Neat Roofing

For my Project my family and I helped a family put a newroof on their house. A few mishaps occurred (I fell through)because their old roof was very rotted, but after two days the project was complete. We did everything from
taking off the old shingles, to replacing
the plywood, to putting down the new
layer of tar paper and shingles. All in all,
this was a great project, and with such a
a large task came an even greater sense of
accomplishment and reward from helping
for no reason other than to help.

Preparing Our Future Kettle Moraine Lasers

By: Genna Locke

For my project, I decided to dedicate my time and energy to a particular group of girls. Over the span of a couple of months, I volunteered to be the assistant volleyball coach for the eighth grade girls volleyball team. I helped the head coach, Michel DeLisle, in multiple ways. I helped to select and cut girls during tryouts, to organize and schedule practices, to run practices and drills, to create and rearrange lineups, to coach during games, and, most importantly, to help develop the skills of these young volleyball players.

When I was nine years old I developed a passion, one that continues to grow to this day, for the sport of volleyball. I have been fortunate enough to have access to multiple volleyball organizations such as leagues at the YMCA, club volleyball, middle school volleyball, and high school volleyball. I have always held a strong leadership role on every team that I have been apart of. The love that I have for the game and the thrill I get out of helping others has always driven me to become a coach. I have experienced that volleyball is not just a game, it forms friendships, encourages a healthy lifestyle, and provides an outlet for stress. I want young girls to have this opportunity to learn and to be a part of something great, like I did.

This project was one of the most satisfying and successful experiences of my life. I not only formed great relationships with the girls but I also had a lot of fun. We practiced, played games, had team dinners, and scrimmaged against each other. It was a lot of effort that I had to put forth, but noticing the substantial amount improvement in every girl and seeing the smiles on their faces every day made my time well spent.

Even though I volunteered to be the assistant coach, to help these girls improve, I often wonder who taught who. They would ask me questions about the game, the rules, or the techniques that I had never considered before. It made me wonder about certain aspects of the game and I learned something new everyday. More importantly, my ability to be authoritative and to be a leader, increased dramatically. I have learned how to be more patient, encouraging, helpful, inspiring, and more. I have applied this to many aspects of my life, such as, my education, my volleyball team, my friends and family. 

I like to believe that I positively influenced the lives of all sixteen girls on the eighth grade team. I was hoping to build the same passion, that I have for volleyball, in them. I wanted them to develop a skill that could be fun and beneficial. I tried to help them become the best that they could be, so that they could notice their improvement and have something to be proud of. Volleyball has always been the best outlet for me when I have been upset or stressed, and I wanted to give them the opportunity to use it as I do. I supplied them with all the knowledge that I have, hoping one day that they can utilize it to accomplish something great. I believe that, over the course of the last couple of months, that I have begun to have these effects on this group of girls.

Easing the Nerves of KM's Youth

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For our NHS project, Elyse Bley and I (Carlee Dawson), chose to share out knowledge from past educational experiences with young fifth grade students who are moving on to middle school next year. On Thursday, April 24, 2014, we visited Cushing Elementary and spoke to two fifth grade teachers, Ms. Page and Mrs. Lex, and their classes. The students had taken a trip to the middle school earlier in the month and learned about the next three years of schooling experience. Elyse and I, however, wanted to not only broaden their knowledge, but to answer their questions and calm their nerves. The students from both classes asked a lot of questions so we knew just how anxious they were to take the next step in their lives and education. Along with what they were nervous about, we discussed their excitement and life skills such as time management and making proper choices; we really worked on emphasizing how middle school will affect their high school careers and thereby influence their lives beyond Kettle Moraine. Overall, the project impacted us because we were able to share our knowledge with kids and feel good about this future KM generation. It was especially rewarding after hearing just how much we impacted those Cushing Star fifth graders from one of the student who Elyse knows personally. The young girl said that she was "inspired" by us to do well and get/keep her grades up. According to her, all of the students were very interested and excited by what we had to say, and were very motivated. To know that we helped set these kids in the right direction in their education was rewarding in itself and reminded us of just how important it is to follow our own advice

 

Everyday Happiness

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is an internationally recognized non-profit organization founded upon the powerful belief in kindness and dedicated to providing resources and tools that encourage acts of kindness.Our NHS group loved the idea of this organization and decided to join in! So we spent one weekend taking examples and challenges from the website and completed them to make some random stranger’s days a lot better!

Some of our random acts include buying coffee and desserts for random strangers at starbucks, leaving positive notes in dressing rooms on the mirrors, bringing in carts at convenient stores, taping quarters with positive notes on kid machines, as well as leave some popcorn and chocolate on the red box machine at the grocery store. With every act we left a note that states “RandomActsofKindness.org Pass It On.”

Many people gave us interesting looks as we completed each one, however, those who ended up receiving the notes or the coffees were overjoyed with the special little act that created a huge smile on their faces. Some who witnessed even applauded and praised the acts and opted to join in and pass on the generous gestures. For example the Starbucks manager gave us a free coffee claiming that he loved when he saw people demonstrating compassion and kindness.

The project was small and unique. But every drop of water helps create a wave. So even though we weren’t saving the world, we were making a small impact on an individual's day and creating a wave of multiple volunteers to partake and pass on Random Acts mission! It was a great experience, that we will continue to contribute to and hope you will too. Practice kindness, just by logging on!

Giving Back to Nature

For our service project we looked no further than our backyard. The forest that outlines our neighborhood is the unfortunate collector of garbage, and trash from the houses around the area. We decided that someone needed to take the initiative to clean up the mess that was in the forest, because it was not a healthy environment for the vast woods. We set out with garbage bags in hopes of cleaning up the mess. We were shocked how much trash there was in the forest, but thanks to our efforts the woods are now looking cleaner than ever. This removal of trash lends nature to grow properly and allows for everyone in our neighborhood to not have to see the distasteful trash that was littered in the forest. This way everyone can reap the full benefits that nature has to offer. This simple task of cleaning the forest truly helped us gain an appreciation for how important it is to keep our environment clean.
Andrew and Christopher Trafton