Feeling Like a Saint at St. Vinnie's

My partner and I went to St. Vincent De Paul and volunteered for a few hours on a Saturday morning. They usually don't accept volunteers on the weekend because there is no manager around, but since we're a trusty group, they made an exception. The workers there were so thankful for our help. They put us to work and we didn't have any down time. We wiped and cleaned off plastic shelving devices, drawers, and kids toys so they could be priced and put out on the floor. Then they had us take carts packed full of items for sale and go put things on the shelves to be sold. We arranged things, put away empty carts, and made small talk with the friendly shoppers, who seemed grateful to have people to talk to. The last thing the workers had us do were sort hundreds of pieces of mixed up train sets. We made a completed five or six sets, and they are packed up and ready to be priced and put out. We put a smile on the employees and customers faces and saved the organization from having to pay workers.

Originally we had wanted to volunteer at HAWS because we both love working with animals. Unfortunately that was out of the question because they only accept volunteers who will agree to be trained and work at least three hours every month for at least six months. We wanted to work hands on where we could see our impact throughout the volunteer time. St. Vincent De Paul is a great organization that needs volunteers. Organizing and pricing things is fun!

Our project went great. It was a lot of fun, and the people were so friendly. When we walked in, a random customer grinned at us and said, "Hi!" We greeted him back, and he cheerfully asked, "How are you?" It was precious. Throughout the service, many of the workers in back greeted us and thanked us for our time every time they passed us. They were so grateful.  We learned how much volunteers help a place like this. The picture of the warehouse is just a small part of the "behind the scenes" area that the customers don't see. There were boxes upon boxes stacked high to the ceiling. Anything you could have imagined, they had it. I feel like we gained a lot of social skills. It brought us out of our comfort zone when we had to talk and converse with the customers who are very different than the people we are used to.

We impacted a wide range of people on so many levels. We directly saw the effects of our help on the workers and our smiles on the customers. Indirectly, we know our volunteering saved the organization money, got more items out and ready to be sold, and in the long run, that means more money that will be donated to needy people in the community. Volunteering made us feel great. You always forget how much you get out of volunteering. We would consider going back together, by ourselves, or even encouraging others to go serve there or at other similar organizations. There's just a feeling you get when you volunteer that you don't get any other way.

The Chance to Change a Life

As humans, we thrive on social interaction throughout our lives, so to bring this joy to a whole new group of people, we decided to volunteer our time at the Linden Grove Center with the geriatric residents. We had the chance to connect with a different generation and also spent time playing games and doing nails. It was fascinating to hear the stories of the past they were so eager to tell. Each has such a vast array of experiences, it always seemed our time was too short. One recurring themes through their stories was that “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” We learned to live our lives to the fullest each day. This is one of the most important lesson I feel one can learn. We were so honored to have the opportunity to make their days simply by being there and listening. We sincerely thank them for the great experience.

Lending a Helping Hand

Our NHS project was helping a local family do work outside their home. There was a total group of six people helping the family gravel their drive way, paint lawn ornaments, mow the lawn, and paint the deck. Four of the six, were kettle moraine students. We spent a total of five hours fixing up the yard. We hope that by cleaning one neighbors house, that other less-privileged families will ask for help and we can extend our hands outward to them; we want to help create a community that looks and feels better. A clean community lends itself to fostering happiness. Next time we hope to get more NHS groups to focus and clean a neighborhood, and make a greater impact. 

Preserving Parks

For our NHS project, we decided to do something that would make the community a better place for everyone!  We picked up litter in Wales Community Park, Cushing Park, and Firemen's Park.  This project affected the lives of all the regular park visitors, families of the community, and the animals that live in the parks.  We decided to do this project because we wanted to benefit as many people as possible.  Anyone and everyone can go to the park and enjoy it!  It ended up being very successful and we learned that helping others out can be quite simple and a lot of fun; we even got to enjoy time outside in the sun!  Now we can see all people and animals enjoying the parks in a clean and safe environment. Our project was so easy and had such a rewarding outcome that we plan on continuing to keep these parks clean as volunteer service.

