9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance

This year, we commemorate the first September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. The tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, inspired Americans to come together in a remarkable spirit of unity and compassion.

In April, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which among many other wonderful things, officially recognizes Sept. 11 as a Day of Service and Remembrance.
This year, the President is asking all Americans to remember that day eight years ago and recommit to service in their communities throughout the year.

Between now and Sept. 11, please visit our virtual open house to see how you can get involved. Just go to www.vcstory.org to read a special message from Volunteer Center staff, and find volunteer opportunities that you would be interested in signing up for. While you’re there, participate in an online scavenger hunt for a chance to win a volunteer gift basket!

If you’re already doing great work, we’d love to hear your stories. Send them to info@vcstory.org.

Farewell to our intern!

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our awesome summer intern Christina last week. Christina is the one who started this blog for us, and I have been charged with the great responsibility of continuing it! I'd love to hear from you about topics you'd like to see blogged about, and if you're interested in posting a guest blog about a volunteer experience, let me know!

It's been an amazing summer for the volunteer world, and we continue to promote President Obama's summer service initiative, United We Serve. Have you found an issue you care about and done something about it? We want to hear those stories. There are tons of inspiring examples on http://www.serve.gov/.

In the last post, Christina wrote about a group of youth who decided they wanted to strengthen their neighborhood by throwing a block party. The block party was held July 25 and was amazing. Throughout the night there were at least 200 neighbors out there eating good food, playing games, and just socializing with each other. I was so inspired by this group of youth who took initiative to address a need in their community. I can't wait to see what they cook up next!

-Amanda, AmeriCorps VISTA

Teens Rock!

By the age of 15, I had already fallen 'in love' with a senior in my high school, tripped in front of that senior in my cheerleading uniform and had that senior informed of my crush by a 'well-intended' upperclassmen.

Remember when you where 15?

Check out Taylor Swift's video for @15 about her life when she was 15.

@15 is an initiative by Best Buy to inspire teens to have a voice in their community. Why? Because teens have opinions that should and need to be heard. They have the power to influence and create change in their communities if given the resources and necessary support.

Here in Ames an extraordinary group of teens is planning a block party to build community relations in neighborhoods. They met with the Volunteer Center of Story Couty and City of Ames officials to plan the event (coming up next weekend!) and talked with numerous Ames businesses to get funding and gift cards for a raffle. The group even held a car wash last weekend and raised close to $200 to support entertainment and food for the community event!

Truly, working with those teens to plan the block party has been one of the most inspiring and rewarding experience I've had interning at the Volunteer Center. They take the initiative, dream big and accomplish extraordinary things.

So in case ya'll haven't heard...Teens Rock! =)

Isolation

NOTE: This story is not discrediting any organization. Rather, the experience is used as an example in the hope people whom read this can relate and better understand the affects of poverty and isolation.

Last night I was at a dinner at a local church where people from all over Ames can come for a free meal and a support group. The support group helps those in poverty build community and share resources.

I sat at a random table where I didn't know a single person sitting at my table. All of them were around my age, a few looked in their 20s, another few were high schoolers and the rest younger. Perhaps because of the age similarity, I thought it would be easy to sit down and have a conversation with them.

What happened is that it brought back terrible memories of being the new girl in school. Sitting there awkwardly while everyone else around you is ignoring you and having their own conversation.

If you've ever been new to a place or new group, you can hopefully remember the feeling--it's terrible isn't it?

All of us are bound to feel that way at least one time in our life. But what if that feeling never goes away. Can you imagine?

Earlier this week the Volunteer Center hosted an annual dinner party. On two walls we had large sheets of paper split in half. The top half said 'What is Poverty?' and the bottem half said 'Causes of Poverty'.

