SMART Goal

My goal for this project is to look at the calendar of events and see what was planned last year at least once a week. I want to give notice to the group a week in advance before an event is planned. I want to organize the budget in excel with each month the expenses occured. I also want to make the budget include what the group member spent the money on and which project it was for. I will also email the group the budget bi-monthly so that everyone knows how much we spent as a group and how much we have left to spend.

I feel as though we can meet this goal as a group pretty easily. We just need to improve our organization and communication and our goals are reached! We all have a copy of the calendar & are aware of how much money we have to spend, I just feel as though it would be easier on everyone if it were organized in a different manner, ie what I mentioned above. I'm still very excited about our project and am lucky to be in a group with such great girls!!

Personal Accomplishment

Something I personally hope to accomplish before the end of the semester is to be able to play my viola at Ravenwood. When Candace played guitar and the residents sang along it was such a hit! This makes me really want to play Christmas carols on my viola for the residents either for them to sing along to or for them to just listen. I need to practice to get my Christmas carol songs back in shape but I think it would be a really neat thing to do for them.

¡Objectivos! (Goals)

Our goal was to increase communication as a group. It is difficult with all our busy schedules to keep everyone on the same page, but we know that it would really help our project. We hoped to improve our communication by meeting weekly for at least 10 minutes to discuss the project and by taking notes on the dry erase board in our apartment, so that everyone can have a visual of the necessary tasks. We will be starting this week and continuing until the end of the year.

Candace, Suzy and I went to visit the residents on Sunday and had fun conversation with some new faces while they finished lunch. Candace played guitar and we held a sing along of some classic songs the residents liked. This progressed into singing hymns together out of the books and Candace playing some current pop songs. Shockingly, the residents really enjoyed hearing "Baby" by Justin Bieber and"Timshel" by Mumford & Sons. It was so great to see their faces light up and sing with them. I am really enjoying to know some of the residents pretty well and reconnecting with them every time I visit. It's going to be great because I think I will be going on this Sunday again too and I'm really looking forward to it.

Goals

One of my main goals for this service project is to form a relationship with the residents of Ravenwood. The past few times that we have gone to Ravenwood, a resident will mention how they were expecting one of their family members who didn't show up. This is really upsetting to me because nobody should feel like they are forgotten about or a burden, especially not to their own families. This is why I want to form a relationship with as many residents as possible. I want them to look forward to us coming and get excited about an event that we have planned. Hopefully we will have a fun activity for them to do while they have someone to talk to and more importantly someone who will listen to them.

For a quick update, Brittany and Candace went out to Ravenwood today to volunteer. Sadly, I couldn't go with them. However, I'm definitely going to Ravenwood next Sunday with a few other volunteers to perform a magic show for the residents. I'm a little nervous about this and I'm really hoping everything goes as planned and that they enjoy it! I'm also potentially going either next Thursday or next Saturday. So, I'm really excited about being able to volunteer this week and bringing new volunteers with me!

Almost two weeks ago, I got the chance to be a part of Drury's Smart Mob with all of my Summit classmates and other Drury students! It was a fun, if short, trip down to Joplin. We laid sod at the Volunteer Memorial that Drury students designed, which is something I'd never done before. It was good to volunteer alongside others and bond as we worked. Then, while most of the other students headed off to work on the playground a little farther away, I stayed behind and swept sidewalks with Diane, a faculty member. We talked about urban poverty and how the economic downturn is changing homelessness. This was an apt subject, as many Joplin residents have been displaced by the tornado.
After we finished working, we all headed to dinner and got to peek at the houses being built. It was cool to see how many people are supporting the efforts there, both volunteers and businesses. We then loaded up on our buses and went back to campus. I was exhausted and went to bed at ten, which is super early for me!
Today, we went to Ravenwood and watched Roman Holiday, a classic Audrey Hepburn movie. We also popped popcorn, which was a hit!
For future events, I'm going to try to learn some songs on guitar that the residents would enjoy so we can have a sing-along. I'm super excited about that - it's not quite music therapy, but, nevertheless is right up my alley as a MT major. We are looking for lots of fun activities to do with the residents that will keep their attention, so hopefully that we be a good one.

Smart Mob & Audrey Hepburn!

Well these last two weeks have been a success! Two weeks ago Drury sent two charter buses full of students and a few faculty members to Joplin, Missouri to help with the Extreme Home Makeover efforts to build "seven houses in seven days" in an attempt to help rebuild Joplin after the tornado this May. Our assignment was to lay sod in a park that was designed by Drury architecture students in honor of Joplin's volunteers. I had a lot of fun doing this dirty work with my peers. I was however, severely disappointed at the waste of resources the show created by telling students to "look busy" when cameras were around, but not filming volunteers while they were actually working. I was rather annoyed when Michael Moloney swooped in for half an hour in his button-down shirt and stark white tennis shoes claiming he had been "working with these volunteers all day." Volunteering in Joplin was definitely a positive experience and I'm so glad I could help, however I will never watch Extreme Home Makeover in the same light again.

On another note, we went to Ravenwood today to socialize with the residents and had a good ol' time watching an Audrey Hepburn classic. It was awesome to be reunited with the ladies we had met before and come into contact with some that we didn't know. I love going to Ravenwood and look forward to the possibility of volunteering there again next weekend!

Smart Mob!

A week ago the Summit groups all joined together and went to Joplin in order to help with the volunteering during the Extreme Makeover Event. At first I was a little hesitant about going since I had to skip a few classes and had a lot of homework to do, but I ended up having a great time. The goal of Summit going and volunteering in Joplin was to be able to help with a good cause but also for us all to interact with the other Summit groups and learn about their projects. I felt like this was a success since I was able to talk to others who weren't in my Summit group as I was laying sod and while I was on the bus. It was also really cool to be apart of something that I've seen or watched on t.v. However, with the production aspect came a few frustrations. I felt that a few people showed up not to participate or help out the people of Joplin, but in order to be filmed and be put on television. I also didn't like how some of the things we did were staged. For example, at one time we unloaded a truck full of plants and flowers just so that the production workers could reload them onto the truck, to have them unloaded again while they could be taped. If you can follow that. I wish more people went to Joplin hoping and trying to help people in need rather than looking for a way that they could benefit from their good deeds, including the actual production crew.

As far as our project goes, I feel that Ravenwood is going pretty well. We are slowly picking away at our hours. We actually just got back from volunteering there today. We ended up watching an Audrey Hepburn movie called Roman Holiday. I was happy to remember some of the names and faces of the residents who participated in our pumpkin painting event, along with some new faces. Our group has talked about trying to go volunteer again next Sunday if we are able and then potentially trying to work during the weeks, also. I can't wait until our next project!