I interviewed my mom, and my experience was very enlightening  because I found out stuff about my mom that I didn’t know before. I interviewed my mom because she is the one I have done most of my volunteer work with and she really likes to give back to the community. I learned from the conversation why she volunteers so much. I also learned that I get my desire to help people from her. I was surprised to realize that we have very similar personalities and interests in helping people.

I learned from calling my organization, that many people would love to talk to you. I learned that the people running the charity are so touched that youth are taking interest in it, and wanting to help. I thought the adults would reject high school students trying to help out, but it was the complete opposite. The leaders of the group appreciated the help and wanted to share their knowledge of the organization with the next generation.

Our fundraiser is a Sadie Hawkins Dance at Clairemont High School. We hit quite a few road blocks during the process, and unfortunately our fundraiser is being pushed back to in the next few weeks. I don’t think my group realized how many things could go not in our favor during this process. Many of the hurdles we were faced with was with issues we hadn’t thought about earlier. It has been a struggle, and we have definitely been frustrated. What I can learn from this experience is to take planning an event more seriously. What I can learn from it personally is that setting up an event takes time and effort from many people, not just myself.

My mom actually did some work with Wounded Warriors, so I was able to go down there and check out the facility. I went with my mom and friends to serve dinner to some of the wounded veterans in the facility. As I was serving these wonderful people, I realized how much I wanted to help them. Most of these veterans were very nice despite their obvious disabilities. My heart went out to them because I wanted to make their day just a little bit brighter. Wounded Warriors foundation is well known and does have some funding. But in my personal opinion, I believe there is always more we can do to help. I want to take this opportunity in our MSP project to try and make a real difference. Its difficult to analyze a organization based on their taxes because, you don’t know for sure what the money is going towards. I feel that based on organization’s tax forms, you won’t know what your money is going to exactly. Also by using the tax form you can get a pretty good idea.

When making our purpose, mission, and vision statement, we thought about what we want to do for this cause. Our vision was making sure that all veterans have the ability to receive a prosthetic limb. We are going to donate our time by helping out organizations that provide veterans with limbs. I believe that the organizations we contact will be very pleased that young people are taking an interest in community service. The charities may wonder what high school students can offer them, but we can offer many skills like our time and a donation of some money.  

In my brown paper bags I had a cheer light and a book. I chose the cheer light because I am a cheerleader, and love it. I also had a book with me because I like to read, that is something that not a lot of people know about me. Bringing a book showed the side of me in with I like to be quiet and alone. My two items in my paper bags showed two different sides of me, the loud and fun one and also the quiet one. We are thinking about having a dance as our fundraiser on Febuary 13.