving up most of my afternoon. At the “Make a Wish: Walk for Wishes”

fundraiser, I enabled people to park and run to the right places within the fundraiser, so they

could enjoy their experience with it. The runners and walkers fundraised for “Make a Wish” so I

supported this by volunteering for it. Despite not being able to go to the “Special Olympics”

event, and being required to write this paper, I’m glad that I had the opportunity to introduce

myself to these organizations by volunteering with them.

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