Community Service Learning Journal: Spring 2023

I feel like doing community service is a great way to make my community a better
place and give back to people. For the past few years, I have been a member of
Concord Baptist Church. There, I lead a small group of high school boys in a
discipleship and mentorship program. I have been given the responsibility of organizing
some of our service projects and to oversee community outreach activities that we do to
better our community and help others. Each spring, our church hosts a discipleship
weekend centered around serving in areas of need, in our town. The idea behind this
service is to demonstrate the importance of helping others to the middle and high
schoolers who attend. We believe that teaching the next generation the importance of
taking care of other people is one step we can take to better our world.
This year, our church volunteered at the Haven of Rest, a drug and homeless
rehabilitation center that provides help to people in need. They provide housing, food
and clothing to people while they are getting back on their feet. We also had a group go
to Anderson Interfaith Ministries (AIM), to stock and organize the local food pantry and
clothing store. I personally led a group of high school boys to a church member’s
property where we split firewood for anyone in the community that needs it for heat. I
really enjoy taking these students to help here. Not only are we helping people who are
not able to do things for themselves, but we are able to teach the students a useful skill,
and how to remain safe while working with potentially dangerous tools.
I have included some photos, below, that show some of what we were able to
accomplish during our day of service (Figure 1-Figure 5). There were four or five axe
stations where we divided the students up, to split wood. There were two pneumatic
splitters that we were also able to use which really sped up the process. I started out the
day by allowing the owner of the property to give a safety brief and explain any rules he
had. I demonstrated how to swing an ax properly and got some of the youth to try it for
the first time. We divided up our groups to where the workload would be most evenly
distributed and we would be the most efficient.
After we were done, the owner of the property explained, again, the purpose of
us being there. It was rewarding to hear the number of people which would directly be
helped by our efforts. I hope to continue with volunteer opportunities in the future
because it allows me to work on leadership skills, teach people, and join together
multiple generations. Service projects such as these always seem to remind me how
blessed I am and to be more mindful of other people who do not have the same abilities
or circumstances. It seems like these projects help to better myself while I am helping
others.

Figure 1: Here I am running the pneumatic splitter while some of the students load wood onto
the machine and then stack it onto the pile.
Figure 2: Here is a photo of some of the volunteers at three of the chopping stations.