Service Hours 2nd year

This semester I did a few things to reach my service hours. I didn’t want to just choose one group to work with as my interests are varied and a lot of different places need volunteers. I also didn’t finish the full 40 hours since I worked two jobs while going to school full time this year, though luckily I’ve been given permission to finish up my last 6 hours during this summer.
I volunteered with Partnering Up for Pets, a group that walks dogs at the local dog shelter (Franklin County). We received a lot of training on the proper ways to walk them and keep us and them safe. These dogs live in small cages until they’re adopted and they don’t get out unless they’re walked, so volunteering there lets the dogs get out to use the bathroom but also gives them some time to work off energy after having been stuck in their cages for so long. I honestly love helping out at the Franklin County shelter, the staff loves the dogs and is doing their best to take care of them until they get their forever homes and I want to help them out as much as I can.

I also worked a bit with Project Hope a group that sews dresses for little girls in haiti. Despite the fact that I’m terrible at sewing and my dresses were askew (though not too bad thank goodness for whatever girl is going to be wearing it) I still loved the time spent with them. I didn’t volunteer as much with them, but it was definitely very meaningful. I know my area of volunteering is “community” based but as far as I’m concerned the world is my community, and every living thing in it. So even though these dresses arent going to girls in Columbus I’m going to count it.

Since I work for EHE’s Career Services I also had the chance to volunteer for TeachOhio this year. TeachOhio is a job fair of a sorts where school districts send representatives to meet with prospective education students to see about hiring. Its an enormous event and we took up multiple floors of the union. I was there from 6am to 10 and then 2pm until 5pm.

I did a few other smaller volunteering events this semester, like the vegan thanksgiving held by the Animal Welfare and Behavior Club. Seeing as how animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation and animal based products are the leading cause of most of the diseases Americans face (and are killed by) I felt it was appropriate to consider encouraging a more environmentally, healthy, and kind diet as community service besides the fact that I volunteered. Of course, this event was also about educating people on how to do a Vegan lifestyle correctly as any diet can be unhealthy if done wrong.