The Garden of Hope

Starvation is one of the leading causes of death in this world, but there are people out there dedicated to ending this tragedy. We had the opportunity to volunteer at The Carroll University Greenhouse. Sandra spends much of her time surrounded by plants of all sorts. She is an amazing lady who grows all different types of food and donates it all to the Hope Center. We wanted to make a difference on a large scale and knew this was just the project to do it. We spent our time preparing the mixture, putting the dirt into pots and planting each individual seed. It took a lot of time and was a little tedious, but it was so rewarding. I have such a greater appreciation for all the work goes into much of the food we take for granted. We hope to go back and see how our seeds have grown.

Cards for the Elderly

Our group spent a full day making unique handmade cards with inspirational/happy messages that we would later pass out to all of the residents at a nursing home. It impacts the elderly in the community that are often forgotten about.  We have some idea of how lonely that older people get when they are living in nursing homes based on experience with our relatives and we thought that making them cards with nice messages would be able to show them that we do care about them and they are not forgotten.  

It took way longer than we expected, but we crafted around 40 different handmade cards, which happened to be just enough for all the residents to receive one. We went around door to door, passing out the cards and chatting with the residents (some times longer than others). They were very happy to see us generally and were really grateful for the cards, and the time that we put into making them.  

We had a amazing time with this project. The seniors were so happy to see us and we were visibly able to brighten their day. We were able to see how the elderly need to be respected and not forgotten about. We also had a great time together and making other people’s day really brought out the best in all of us.  This was a super rewarding sort of project. The seniors were very excited about the cards and our visits. We were really happy also to be able to make their day just a bit better.

Goodies for the Elderly

We spent a morning making some brownies and cupcakes to deliver to the members of an assisted living facility. After visiting one of our group member’s great grandma in the nursing home last year, we realized how lonely that some of the members of the elderly community get and so we decided that this would be a good way to show that young people care.  Our project went really well, we were able to make some delicious cupcakes and brownies, and were able to visit with many different people living in the assisted living apartments. Everyone was very nice and happy to see us.  We had a great time doing this project. The people were very happy to see us and we were able to brighten their day. We were able to see how the elderly need to be respected and not forgotten about.  This was a very rewarding project. They were all very excited about the sweets and their smiles showed their appreciation. We were really happy also to be able to make their day just a bit better.

From One Closet to Another

The Waukesha Women’s shelter is a non-profit organization that runs on donations alone. The goal of the shelter is to keep women and children who have fallen victim to physical or sexual abuse on their feet and safe from harm. Our NHS group admired the goal of this shelter, and sought out a way to get involved and help out! March 1^st we delivered multiple garbage bags to family members, friends, and houses around the community. We informed the person of the project and that we would be back next month to collect any possible donations they could give.

 These donations included 76 pairs of Jeans, 22 undergarment items, 17 pairs of shoes, and MANY T-shirts, sweatshirts, dresses, workout clothes, skirts, etc.  We were amazed at how many people wanted to help out and how generous everyone one. More than half of the clothing items we received still had tags on them! We then took the clothes to a local Laundromat (Westbrook) where the owner, John, was more than happy to help out. He allowed us to wash all of the items for free, and even taught us how to properly fold the clothing afterwards! It was great to be able to not only donate that many clothes but also make sure they were all washed as well.

 

The drive was everything we hoped it would be! On donation day the volunteers at the shelter were overjoyed as we rolled in three full moving carts of clothing; and I cannot count on two hands alone the amount of “Thank You’s” we received as we were taken on a tour of the facilities. The project was an overwhelming experience, and we were glad to see the impact we could make in our community!

Tutoring at St. Marcus

We decided to help out St. Marcus School for our service project. Our group got together and made lasagna, garlic bread, brownies, and cut up fruits and veggies for the kids. April 13th we went to St. Marcus School in downtown Milwaukee. St. Marcus is a Christian, K-8, Milwaukee Choice School dedicated to helping children overcome the challenges of  their lives. We helped tutor these kids who came in on Saturdays for extra schooling in all subject areas. 

After tutoring we served them the lunch we made in the cafeteria. After lunch we played basketball in the gym with the kids. We ended up having a lot of extra food so we let them use it for an event they were having the next day. We decided to do this for a service project because some of us had tutored at St. Marcus before and we had a lot of fun and it was fulfilling so we decided to do it again.

