I volunteered my time for Project LINK to The Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte. Unfortunately, I did not get to actually go to the house, but I got to provide service from my own home. The first thing I did was conduct a collection drive for their wish list. This list has many different things on it like, food items, cleaning supplies, toys/crafts, and hygiene items. I collected items from my Church and my family and friends. I was able to collect a lot of items to donate to the house.
The second thing I did was create snack bags for the families that are staying in the house. I decorated the outside of the bags with short, inspirational quotes and filled the bags with treats. I put things like cookies, fruit snacks, crackers and granola bars. The snack bags will go in the rooms of the families and give them a little treat to enjoy.
As a Human Development and Family Studies major, I have learned that one major concept in this field is helping people. Whether it be by small acts of kindness, like the snack bags, or something a little bit larger scale, like a workshop designed to help people through a hard time, we are all there to help people in our community. By collecting items from the drive, and creating snack bags, I have put in a lot of time and effort into helping people around the community. I will probably never meet the people who get my snack bags, or who use the items from the wish list, but at least I know I will be helping someone.
Networking did happen while I was participating in this volunteer opportunity. I had to email back and forth with the director. Now, she knows my name and degree. At places like this, they are looking for people who have a specific degree like, Human Development and Family Studies. I think that this could be beneficial because they see that I am willing to volunteer and help. When they are looking for someone to fill a position, she may remember my degree and my name and reach out to me. I also got to interact with some people from my Church that I had never had the chance to before this project. These people now know my major and when I plan to graduate. They may be able to give my name out, if they hear of an opportunity.
This opportunity could have great effect on the community as well. When talking to people, I have realized that not too many people are familiar with The Ronald McDonald House. The house is there for families who have children that are sick and in the hospital. It is there to provide housing close to the child, because the parents are already paying so much on hospital bills, it is there to alleviate some of the financial stress. The house is completely free for the families to stay in. This is a great place for the community to support because they are able to help families and help them to stay close to their children. There are many different ways the community can help like collecting pop tabs for money, volunteering at the house, or collecting things off their wish list/making snack bags, like I did!
I have been to The Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte before, and it was a very humbling experience. This is because I have never had someone in my family be so sick that we had to find a place to stay in order to be near them. Before joining my sorority, I had no idea what The Ronald McDonald House even was. When I asked the director if I was able to come in and volunteer for this project, I was a little disappointed when she told me she did not think they would be able to get me in the house in time. Although I was not able to get to the house, I was able to help out with what they needed outside of the house. When you go to their wish list on their website, there is a category called "urgent needs." Under this category I saw juice boxes. I was able to go to the store and buy many things of juice boxes to help out. I feel really good that I was able to help out, even if I was not able to actually go to the house. It is nice knowing that I helped them with something they needed and no many people knew about.
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