June 11, 2018
This week was the week of my Community Connections Camp at Lakehill for middle and high school students. It is without a doubt one of the highlights of my year! Each day of the camp, we partner with two different non-profit organizations (one in the morning, one in the afternoon). I love returning to volunteer with long-time favorites, as well as introducing campers to new places to channel their altruistic energy. I was honored to have my colleagues Kaye Hauschild and Jo Cayme-Mosley with me again for this camp. Many of our dedicated campers return every year to volunteer with us.
We began our week at Crossroads Community Services, where our campers did an amazing job sorting linens, stocking food, organizing donations, and shopping with clients. Crossroads provides much needed services to those living below the poverty line in Dallas. They are always needing donations of men’s and boys’ shoes and clothing – please think of them when clearing out closets!
In the afternoon, we visited Voice of Hope, where we worked with their first and second grade students. We led an arts and crafts activity in their classrooms and some competitive games of balloon tennis in their gym. Voice of Hope is dedicated to serving families in West Dallas, focusing their efforts on the children of the community. Our campers did an amazing job engaging the young students, keeping them on task, and making sure everyone had fun.
On Tuesday, we began our day with CitySquare’s Food on the Move program. We helped set up, passed out food, organized activities for the children, and stayed and played at four different locations in the community. Our campers did a great job interacting with the children we served. CitySquare is a broad community development organization that offers a wide range of social services that address four key areas related to the persistence of poverty: hunger, health, housing, and hope. Their Food on the Move program helps provide free food and fun to impoverished children across Dallas in the summer when school is out.
From there, we went directly to our afternoon project at Jewish Family Service (JFS), a nonsectarian mental health and social services agency that impacts over 13,000 lives a year. We were able to participate in an amazing simulation they call the Food Pantry Experience. Our group was divided into teams and each given a family profile and scenario. They were charged with creating a budget for their family, dealing with unexpected setbacks along the way, and preparing a list of food they could purchase. They then went through the intake process at JFS, filling out the needed forms, before being allowed to shop in the food pantry. It really was an amazing experience, and gave us some insight into the food pantry clients we served the next day.
On Wednesday, we traveled to Brother Bill’s Helping Hand in West Dallas. Brother Bill’s brings not just a legacy of 75 years of service to West Dallas, but hope for a better life to the more than 25,000 people living in the 75212 zip code. This is always a favorite project for my students, as they love getting to help in the grocery store. We bagged produce, sorted plastic bags, and prepared for the approximately 100 guests who visited the grocery store. When the doors opened, our campers were ready to greet the guests, help them with their selections, provide food (and sometimes recipes), sack groceries, and help guests to their cars. This is the first post I have written on Brother Bill’s, and I highly recommend volunteering here. It’s fun, engaging, and always busy! The students were amazing – chatting with the guests, carrying bags of groceries, and making every person feel special.
In the afternoon, we cleaned Lakehill’s adopted shoreline at White Rock Lake (through For The Love of the Lake). The campers did a great job despite the heat, finding a lot of trash in a short amount of time.
We spent Thursday morning at Community Partners of Dallas, an organization that assists CPS caseworkers in helping abandoned, abused, or neglected children who have been removed from their homes. After a tour of the facility, we got to work on a seemingly monumental task – sorting, packing, and shelving row after row of backpacks. Our campers were absolutely amazing – they didn’t take a minute’s break, “power sorting” backpacks into a variety of categories and getting them into boxes and onto the shelves in beautiful order.
After lunch, we traveled to the North Texas Food Bank where we packed cereal boxes for distribution, broke down cardboard boxes, and stacked a lot of pallets.
On Friday, we headed to the VNA Meals on Wheels headquarters for a quick orientation and to pick up our food. We then traveled to Potter’s House/Primrose Oaks in South Dallas to deliver. The campers did a great job greeting clients and delivering meals with a big side of smiles. I loved seeing how they interacted with the residents.
After lunch, we prepared Bingo bags for Austin Street Center to be delivered later in the summer.
Together, our group gave 762 combined hours of service to ten wonderful organizations dedicated to the environment and to those affected by abuse, poverty, homelessness, and hunger. I am so proud of our campers and their engagement with our community this week.
I can hardly wait for my next Community Connections camp later in the summer!