The kids were shy at first but they opened up as we got to know them and everyone had a great time.We learned that no matter what you can persevere and overcome the challenges that life throws your way and if you put in the effort you can achieve what you want. These kids were struggling and they reached out to us tutors for help and they were very thankful for it. It was a very humbling experience and taught us not to take our education for granted. Overall, it was very rewarding for us knowing that we had helped them in such a big way.

Helping Hebron House

When people look at ways that they can help their community, most turn to donating to food pantry's or picking up trash. Although these are fabulous ways to help, our group felt that we needed to serve the part of the community that is often overlooked and to take a more direct approach. The Hebron House is well known in Waukesha, but many people are unaware of how much help the women and children living there really need.

The Hebron House is a place where these women and children go to escape abusive households and to get back up on their feet , but it also welcomes women and children who are just in need of a home. That is why for our project we decided to collect books and toys not only for the children, but everyone living there. We have been collecting these books for 2 weeks, receiving most of them from family, friends, and neighbors.

After we had a big enough collection, we took them over to the Hebron House. When we arrived and rang the doorbell, a woman staying there with her children answered. The look on her face when she saw all the books and stuffed animals we had was priceless. When we saw the kids get all excited to be receiving some new toys it felt really rewarding to see how this little act brightened a little kids day so much. We stayed and chatted with the moms and played with the kids, and we could tell how much this meant to them.

        

At the end, this project was definitely worth doing. It taught us to never to take things for granted and to see how little things can really impact peoples lives and also impact the community. We all learned through this project and through other peoples projects that it doesn't matter how much time you give or how much you donate; the biggest importance is on the impact that is made in the community.  

Students Make Blankets Over Breakfast

Project Linus is an organization that makes blankets for critically ill kids in the hospital. The blankets are not only a reminder to young patients that somebody outside their room is thinking of them, but receiving a gift from Project Linus is shown to have positive effects on a child’s speedy recovery. Having worked with the group in the past, we received an email from Rebecca, a local chapter leader, that said St. Joseph’s and Children’s Hospital were in desperate need of more blankets-especially sizes for kids in the teen range (ages 12-16).

So one Sunday morning, a group of Kettle Moraine NHS members banded together for some breakfast and blanket making. Our group made almost 20 tie-blankets to donate to the hospitals, using fleece both bought and donated from Jo-Ann Fabrics and Ben Franklin Crafts. Sitting on the floor with a multitude of colored fabric, we imagined the kids who would receive them, if they would like the patterns or the styles we were making; we were enjoying ourselves in the moment.

By sharing stories on a sunny morning, somehow, it didn't feel like volunteer work at all. We learned that we could do something fun and creative with our friends, and still make a difference in somebody else’s life. Later that week, we dropped off the blankets at a local sewing supplies store in Waukesha, knowing that while the children will benefit from our hard “work,” we were able to make our community and friendship stronger too.

SAVE Lapham

I chose Lapham Peak because it is a place I like to go to a lot.  It's so soothing and just gets your mind off things, so I wanted to give something back for what it does for me.  I walk the trails all the time and see bottles and wrappers laying over, so this seemed like the perfect idea for me.  I thought it went really well.  We hit some good spots along my road on Cushing Park, and in deeper towards Government Hill Rd.  It felt especially good when people would say thank you or compliment us on what we were doing.  

I learned that a simple thing can go a far away.  Just picking up trash may not seem like a big deal, but it's truly appreciated.  It changed my character in that I'm going to try and take care of Lapham whenever I go, even if it's just throwing a couple of bottles in the garbage instead of just walking by. I think it'll impact anyone that loves Lapham, or just nature itself.  It's important for people to realize that we need to take care of nature as much as it takes care of us.  It impacts me because I love Lapham, and I would never want to see damage done to it.  So if doing a little can help a long way, I know myself and others would be all for helping.  

Community Clean Up: Spring Cleaning

The term “Spring Cleaning” has been used in multiple instances in the last few weeks. It calls for the cleaning of houses, yards, bedrooms, basements, and much more. Our group of three friends saw this as a perfect opportunity to help out the community anyway we could.

In the entrance to Valley Road Farms is a small island that splits the road in two. A small blue sign declares the road the entrance to the subdivision, and on the island are multiple plants of bushes. However, the island at the start of spring was also covered in numerous weeds that didn't exactly give the neighborhood a welcoming appeal. This is why decided to make cleaning up the island our service project for NHS.

