Student ePortfolio Daniel Cassell
Community Service Past
I have my mom to blame for my first community service activities. As an at home Mom, she made sure to keep us busy. But I do also think she did it for herself, to get out of the house, and meet new people. Memories of my first community service go back to some of the first memories I could ever make. I may not have even known it was community service while I was doing it. One such memory was when my mom and I would walk dogs at our local SPCA.
As I grew up, I undertook community service opportunities of my own. As a freshman in high school I was invited to join the American Red Cross Youth Board. Comprised of about 20 students from the surrounding 11 high schools, the ARC youth board tackles issues important to high school students. Occasionally, we would even help the adult board.
Because I joined in the second semester as a freshman, the first few meetings I was simply learning about the organization and doing small projects. Once I was a sophomore, I was eager to get involved. The first project I volunteered for was helping a deployed soldier and his wife to take care of their yard. Once a week I went to their house to mow the lawn, weed whack, or anything else she needed help with. During the autumn, for instance, I organized a leaf pick-up crew made up of the ARC You Board. Mowing was hard at first, because it didn’t start as easy as I thought it would. And it had an automatic drive with only two speeds: Stop, and GO! It took a while, but by the end I was a pro at navigating that speedy box of a mower around corners without leaving divots.
Helping that soldier and his wife helped me too. Being my first project, I built confidence in undertaking other different projects. I also learned firsthand what people mean about supporting our troops, but not necessarily supporting war. Regardless of if he wanted to be there or not, his yard was left unattended. Had he hired a professional crew, it could have unnecessarily cost hundreds of dollars. It’s sometimes the small things that people do for others that mean so much.