McKenzie Waslosky

Mr. Amoruso

April 26th, 2017

Religion I

Service Project Essay

Mahatma Gandhi once said, The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the

service of others. Serving the people who needed the most is a vital virtue in the christian

community. From the time of Jesus was healing the sick to the time of Mother Teresa who was

helping the poor, serving needy people is way to become closer to God. Helping and serving

others in the biggest or even the smallest ways who needs it the most just makes us more active

into living a daily Christian lay life. For this school year, my service hours were spilt between

Saint Alexis my parish, Fire & Ice Gym, and Wesley Spectrum.

Saint Alexis is a small but a family-knitted community for over 75 years and plus 50

years of being a faithful catholic. I attended Saint Alexis school for 8 years, it deepened my faith

with God and meet many friends and wonderful families. The service I did at that Parish

involved supporting the annual and was there widely known in the community as the Saint

Alexis Festival. This large festival was one of the main fundraiser to support our school and the

church. I took part in two activities during the festival last summer, the first night I oversaw the

Pick a ticket, and then my second night was an intense football toss. I also helped prior to the

festival by helping to set up the booths. Its takes a village as many would say to work the

festival, but its a very worthy cause and gives you the opportunity to reconnect with many of old

school friends.
 The Fire & Ice Gym is a loving, and competitive organization where their teams compete

in a style of intense cheerleading from tumbling a lot to extreme stunting. I been doing

competitive cheer for four years now but only did Fire & Ice for two years and the program and

people are amazing there. The organization is a nonprofit and I volunteer to help the coaches

with the minines team Ice Princess. The team was made up of five girls aging 3 to 6 years old,

they may seem a little challenging, at first but then they turn into cute, adorable, and hard-

working cheerleaders. Specifically, I helped the coaches by making sure the girls listened,

directing them when needed, or joining in one of their fun games. During a typical class the girls

are taught how to stunt, jump, tumble, even dance to perform a routine they present to the judges

throughout the year. The Ice Princesses had a pretty good season hitting a couple zero reduction

routines and still having a lot of fun while doing it. I felt that these service hours allowed me to

work on my leadership skills while sharing my knowledge and experience with the younger girls.

Lastly, six of my hours were spent helping Wesley Spectrum music program. The Wesley

Spectrum music program has been helping children since 2002 connect and introduce them to

music to help with their autism diagnosis. This program is a unique and highly interactive

program that helps kids with many disorders and disabilities develop though music. The

therapeutic programs can be custom designed so that each child or group of children can

maximize their potential based upon their ability and interest level. The instructor used a variety

of songs ranging from faster past to get them moving and flowed into slower paced songs to help

calm and soothe the students. In one of the sessions, we all sat in a circle and used a drum to help

tap out each syllable to introduce ourselves and answer the question. In another session, it was
more focused on the kids getting together and forming bands. I really enjoyed this experience as

loved the smiles on the kids faces and they were all so thankful for my time spent with them. In

June, Im planning to help with Wesley Spectrums musical recital which is held at Duquesne

University in June.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my service experience this past school year, and looking

forward to how to spring board some of these projects for next year. Having the opportunity to

split my service hours with three non-profit organizations allowed me to interact with people of

all ages and from different areas. The service hours at St. Alexis Festival, Fire, and Ice and at

Wesley Spectrum opened my eyes as to the many needs of our community and that by helping

others we can serve God in many ways.