Our project impacted a number of people in the community. It primarily impacted the residents of the neighborhood, who can now look at the entrance to their subdivision and be fulfilled with a much greater sense of pride in where they live. The island is also a sort of “first impression” to outsiders visiting the neighborhood. If they turn into the entrance and are greeted with a scene of weeds and overgrown bushes, their attitude towards the area is much different than if they are greeted with a scene of trimmed and pleasing foliage.

During the clean-up, we were told by many of the neighbors how happy they are to see the island cleaned up. It was apparent how much it meant to them to have a solid representation of their community through the island. Our NHS group is proud to have helped the community, and the reward of being appreciated through our service is much more satisfying than we ever imagined.

The Good of Gardening

 The project that we competed was we went to a local elderly neighbor and knocked on their door and asked if they needed anything done around the house. The women who answered the door said she needed a lot of yard work done. With that, us four completed a couple hours of yard work on her lawn including mowing the grass, rototilling, weed pulling, and planting seeds. Our project impacted the elderly women for completing the tasks that she no longer has to worry about that she may not be capable of doing.

We chose this project because we figured that rigorous yard work could be done, and we were all capable of doing that. We also figured it would benefit an elderly woman most because she doesn’t have to worry about injuring herself or paying young gentlemen to do it.  The project went very well. We accomplished a lot for her and she was very appreciative of it. No one got hurt in the process, and afterwards we all felt great about what we just did.

From this project, we learned that there are many things that always need to be accomplished, and someone could always use an assistant for projects like what we did. We also learned that people are very appreciative for us when we help them, almost like they have more hope for the future than before the project. From a character perspective, it definitely showed us how crucial it is in society that we are assisting in making it a better place. 

This project impacted others by completing tasks that could not be accomplished by someone else for that specific person, and it showed other people that saw us doing these events that there are still people that care about others and society. It impacted us by showing us how such little things can be stepping stones to making everything around better.

Lending Voice to a School with Much to Say

As technology becomes more prominent throughout the world, especially in the lives of teenagers, hard-copy newspapers are losing their allure. In light of this, we decided as a group that we wished to provide Kettle Moraine with an online publication. The KM Voice, KM’s online magazine, kicked off this year, and has been a great success.

The five published issues contained stories about accomplishments of KM students, both academically and through extracurricular activities. The magazine also contained announcements and a regular calendar of upcoming high school and district events. Our goal in publishing The KM Voice was to create a comprehensive medium for all things KM-related. This is an admittedly large task, but we strongly believe that we have set the foundation for a magazine that can serve such a purpose. We are very happy with how the publication turned out, and we appreciate all those who read and enjoyed it, both KM students and local community members.

In addition to creating and running this school publication, we as editors achieved a lot of invaluable experience. None of us intend to pursue journalism as our primary course of study in college, however the chance to have this leadership role is something for which we are all thankful. Acting as editors of The KM Voice, we matured as communicators, became more aware of that which was happening around us, and had an all-around great time.

       

The KM Voice has had a successful first year. Links to all issues can be found on the high school website at the following link: http://www.kmsd.edu/newspublications.cfm?subpage=1622354. Although all three of this year’s editors are graduating seniors, we hope that future generations of students will continue and improve upon what we have started.

KM Seniors Double as Santa’s Elves

As terrifying as the experience can be, sitting on Santa’s lap is a very important task for many children to complete. Sending letters can be helpful at times, but nothing beats looking the big man in the eye and telling him exactly what toys he needs to have in his big red bag when he slides down the chimney. Our goal in running the “Santa Comes to Dousman” event this holiday season was to make this experience accessible to local kids.On a Saturday in December, Santa appeared to the public at the Dousman Chamber of Commerce building. The event was free for all to attend, and our local branch of 4H sold food and non-alcoholic beverages. The children who came were given free cookies baked by our friends at Three Pillars, as well as a small toy (hopefully enough to tide them over until Christmas). Coloring stations were set up for them as well, and the Kettle Moraine Middle School orchestra performed.

