Spotlight - the Center for Leadership and Volunteerism

      If ever you've ventured to the Caf or the Student Center in general, you may have noticed the office across from the Caf with the large windows. This is the Center for Leadership and Volunteerism. This office sends out the Helping Hand(out) through student email accounts, created by the Coordinator of Community Engagement, Chelsea Flieger. This newsletter gives various opportunities to volunteer throughout the community. For those of you involved in organizations who are looking to plan an event or even advertise for your own event, then you should consider using the CLV as a resource.

      Some events that the CLV are currently promoting:

      Sweaters, Pears and Teddy Bears – A collection of canned foods, college books, baby/maternity supplies, toy, and clothing drives, all hosted by various organizations will be wrapping up this week. Make sure you get all your donations in before the deadline! For more info, check out the latest issue of the Helping Hand(out) at: http://issuu.com/mercerclv/docs/helping_handout_issue_9?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222

       Porterfield Hospice Health & Rehabilitation Facility also needs volunteers for gardening and other minor outdoor task. Email lesley.haller@mmc1.net to volunteer.

      For more information on the CLV, check out the website at: community.mercer.edu/volunteerism and the Facebook Page at: Mercer University Center for Leadership and Volunteerism .

      Happy last week of classes and good luck on finals!

-Adrianna Atkinson

Project Spotlight - Strong Tower

 

Volunteering with children generally involves tutoring those children in school subjects such as math and reading. But what can these volunteers offer that ordinary teachers cannot? Often times, smaller tutoring programs provide a more personal exchange between instructor and student, allowing the student’s individual strengths and weaknesses to surface more quickly and noticeably by an instructor who can readjust and focus the work accordingly. Tutoring establishes an environment in which each child, not an entire class, is the focus.

But for tutoring to reach its maximum efficiency, a tight bond must be established between the student and the teacher; the teacher must understand the child, while the child must respect and trust the teacher. Generally this bond develops over time, with the tutor remaining with the same student over an extended period. However, Mercer’s LEAP devised another, if not more encompassing path to this bond.

LEAP’s trip to the Strong Tower Church in Macon, Georgia, was my first encounter with tutoring children. I expected two long hours of resistant children who would rather play outside on their Saturday mornings.

Instead, when we arrived, we were asked to retrieve the toys from upstairs for the children to play with when they arrived in a few minutes. I was shocked. We were going to play with the children, not simply lecture to them; I was sure it would only be for a few minutes while we waited for all of the children to arrive.

We played with those children, ranging from kindergarten to seventh grade, for an hour and a half (half of our scheduled time to be there). I played soccer, and failed as goalie; but I also showed the boys good sportsmanship in losing. I shared my camera with a boy curious about video recording; but I also taught him to teach others. I was taught how to play four squares and hop scotch; but I also taught sharing and taking turns. I was teaching these children social interactions while establishing the bond I would need later for scholastic tutoring, and enjoying every minute of it.

We went inside and ate lunch, leaving about 45 minutes for studying. I helped three fourth graders, all of whom loved math and hated reading; naturally, we started with the reading section. We learned context clues, which they tore through quickly, realizing maybe they were not so bad at reading. We moved on to a tedious math worksheet. One girl finished in 10 minutes and beamed as I wrote a huge 100% on her paper for her parents to see. One of the boys finished a few minutes later, but missed a few of the questions. I circled them for him to retry. After attempting a few more times, he too got a gratifying 100% on his paper.

However, the other boy was having problems. He was distracted and, while he could do the math, he could not keep his focus long enough to complete the sheet. He got frustrated and gave up, folding his arms and pouting at the floor. I called another tutor over to finish the other sheets with the two children that had finished, and devoted all my attention to this boy. We went through each problem together, me reminding him to stay on task and talk through each problem so I knew were his attention was. After a few more minutes, he also got a 100%, and let a smile slip.

At this time, the children had to leave. Right before he got on the bus, he turned and gave me a big hug. I knew I was going to come again to help at Strong Tower. LEAP goes to Strong Tower every other Saturday from 10-1.

- Kirsten Brown

 

Project Spotlight - Bernd Elementary Fall Festival

      When many people think about LEAP service projects, they think of Rebuilding Macon projects that generally involve painting houses. While painting houses does help beautify the community, it can get to be somewhat repetitive towards the end of the project. Last Saturday, however, I got the opportunity to participate in a project that was completely different. A group of students went to Bernd Elementary School to volunteer at their fall festival fundraiser.

      Several parent volunteers and teachers went out early on a Saturday morning to set up booths for the students to come and, for a small fee, they could play for the better half of the day. The booths included a salon where the kids could get colorful streaks put into their hair, a “pie the principle” station, the ever present bounce houses, and several carnival-like games. When we got there, the teacher and parent volunteers seemed genuinely glad to have us there to help out. After a quick breakfast, we got to work finishing setting up the stations. When the kids started showing up, we all took a spot at a station to help out however we could. Some people were working at the food table and some at various game stations.

      The kids were all very excited to be at the fall festival, even though it involved being at school on the weekend. I was genuinely surprised at the number of children who showed up to give support to the fundraiser being put on by their school. I was even more surprised by the number of committed parents who accompanied their children to the festival. Fall festivals such as this one are a great way to provide a supportive and constructive environment for local children as well as assist in getting parents more involved in their children’s education.

-Lindsey Shehee

A student enjoying her new prize from one of the booths.

