Service-Learning Journal – Community

Clinical Internship III

Jacob Wudtke

This semester, I had the fortunate opportunity to marry my wife, Alisha. The wedding
was at the end October in Wisconsin, which goes hand in hand with frigid temperatures. For our
guests, we decided to try and make them more comfortable and provide them with blankets for
the ceremony as it was an outdoor ceremony. We brought the blankets with the intention of
people taking them home following the wedding. However, nobody did, and we were left with
about 10 lap and full-sized blankets. This all leads me to my next point of identifying a great
volunteer opportunity for the Madison homeless shelter in donating blankets to those in need.

Madison, Wisconsin is not massive by any means, but it does have a substantial amount
of people that need assistance and suffer from homelessness. Per a report from the Homeless
Services Consortium of Dane County, they report that there are upwards of over 600 people that
struggle with homelessness on a given night. I could not imagine being in a situation in the
Midwest where a person is not only fighting to get their next meal, but to also combat freezing
temperatures overnight. Every little bit that we as a community can do to help would go a long
way and hopefully ensure others can have a more comfortable living situation while they are
getting back on their feet.

In addition to the blankets my wife and I provided, I also recruited help from other
friends and family to see if they had any blankets to contribute to the donation. In all, we were
able to collect 17 blankets for a homeless shelter that provides help to those in need in Dane
County. This form of volunteerism is enriching and eye opening at the same time. A lot of times,
we forgot how fortunate we are, and that minor problems in life are not substantial in the grand
scheme. A lot of us have extra items collecting dust in our homes that would be better off in
somebody else’s hands. I look to continue this type of volunteer work after the completion of
school. Below is a picture of the totes of blankets taken to the homeless shelter.