fro11brc

Community service is key for a society to function properly. However, there arises a problem of people serving the community for a recommendation or to make money in the future; that wouldn’t be community service, but self service. We have to learn to work together and realize that my welfare is based on yours, regardless of whether or not I see a benefit for myself. I am excited about what we can do to better the lives of people and in turn make a difference and am hoping to do some real community service with you guys :).

I think community service is a wonderful way for people to contribute to the less fortunate. Helping the community through cleaning parks, planting trees, and donations, is generally said to bring a sense of purpose to many people. I was told that community service also looks good on resumes. Although in high school I was told I was required to do at least 55 hours of community service to graduate, I didn’t attempt to do any myself.

The club fair was quite boring with nothing in particular of interest. The highlight of the event was eating the chocolate shaped camera, given out by the photography club and meeting a few classmates from high school. I will continue to look for a club or fraternity that interests me.

I’m on the fence about community service. I’ve never really participated in it myself, so I’m only making assumptions here. I feel that community service only has an effect in the short term, and not the long term. However, I guess it does good to one’s self esteem to know that his or her actions have eased the turmoil of someone somewhere. I’m cynical myself, so I believe that community service is a means of inflating one’s ego. However, it is better than complaining about the homeless population and not doing anything about it. Cancer walks, soup kitchens, and other things like that feel useless as the cure or better treatment of cancer hasn’t really been discovered after so much effort from so many people, and perhaps there are more homeless people than ever before.

I feel like at least one time in everyone’s life one should take part in some sort community service. I hear some of my friends not want to take part in walks or volunteering because they don’t have the time. But really most of the time, helping out could be done but that free time is taken up by hanging out, playing games or elsewhere. I might not be the most active person doing community service but I have contributed some of my time here and there. Around my sophomore and junior year, I joined my friends who were in our school’s key club to the breast cancer walk for both years. It was pretty fun to just walk with my friends through central park in addition to overall helping with the cause. It may not be a soup kitchen kind of help but I have volunteered at a tutoring place near my house for kids ages 5-13. Also with my dance crew, we would dance anywhere there could be a big group of people and just be silly to make someone’s day better. One time especially though, we went to a senior center to just put on a mini show just for the fun of it not really expecting anything in return. It was more practice for us and entertaining for everyone else.

The most recent volunteer project I did was called Lend A Hand, which raised money for the Ronald McDonald House. So what we did was this: 1. Hung up a giant canvass in Times Square 2. People donated money to put a hand print on the canvas 3. We put gloves on the people, then painted on the gloves (sometimes multicolored) 4. People put their handprints up, thus “lending a hand to kids with cancer). 5 We took off the gloves and gave the people candy as a thank you. This was a great event because the people who came to give donations and handprints were incredibly diverse. There were European tourists, couples, teenagers, business people, etc. My favorite donations were when the kids dragged their parents to the canvas so that they could get paint and candy, because most parents were too nice to say no. Also I think it’s important to note that there was no minimum donation. So that got a greater number of people to donate, which filled up the canvas, which generated interest, which got more people to donate. Overall it was a great experience and hopefully I’ll be able to do it again.

It was pretty interesting. All the clubs n stuff and all the food. Like honestly, i signed up for some of the clubs just for the food. One club was giving our apple pies…who can resist. =). But i also signed up for some of the clubs like archery and some online gaming club.  There were a lot of clubs and there was even a competition for one of em. Who could do the most push ups was the only one i saw. One guy cheated and he won. Not cool. The asian guy shoulda won for those who saw it. So overall the club fair was fun.

I’ve been doing several community services throughout high school and I have learned a lot of things you can’t learn in school. The one community service I was involved in the most is called KOTO (Know One Teach One) which is a NPO for street kids in Vietnam. I taught the kids who are similar age as me English and Japanese. Through the interaction with them I realized that they appreciate every single thing they receive; from clothes, food, teachers teaching them lessons and so on. The kids taught me I should be thankful for what I have as I am not satisfied with what I have and try to get more. Just by hearing the words thank  you made my days and made me want to help them even more.

Another community service that I have done is called Operation Smile, which started from the states. Operation Smile mostly helps children who were born with cleft palletes and give them free surguries so they obtain nomad lips and are able to eat and suck liquids. Other than cleft palettes, Operation Smile helped people who were severely burnt in Vietnam. When I was in Vietnam, I went on a 3 day trip to the south to help doctors with their surgeries for adults, babies and kids who were burnt all over their bodies and faces. It was shocking and painful to hear all the stories of how they got burnt; but when I saw the patient’s and their families’ smiles and satisfaction after the patient received a successful surgery, there was nothing more to say. I admire the work the doctors have been doing for people who are in need and it made me want to help others who need support from others. So after all, I believe community service not only helps the people who need a helping hand, but also grows yourself into a new person with more knowledge, caring thoughts and a warm heart

The club fair was completely different from what I expected: music, chill and friendly atmosphere. All the clubs seemed entertaining and fun to join. I signed up for a couple of clubs which interested me the most and hope to become a member in the near future. The best part of the club fair was the dougie contest; Tomiko was amazing. she kicked butt the contest! I was amazed by her super skills. The part where each club was trying to attract people by giving out snacks and drinks were cool too.

yeah kinda late but anyhoo. went down there and saw that there was a LOT of people and music which made me want to dance now and then while i was walking. i saw a lot of clubs were giving out candy and foods and some of the clubs were really interesting. i found a dance team that i’m planning on trying out for. it was pretty cool that there were competitions too. i really wanted to take a balloon! it sucked that i left before the dougie competition lol but i wanted to find out where the dance studio was so i could go one time.