My favorite service opportunity that I took part in this semester was The Columbus Marathon. This service event took place on Sunday, October 21, 2018 and I volunteered for a little over 5 hours. Thousands of runners participated in this event and ran either the full or half marathon. All the money raised from the race is donated to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and each mile of the race has a patient sitting on the course motivating runners. Our water stop location was mile 17.3 at Woody Hayes Dr. between Coffey Rd and Fyffe. Our service consisted of getting there very early in the morning to setup all the tables full with gatorade and water, as well as hand out drinks and cheer on the runners during the race. I heard about this service opportunity through a weekly DSWS email and decided to sign up! 

I think the runners really appreciated our help during the race. Many would thank us for the drinks, if they were able to talk at mile 17, and if they could not they would give an appreciative smile. Also, by cheering on the runners and giving them motivational thoughts, I really think we helped push them forward. For instance, if we would cheer on a runner and call them by their name on their tag they would instantly light up with a smile and run even faster. When someone is taking on that big of a task, any motivation goes a very long way. 

As a result of this service, I learned that I seriously enjoy volunteering at running races! It is so much fun getting to cheer on runners and watch them race to complete a incredible thing, running 26.2 miles! Just being there and encased in the atmosphere of the race, it just inspires me to get out and get active, as well as just appreciate the things that I am able to do, like running, that others may not be so fortunate to get to do. This service opportunity taught me to not complain when things get hard, because often times someone has it much worse. For example, I recall during the race I had been holding a cup of water out, my arm fully extended, for a pretty long time. My arm was aching and I remember complaining how badly it was hurting. Then I started to laugh at myself, because I was there complaining about holding a cup of water out, while people were running 26.2 miles with a smile on their face! 

As a leader, this service opportunity taught me invaluable lessons. First, a key skill of a leader would be to have decision-making skills. This experience taught me to have those skills, as I was making decisions left and right. I was deciding how to best go about filling the cups when the wind was continually knocking them down, or what the best way was to hold the cups so the runners could grab them without spilling them. I even was making plans of action when large amounts of runners were coming at once. It also taught me the importance of always having a positive attitude. As I stood for hours passing out cups of gatorade, I had to make sure my spirits were always high. My attitude had an effect on the runners and my fellow volunteers, as well as the effort I put into my work. If I remained extremely positive, those around me did also, and things ran much more smoothly.

Because of service learning I am able to better work with teams and make quick decisions.

http://www.columbusmarathon.com

This semester I also volunteered at the Hot Chocolate Run. This race took place on Sunday, November 18, 2018 and I volunteered for 6 hours. The volunteering consisted of first, arriving early to set up a fluid station with water and gatorade for runners at the finish line, and then as the race went on, we handed fluids to runners as they finished. This race is a 5k/15k in which participants are able to enjoy a post race party with hot chocolate, chocolate fondue, and other chocolate treats! The official charity of the race is the Make-A-Wish foundation. This foundation makes life-changing wishes a reality for children with critical illnesses. I heard about this awesome service opportunity through a weekly DSWS email, as well as through second year scholars, who recommended that I volunteer at this event!    As a result of service, I’ve learned a lot about myself. I learned that I do not need to do things in life where I always benefit, because just knowing I am helping someone, without selfish intensions, is so rewarding, and I want to help as many people as I can. I also learned that often times volunteering may be a high stress situation if it involves providing a service to a large amount of people, however if I remind myself to be calm, collected, and smiling during these situations, I find myself unstressed and able to work effectively. Finally, volunteering reminds me of my love for conversing with many different people and creating social connections. During service events, I get to meet so many people from different backgrounds, and I love to talk to each of them and just get to know other people.

As a leader, volunteering has really impacted me in a big way. First, it has shown me that teamwork really does make the dream work! By knowing your strengths, as well as others strengths within certain situations, tasks can be properly delegated to the right person and things are done much more efficiently. For example, for the Hot Chocolate Run, when setting up the fluid stations, some people were better at pouring the liquids and filling the cups, while others unstacked cups quickly. By doing the tasks we were best at, the tables were setup in an efficient manner. Also, volunteering teaches me the importance of responsibility. As a leader, you must be responsible, and within volunteering you are held responsible to get the job done. As a volunteer of this race I had the responsibility of making sure all of the participants were getting handed fluids as the race finished. If I was irresponsible and did not do my job, the participants would not be getting the water or gatorade they needed. People relied on me to get my job done.

