Tatum Schultz

Dr. Mountz

Honors Service Learning

May 1, 2021

Reflection of Wildcat Glades Service Project

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once declared that, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question

is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” (ACT for Alexandria, 2014). This service-learning

experience helped me find the answer to this question when I would have had a hard time

answering it before.

I partnered up with a peer, Eryn Wagoner to complete this project. As we started reaching

out to non-profits to try to decide who to volunteer for, we quickly learned how difficult it was to

get a response from these organizations. It was initially frustrating not getting a response but we

finally we received a message from Robin Standridge, the executive director of Wildcat Glades

Friends Group. I knew before even meeting with Robin that Wildcat Glades was the organization

that I wanted to do the project through, because I have visited their park and facilities ever since

I was young and I enjoy being outdoors. We met with Robin on February 5, 2021 and this was

when the idea to build a lending library first came about. After discussing the details and

weighing our options, Eryn and I decided that building a lending library was what we were most

passionate about and was within our means.

For those that may not have had any experience with a lending library: a lending library

is typically a small box that has a door and is held up by a post. Books are placed inside the box

and the rule is usually to “take a book, leave a book” to give people a chance to read new books

and to add their own to the box. For our library, we decided that the main group that the library

would appeal to would be families and children. I believed that this would be a wonderful way
Tatum Schultz

Dr. Mountz

Honors Service Learning

May 1, 2021

for children to not only get excited about reading, but to also learn to appreciate nature. This

project compliments Wildcat Glades’ mission statement perfectly, which is “to protect the area

known as Wildcat Park and the surrounding chert glade environment, habitat, and wildlife by

promoting awareness and sustainability, providing education and recreation space and programs,

and sponsoring nature-based activities,” (Wildcat Glades Friend Group, 2019). Wildcat has so

many family-friendly activities in place, and when visiting there I frequently see families with

young children. Because of this, most of the books that we placed in our library are geared

towards children. To include the rest of the family and whoever else may want to participate in

the lending library, we still implemented books that will suit teenagers and adults as well. In

addition to planning and putting the library into place, we also helped out with many small

projects around Wildcat Glades. To name a few, we organized their learning cottage, decorated

two of their kiosks, and assisted with multiple Easter events. They do not always have a steady

volunteer system, so we often would help with their events when they were shorthanded. While

this gave us a significantly less amount of time to work on our actual project, I was still happy to

help since the volunteers were always willing to do whatever it took to help us with our project

when we needed them.

I had a lot of personal skills that I was able to improve throughout the duration of this

project. Possibly the biggest setback that tested my skills was an issue with communicating with

Robin. Throughout most of our project, we would email back and forth with Robin and she

would usually have a quick response to us. Towards the end of our project, we suddenly stopped

getting a response all together. We emailed her several times and did not receive any responses
Tatum Schultz

Dr. Mountz

Honors Service Learning

May 1, 2021

and we attempted to call her and could never get in touch with her. This was a crucial time for us

because we were waiting on a volunteer to build the library, and at this point I got concerned that

nothing was getting done towards our library and that Robin did not want to continue our project.

Even though we were nervous, we went ahead and just drove to Wildcat Glades to try to find

Robin and find out what was going on. When we got there, we found out that Robin’s email had

been down and that she had not been able to contact us. At the same time, we also found out that

the library had been built during that time without communication, so we were thrilled. This

experience taught me the importance of being patient and having a more positive attitude. My

first reaction to not receiving any word from Robin was to get frustrated and to assume the worst,

but it taught me how to react in a more positive way to unexpected issues.

Through this project, it was made clear to me how crucial it is to be able to work with

others to achieve a goal. This project was very heavy in working with others, between

coordinating my busy schedule with Eryn’s to try to find times that would be best to go to

Wildcat, communicating with Robin on what we needed done, and working with the other

volunteers on various projects. It improved my people skills greatly, and although we ran into

some major setbacks throughout the project, I would not change anything about it. I started my

lending library project looking at it as an assignment that I had to complete and wondering why

people would put so much work into something without receiving pay in return, but I finished it

with a completely different outlook. I now understand why people serve their community, the

feeling that you receive from it is like nothing else I have ever felt. I feel extremely fortunate to

have worked with such an amazing group of volunteers, and to have been able to put something
Tatum Schultz

Dr. Mountz

Honors Service Learning

May 1, 2021

into place that will leave a lasting impact on Wildcat Glades and the Joplin community. To

answer Dr. King’s question, I created a place for others that could provide a book to someone in

need, help a family find a new way to bond, or even just give someone a reason to get outside

and enjoy the beauty of Wildcat Glades.

Tatum Schultz

Dr. Mountz

Honors Service Learning

May 1, 2021

Works Cited

“‘What Are You Doing for Others?’ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | ACT for Alexandria.”

ACT for Alexandria, 2014

“The Purpose of the Wildcat Glades Friends Group.” Wildcat Glades Friends Group, 2019,

wildcatglades.org/about.