Every Monday morning 9:00am-12: 00 pm this spring semester I got the chance to volunteer at the same place that I first visited this past December the neighborhood services Inc. This branch of the mid-Ohio foodbank is an amazing place that many people around the Columbus area rely on for food and supplies every week. Its community of neighbors volunteers and management is such a rare blend of people who care for one another truly. I have seen and learned so much more from this experience volunteering every week. I highly recommend this volunteering opportunity for anyone that hopes to reach out to the community. Martin Butler the manager of this foodbank is an amazing guy who cares about the volunteers and neighbors that are being served. I have highly enjoyed working with him. In this foodbank, I have worked mainly as the muscle. Many of the volunteers are older and cannot carry as much so I have mostly helped with lifting and moving the heavy food pallets and objects. I especially work with packing and organizing the freezers of meat for the neighbors.  Listed below are the websites for this company. I can’t wait to continue to help this organization in the coming months when I return to Columbus in the fall where I will volunteer on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9-12. This was a fantastic opportunity that taught me how to empathize and care for others and push myself physically and mentally to work for the community.

https://www.midohiofoodbank.org/

https://www.neighborhoodservicesinc.org/

On December 3rd, I got the chance to volunteer at a local food bank called Neighborhood Services.

https://www.neighborhoodservicesinc.org/

This food bank has been open since 1962! I volunteered here from 9:00 am -2:30 pm! It was a long day but a great day.

1950 N 4th St E, Columbus, OH 43201

I helped first with sorting and placing all the meat donations received into different freezers. It seems Thanksgiving was especially kind to the food bank as the donations received were far more than normal! I was luckily able to find a cold place to put all of the meat in an intense game of what felt like Jenga! Then I was taught how to walk each neighbor (the person who we give food too) by walking them around the store and showing them what options of food they could have based on their assigned number of people in the family. This was by far my favorite place to volunteer. I got to meet interact and talk to so many different neighbors about their struggles and it was truly a great experience to see how similar they are to everyone else. A lot of times lower income and homeless people are stigmatized and I saw through this volunteering experience that all of these stereotypes were wrong. Everyone I met was very nice and gracious for the help they were receiving. I learned truly how important social interactions for change are to me. I really feed off the energy and it seemed like the day blew past when I was interacting and really making a difference in these peoples lives. Many of these people were deciding between a sharpie marker or a loaf of bread. It truly taught me how vital simple objects like tape and markers are to making you feel human. Because of service learning, I am grateful for all I have.

On December 1st, I got the opportunity to join other Honors and Scholars students in a Ties for Tots event in which volunteers got to make fleece blankets that will benefit Project Linus and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. From 3 pm to 5 pm at Khun’s Honors and Scholars house, I worked on making a red fleece blanket for a child who is sick during the Christmas season.

This is the blanket I made at the event.

Through this experience, I was able to physically and mentally work through and create something tangible to help a child. It was very tough on my hands and also very monotonous but it was worth it to imagine a lonely child at Nationwide Children’s hospital who would get to have it! I learned through this work that I do enjoy work that is taxing if I can see the product when it is finished. Sometimes projects lead to results that are hard to measure. This project I could actually put my body and mind to work and see the results.

Although taking a long time to make the finished product was a great source of pride!

As a leader I need to learn how to deal with both kind of projects as not all of them will show tangible results. I learned however that I enjoy the activities and volunteer opportunities where I get to help first hand with others. Because of service learning, I am more aware of my strengths and weaknesses.

On November 29th, I got the chance to volunteer for the OSU Dance Club among other Ohio state dance clubs at the union Performance hall. This group is a group that practices all semester making up different dances to perform for students and parents in one performance every semester. It is in its inaugural year at OSU and I was very impressed with how organized the event was. Many other clubs performed including the Dancesport club.

As, a volunteer for this event I dressed up professionally and helped with selling OSU Dance Club merchandise from 7:15-9:15 pm. Through this service, I got to interact with a whole group of other volunteers that were friends and family of the people performing. I hadn’t even known these groups exist and here they were working all year for this performance. Through this service, I learned about a whole culture of dancing and was introduced to many new people. It was a great experience to grow as a leader to better understand these people I never would have interacted with without this service experience. Rachel was a great organizer and really connected with the volunteers. Her email is Copes.3@osu.edu for any questions about this event. Because of this service experience, I am enlightened to a new culture.

This semester I got the chance to volunteer for many different organizations and explore for a place where I feel like I can make a real impact.

On November 1st from 6-7pm, I got the chance to volunteer for the Red Cross Blood drive recruitment event at the Ohio state union. In this event, OSU races against Michigan to donate the most blood in the largest blood drive at Ohio State. Here is a link detailing the event.

https://www.redcrossblood.org/local-homepage/news/article/buckeyes-and-wolverines-face-off-in-37th-annual–ohio-state-vs–.html

This is the shirt for the 37th annual Blood battle!

I volunteered at this event by way of the Future Physicians of Tomorrow Club which allowed its members to sign up and help spread the word of this blood drive.

In this event I stood at the Ohio Union door with my shirt and a sign asking the people passing if they had a few minutes to help save peoples lives and beat Michigan again! Although not many people had the time time to give blood this opportunity taught me how to cope with getting ignored and sometimes laughed at by people. Even when some people ignored me I still felt I made an impact when those people listened and talked to me about the event. I learned how to be a leader that is not rejected by failure and people not taking you seriously. I learned to fight through that and still try to make a change. Because of service learning, I am more comfortable causing social change.