Committee Spotlight

Spotlight: LEAP’s Marketing Committee


LEAP is a fairly new organization that strives to not only make a difference in the Macon community, but to also get Mercer students involved. Within LEAP, there are multiple branches of focus, one of them being the Marketing Committee. This committee handles LEAP’s advertisements and helps to get LEAP’s name out there to the general public. The Marketing Committee is easy to join and open to all Mercer students. This group uses two main sources of communication to update the student body via our Facebook page and, as our newest addition, Twitter. Facts and statistics about Macon and Mercer’s involvement can be seen here as well. Volunteering in LEAP programs, such as the marketing committee, gives you the opportunity to become a well rounded student while also making a substantial influence in the community. Remember, you can impact the world, one Service Saturday at a time.


Add us on Facebook: LEAP Macon
Follow us on Twitter: @LEAPMacon
To get involved: E-mail Bailee Kitchens or message us on Facebook

-Brittney Hall

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Director Spotlight

Today’s Director Spotlight is on Lyndssey Autrey, the Director of the Board for LEAP. I was fortunate enough to sit down with this remarkable lady and ask her a few questions about her involvement with LEAP. Lyndssey is a math major, education minor, and a chemistry minor, and her academic accomplishments mirror her contributions to LEAP. As Director of the Board, she sets and coordinates dates for the event, stays updated with the other members of the Board, assists them as necessary, becomes a team leader for three Service Saturdays, and even volunteers herself. When I asked her how she became involved with LEAP, she explained that Chelsea Flieger started LEAP, and that Chelsea wanted to hand the responsibility of LEAP to someone capable when she graduated. Lyndssey has been active with the program from her freshman year, so she has been able to watch it progress and knew how the program should be run. She continues to volunteer because she enjoys it. She enjoys that students come out to volunteer so that she can make a difference in the community with her friends. After volunteering in Macon, she had the opportunity to meet the homeowners and others in the community which took away her reservations about living off campus. I know that many students believe that volunteering is not beneficial to them in any way, but Lyndssey shared a few reasons why that is not true. Volunteering, especially in Macon where the need is so immediate, makes you a well rounded individual. College is not just about the grades; it’s where you have experiences that teach you more about life and allow you to grow. Lyndssey has definitely done her part and continues to do so to help the Macon community. Through her and the rest of the LEAP committee’s efforts, hopefully many more students will become involved in volunteering and learn just how valuable volunteering really is.

- Gina John

Why Should I Volunteer?

Many people ponder this question when debating joining any service opportunity, LEAP included. Common answers:
-Because it’s required for my class.
-To get volunteer hours.
-It will look good on my resume.

These are all legitimate claims, and ones that I myself consider. However, I realized after a few LEAP projects that they ignore another vital purpose of service:
-To selflessly help others in need.

But this mindset encounters problems.

Volunteer work often loses its apparent importance when direct effects of the work remain unseen. For example, the first LEAP weekend sent a group of students, me included, to a local warehouse. This warehouse accepted and sorted through donations, then redistributed them to locations such as Goodwill. The woman running this warehouse divided the twenty students into four groups, each assigned a minor task. One group transferred bulky items to a truck headed for a Goodwill center, one sorted through a new shipment of donations, one sorted books, and one organized hangers. Many of us felt disappointed. While our friends rebuilt houses, we divided coat hangers into groups of ten; the compared significance of these two tasks varied vastly.

 But to the warehouse owner, our help was unspeakably welcome. 10 students worked for 3 hours on organizing the hangers, and still did not complete the assignment; imagine one woman attempting that same feat. These volunteers saved her many hours of tedious work, while the others saved her grueling hours of heavy labor. While the direct impact of these students’ actions may not have been apparent, even to them, their help was indeed desperately needed.

 Another dilemma arises in the failed continuation of a multistep project, such as Habitat for Humanity. Students may begin a house building project, but not see the finished project. They may never meet the grateful homeowner, never receive direct thanks, never feel gratified in helping someone. Yet that gratitude still exists, even if not audibly conveyed by the directly affected person.

 Any form and degree of help is welcome, though it may not be the most glamorous or public show of assistance.
 -Kirsten Brown

The Story of LEAP

 I'm sure everyone knows the gist of it by now, but it is important to know where we come from as an organization to know where we go from here. LEAP began as a week-long conference held in early 2011. The point of this conference was to increase student awareness about poverty, especially poverty in Macon. We had speakers, panels, and even a poverty simulation. Personally, I remember aiding in the poverty simulation as an "illegal activities person". Basically, I was a thief, a gang, and a jailbird for most of the simulation. I stole things from houses, bullied people into trading them in for money for me, and things like that. I had a toy gun and got "arrested" on several occasions by a police officer who was acting as, well, a police officer.

So we had the panels and simulations. We learned what was going on in Macon. And we committed 10,000 hours of community service in order to make a difference. And the LEAP we know now was born from those hours. Originally, LEAP stood for Local Engagement Against Poverty, but we have grown beyond our 10,000 hour goal and our own name. Though we want to get 10,000 hours, we do not want to stop there. Ten thousand hours will not eliminate poverty in Macon, and we do not want to leave a job undone.
Now, we are an organization putting forward service Saturdays, hoping to get the entire campus involved in community with Macon. It is about working together to make Macon a(n even) better place to live.

-Bailee Kitchens, Director of Marketing