This event has taken place for a number of years and will continue to take place after we are gone. A few of us have volunteered in the past, but never before has the event been completely in the hands of KM students. The greatest difficulty in coordinating this wonderful, facilitated meeting has always been in recruiting volunteers. With our NHS group in charge this year, that was not an issue.

The willingness of KM NHS members to help out with this event was incredible. It could not have been accomplished without the efforts of several students who were not even in our NHS group, so our thanks go out to them. We also extend our thanks to all of the nervous yet excited kids who came to see Santa Claus that day. Providing that experience was what drove us to make this event as successful as possible, and the nervous smiles of each kid affirmed that our efforts were more than worth what effect we had on the lives of those children.

The interaction that occurred between the children when they visited Santa was quick and simple. Yet, this basic interaction had a huge impact that was able to  bring a lot of joy to the kids, their parents and grandparents, and all of the volunteers. It was the joy that came via this simple interaction that affirmed for the members of our group the fact that, in life, it is the small things which have the biggest impact on overall happiness.

Giving Back to Those Who Give the Most

The United states has many Soldiers that are stationed overseas, and it is only fair that we help them out for all they do for us. Since these soldiers have gave so much and are fighting for us in a foreign country, we thought what better way to donate our time than to give to those people who are giving us this freedom of time. My group got together many hygiene products to send over to Marines stationed over in Afghanistan along with letters we sent for them to read.  After getting all the supplies which we were going to send over we went to AnyMarine.com to look for a platoon to send our things to. Going on to the site we realized how many soldiers we have overseas and it seems right that we should be helping out those who are protecting us. Seeing how many people we have overseas it really brings it back to how families have loved ones overseas, and we should do whatever possible to help these people out.

Pennies for Patients

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is a nonprofit organization that is run by volunteers who dedicate their time to support and raise money for blood cancer research. The volunteers spend time with the cancer patients and provide many services to them as well. LLS has been running a fundraiser since 1994 called the "Pennies for Patients" campaign where kids of all grade levels collect pennies or other spare change to give money towards blood cancer research. Ten million dollars total has been raised since the campaign first started, and our service project group wanted to add to that amount! 

We went around to local businesses asking if they would put out boxes and have their customers purchase "paper pennies" for a dollar each to help support LLS and their research. Unfortunately, many of the businesses were not as cooperative as we had hoped, but those who did were a great help! In total, we raised around $100 in our campaign to give to the LLS and help the cancer patients they treat. It was great knowing we were raising money to help save lives and that all of it was going to a good cause. The project also really helped us appreciate life and see how lucky we are health-wise after reading about some of the cancer patients and learning their stories. Our group enjoyed raising the money and will maybe even organize another fundraiser in the future to keep contributing and help fund cancer research. 

Helping Out-Senior Night

Senior Night is an annually tradition at Kettle Moraine High School in which all of the seniors come to Kettle Moraine for one last end of the year event. In order to fundraise for this event, Kettle Moraine auctioned off parking spots at graduation and the highest bidders won these parking spots. My group created highly decorative signs in order to welcome and reserve the spots for the family members who bought these parking spots at graduation.  

We decided to do this project because Senior Night is an event which seniors really looking forward to and both of us really wanted to help out this event through our project. We figured out that we could really help out Senior Night by making the posters which went along with one of their fundraisers.

Our project went very well. We first went shopping at Ben Franklin where we bought all of the different materials which were needed in order to make the poster.  We then discussed how we wanted each poster to look, what we wanted each poster to say, and final what icons did we want to put on each poster. When deciding what icons we wanted to put on the poster, we thought of the student for who the poster was going to be used for and then decided to pick icons which represented that student well. Next we used a special machine to cut out all of the different letters and the icons. The machine was really cool, because it made the letters look very nice; however, it took a while to program the machine to print out the different words that needed to be cut out. Finally we laid out the words and icons and glued them down and then laminated each of the posters. 

This project really showed us all of the planning that goes into running a successful event. Senior Night is a huge event, and we just helped out with a small part of it. However, by having many different people contribute to a common goal a lot can be accomplished.  This taught us the importance of teamwork and of everyone contributing to get the best results.

This project will impact every senior at Kettle Moraine since this project is helping out an event in which all KM seniors will be able to enjoy. This project also impacted us by providing us a lot of gratitude since it feels very rewarding to contribute to an event which you will later enjoy.