Rachel VanOrman SPED
310 Service
hours April
6, 2015
During this semester
I’ve done over four hours of service for children with special needs. The first
place that I did service was for a benefit dinner show in Salt Lake City, Utah
on February 19, 2015. I worked for two hours at the benefit to help raise money
for a non-profit organization called “Kindness For the World.” This
organization was raising money for a humanitarian trip to the country of Peru.
The members of the organization were going to help to build, clean, and remodel
schools for children in Peru. The event started at 6:00pm and ended at 10:00pm.
I don’t count the first hour because we were just setting up the decorations
and cooking at that time. During the last hour, everyone was cleaning up. I
helped to raise money by giving temporary tattoos to everyone (child and adult)
who attended the dinner benefit. I charged $1.00 per tattoo. I had a lot of fun
doing this because it allowed me to work with the kids and to apply my artistic
skills in a way that I never had used them before. Although I’m not counting
the first and the last hours as service hours, I still did work hard to help
decorate so that the benefit would look good. And I worked hard at the last
hour to help pack up everything when the benefit was over. It made me feel
really happy to be a part of a service project to help children (disabled and
non-disabled) who don’t have as near as many or nice things in a foreign
country. Thanks to the “Kindness For the World” organization, there are a lot
of schools in Peru now that clean, safe, and healthy environments for kids to
go to school. The members of the organization also provided the children with
brand new backpacks that contained needed school supplies. My family and I helped to put those backpacks together for
the trip to Peru during the Christmas 2014 break before school started this
year. I don’t count all the hours that it took to put those backpacks together
as part of my service hours because I wasn’t in this class yet. But it still
makes me happy to know that that was something else I did to help the children
in Peru.
The next service
project that I worked on this semester was a special needs St. Patrick’s Day
dance at the Kirkham Building on March 20, 2015. I worked there for over an
hour by helping to set up the decorations and to make the gym look nice for
everyone who attended. Besides setting up the decorations, I also helped some
of the special needs kids work on their arts and crafts. It was a lot of fun to
see their faces light up as they cut out shapes and glue pieces together. A lot
of the kids who came to this dance were not able to speak very clearly or do
things by themselves. Doing arts and crafts is a fantastic way for them to
learn how to express themselves and to exercise their talents. Not to mention
that dancing is a great exercise for their physical bodies. I’m so glad that
BYU-I has activities and opportunities for special needs kids that will build
and strengthen their self esteem and talents. I enjoyed watching them have fun
while dancing to the music and play games with each other. I always enjoy
playing with kids and seeing them happy. As a future special education teacher,
I look forward to seeing my students faces light up when they learn and
accomplish something.
The last service
project that I worked on this semester was the Special Needs Extravaganza on
March 27, 2015. I worked there for over an hour to make the little theatre in
the MC building look nice for everyone who would be attending this event. I
helped to put the pictures and crafts up on the walls in neat order. We hung
paper rockets by the door for everyone to see by tying strings to them letting
them hang. I also helped set up the food
table neatly for people to come and have refreshments. I love that at this
event, everyone (students and parents) get to come and see all of the art and
talents that kids with special needs have worked on during this semester. To be
able to express and share talents is such a great tool for building self
esteem. This event is another great tool to show kids with special needs that
they other people love them, support them, and want to see them succeed.
