Thursday, October 21, 2010

Introducing Myself

Hey y'all! So this is the inaugural post for my brand-new blog, "Confessions of a Volunteeraholic"! I'm just gonna say this straight up: I love volunteering. Every time I'm asked to list my interests and hobbies "volunteering at my church" is first and foremost on the list.

For five years, I’ve been doing whatever I can for the kids programs at my church: from being the drama director in our annual kids musical to helping out in the nursery with the babies, as well as everything in between, like helping in Sunday School classes and being on the leadership team for our kids program called Fun Factor.

I'm known as the "enthusiastic", "dramatic", "crazy" one.. so getting up on stage and dancing, singing, jumping, doing the actions; performing for, and rocking out with those kids is my favourite part.  I love kids, big and small, church-kids, and non-church-kids. And I love that I can use my outgoing personality and talent for performing to get plugged in at my church.

This summer, I went to Circle Square Ranch as a volunteer. It was the most amazing thing of my life. It's a Christian kids camp, and I spent two weeks as a counselor. The whole place practically pulsates with the energy and enthusiasm of the staff, even though we get little sleep and work hard days. We love the kids, and we love what we do. Sometimes I helped out with maintenance or in the kitchen. It didn't matter if I was cleaning toilets, peeling potatoes, or spending time with my girls, I enjoyed every minute of it and I can't wait to go back this summer.

This year, I'm also heavily involved in the Peace and Social Justice Committee at my school, which is a group of students committed to helping people in our school, in our community, and on our planet. I'm excited about this because I'm passionate about global poverty and hunger. Our global project this year is to raise money for H2O For Life. We adopted a school and we're raising money to provide them with clean water and sanitation and hygiene education. Check out the website for H2O For Life!

http://www.h2oforlifeschools.org/index.html

You should also watch this AMAZING video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aY2EU_O7_g&feature=player_embedded

And now, my newest adventure! I want to volunteer at the Janeway Children's Hospital! I want to be a pediatrician when I grow up, so it's the perfect environment for me. I think I could do a lot of good there and I think it could be very good for me. I think it's an amazing institution and I want to do my part for the hospital and the wonderful children there.

This blog is a part of the Horizons Learning Service Activity, where I choose a volunteering activity and blog about how it developed my leadership skills and my involvement in my community. There are supposed to be 3 entries and they're supposed to be about 250 words, more or less. I'm warning you now, mine will be more, probably quite a bit more. And this one doesn't count because it's like the prologue, it's not part of the official activity! Anyay, stay tuned, because I'll be keeping you updated on all my exciting experiences with volunteering! Wooooo!

Bye for now!