Mentioned several times on the 'What is Poverty?' section was isolation. Isolation comes from feeling helpless about finances but also from not having the necessary social support. People in poverty can feel embarrassed about their situation and not want to ask for help or they can be working 2-3 jobs to make ends meet and due to time have limited social connections. Those are just two possibilities but there is no real answer. (The article in the link above, though a few years old, gives some great statistics of how family and social connection have changed in the U.S. over the years.)

I really don't have a particular way to end this post. There isn't a clever antidote or a right quote or link to sum up my thoughts. Rather, I want you to think on what it means to be isolated, who is most isolated in our society and what can be done to help it.

U.S. Presidents honor volunteering All-Stars

On July 14th at the 80th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, all five living U.S. Presidents will appear in a pre-game video to honor MLB and PEOPLE magazine's All-Stars Among Us competition.

The All-Stars are people from across the U.S. that have demonstrated outstanding volunteering and community advocacy. They were nominated and voted on by MLB fans.

Never before has volunteering and community service been so important to the U.S. administration. The United We Serve act continues to inspire and influece individuals and groups to become more active in their communities.

Did I mention President Obama is throwing the first pitch of the game on July 14th? I did now, so make sure to check out the game on FOX!

2009 National Service Convention

What do these three people have in common? They were all speakers/performers at the 2009 National Service Conferance. (Anyone else insanely jealous like me? =)

Amanda and Shellie from the Volunteer Center attended the conference in San Fransisco. Here's Amanda's take on the conference...

Last weekend I returned from the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in San Francisco. As an AmeriCorps VISTA member, volunteerism is obviously important to me, but at the conference I saw that it is important to our administration, business leaders and celebrities, too.

First Lady Michelle Obama gave the keynote address last Monday, launching the United We Serve campaign, which will run until Sept. 11. It is an effort to get more volunteers engaged in service. Imagine my surprise when Jon Bon Jovi and Matthew McConaughey came out to show their support! Another great supporter is California First Lady Maria Shriver. More than 5,000 people, the largest crowd yet, came out to experience the conference.

I left the conference feeling pumped and energized. The biggest challenge is knowing how to bring the enthusiasm home. Michelle Obama stressed that the administration cannot do it alone. It is up to all of us to get involved in our communities and in the world to make positive change. It was encouraging to bring people from all fields together at the conference – the entertainment industry, which will dedicate the week of Oct. 19 to incorporate the theme of service into TV shows, commercials, etc.; the corporate world, who has started to see volunteerism as important as vacation time; technology experts, who realize that they must be partners in this exciting endeavor.

We must all work together to change the world.

Disturbed

This weekend my roommate and I looked around our room and decided it was a pit--so we cleaned, for only the second time this summer. (Shhh, don't tell our mothers!)

We vaccumed, dusted, picked up the room and took the trash out to the dumpter-about three small bags worth.

We were quite pleased with ourselves and sat down to admire our clean room. My roommate suddenly got up from the couch and rushed to the window. The trash bags she had just thrown in the dumpster where being torn open with a knife and rumaged through by an unidentifiable individual. The person sorted through our trash keeping a few jars and other knick knacks and then throwing the rest back into the dumpster. We were both a little disturbed by the incident.

Working at the ISU library, I see the same thing all the time--people sorting through trash cans taking bottles and cans and any other useful item they can trade in for a little money.

Another incident was just yesterday when I saw an individual holding up a cardboard sign that said, "Help the Needy".

The person wasn't trying to flag down cards but just stood there calmly under the scorching hot sun holding the sign and squinting off into the distance. Again, it was a disturbing picture.

I tried to think of why these incidents should disturb me so much. Is it because I could never imagine myself doing those acts or could never imagine myself in a desperate situation? Or is it because it forced me, in my comfortable everyday life, to realize that poverty is all around me.

It is easy to ignore poverty when we're not directly affected. It is easy to be disturbed but then do nothing. That isn't what we are being called to do though.

The National Call to Service: United We Serve, goes from June 22nt-September 11th and asks all of us to help and to stop ignoring needs in our community.