Because of service learning I am inspired to help others in any way that I can, as well as promote volunteering to others around me.

https://www.hotchocolate15k.com/columbus

The next service opportunity that I took part in was Clean-Up Columbus. It took place on Sunday, September 16, 2018 and lasted for 2 hours. I am in the club Project Impact here at Ohio State, and the club’s whole mission is to find many service opportunities and to give back to our community in any way possible, just for the love of service. Through this club they send out emails on service opportunities, and this event was one of the opportunities advertised. “Clean-Up Columbus” is when service groups are assigned certain streets around campus to clean-up litter on. This service definitely helped the environment by removing the trash littering the Earth, as well as it helped the campus look much more clean.

As a result of this service, I have learned that I love participating in service projects, no matter what they are. Even when the job may be as dreadful as cleaning trash, it is so rewarding to be able to know you are making an important difference in the community. Also, a lot of service projects I have done before have a direct receiver of the service. For instance, when I volunteered at the school’s garden, teachers and some students were there to thank us for our service and really appreciate the work we did. However, with liter clean-up you have to know in your heart that you are doing a good thing and you have to be able to motivate yourself to pick up each and every piece. No one is going to be thanking you in the end or knowing who cleaned up the street, but to actually be a service agent, you should not need this, and you should be able to give back without reciprocation of any kind, and love doing it.

Volunteering has impacted me as a leader because it has taught me that a great leader leads by example and goes above and beyond to do the right things. To grow as a leader, within this experience, I had to push my boundaries and really put myself in the position to be the example. For instance, there was a huge pile of trash under the stairs at one part of our street and it looked so disgusting and no one wanted to touch it. Rather than wait on someone else to get it, I took it upon myself to crouch under the stairs and pick up all the trash, because that is what a great leader would do.

Because of service learning I am able to try new things and step outside my comfort zone.

The first service opportunity I took part in was OSU’s Community Commitment/ Pay it Forward Day. OSU randomly assigned volunteer locations around the city to groups of students. This took place on August 25, 2018. This service opportunity was for five hours from 9am- 2pm. The whole point of this service day was to offer help to various places around Columbus with any tasks they needed aid in. I found out about this opportunity on my emails from the University, as well as various signs and propaganda around campus that advertised for Welcome Week, as this was a welcome week event. I volunteered, through this Community Commitment Day, at the Indianola Informal K-8 School, where I helped clean up their school garden with fellow DSWS members. Cleaning up the garden consisted of pulling weeds/invasive plants, spreading mulch, and harvesting fruits and vegetables. This work really helped jump start the garden for the students and get it ready for the school year.

As a result of this service opportunity, I was able to see just how much of a perfectionist I am. For example, while pulling up an invasive plant, a piece of the root was stuck in the ground. My fellow DSWS friends and I tried to use every tool we had, as well as any other ideas to get it out of the ground. Each ended up being fruitless attempts, as it never came out. The leaders of the school garden ensured us that it was okay and that we could move onto a different task, yet it felt weird just leaving it there, unfinished and stuck in the ground. Yet I learned through this that sometimes things are unfixable, and you have to know when to move on and focus on the next task at hand. I also learned that everything cannot always be perfect, and that it is okay to move forward, because if we did not stop trying to get that weed out we never would have finished the entire garden. This service opportunity has allowed me to grow as a leader as I was able to learn how to properly pick out the good fruit and veggies at the beginning of the day, and then teach others how to do the same. I was able to learn how tasks should be divided amongst our group, and also how to take charge to get things done more efficiently.

Because of service learning I learned that I love to give back and hope to pursue a career where I can provide a service each and every day. Also, due to this service opportunity, I am more aware of the kinds of opportunities we could and should be providing for children in school, such as a school garden.   https://activities.osu.edu/involvement/service_outreach/pay_it_forward/community_commitment/