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DSWS Community Service Reflection Fall 2019

On Saturday November 2nd I volunteered for the organization Habitat for Humanity. The organization Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that helps families build homes because they believe that having affordable housing benefits communities as a whole.

Over the course of the day I spent seven and a half hours helping on one of the Columbus the construction sites. Before lunch I installed wooden boards along the stairwell where the railing will eventually be affixed. The boards provide a stable place to attach the railing because the wall will later be filled with insulation and unable to hold the weight of a railing. After lunch I repeated the process with another staircase and helped to clean and secure the worksite. As a group we put up temporary railings to prevent people from falling off the unfinished second floor. It is important that Habitat for Humanity makes the worksite safe for the public as children sometimes play in the house when it is not being worked on.

Through working with Habitat for Humanity I learned that the organization does not simply build and give away houses. As a recipient of a home the participants must help build either their own house or the house of another recipient.

To learn more about Habitat for Humanity visit https://www.habitat.org.

On Friday November 15th I volunteered at the Ohio State swim meet vs. Dennison University. I spent two and a half hours volunteering, including learning how to time, receiving materials and timing the meet. Through my volunteering I learned about the constant high energy of swim meets and that there are a lot of people behind the scenes working to make the swim meet run smoothly. When swimming at a competition it is easy to get annoyed with officials or volunteers and to lose track of the fact that they are lending their time to help the athletes.