1. The philanthropy project was overall a bit of a struggle but rewarding. I wish the process could have gone more smoothy and efficiently, however I was pretty satisfied with the amount of money I collected. I enjoyed promoting the welfare of the Community Food Bank, and by the end of this unit I discovered just how important and impactful they are on my community. I learned to honestly be more apprecatieve of what I have by the end of all of this, as well as the value of helping those in need and gratitude you recieve.
2. Sadly, I was not able to attend the field trip:(
3. Fundraising is actually fun and relatively easy ONLY IF the whole team is involved, invested, and willing. If not, it can be rather stressful and hectic. By the end, it gives you a huge feelingof joy and accomplishment. Bagging really worked well – I recommend for future classes as a rewarding fundraiser. In the future, I would make sure that my teammates were all there and on board because if not it is a crazy and lonely process.
4. In college I plan on doing a huge amount of community service, as it is part of my semester seduling. Its well worth my time and makes me appreciate what I have in addition to making me a better person. I think everyone should go through the process of philanthropy and charity work because although at times it might be dreadful, its rather rewarding and a great way to give back to the community and show your gratitude.

Overall, I enjoyed the panels! I was impressed by each individual’s dedication to their chosen organization and the amount of knowledge they were able to share on the spot. I was surprised of some people’s achievements, for example the woman from Jazz House’s grammy nomination, and how personally effected some people were by these organizations, for example the women from Speech Therapy’s close ties with her death husband. Some representatives talked too much as opposed to some not taking enough, so I would like to have heard an equal amount from all non-profits. I want to learn more about where my money goes and how I can be an active participant in the future within the organization I choose. I see myself making a “gofundme” page with my group and being able to raise a significant amount of money from my family, peers, and helpful town mates. I was not a fan personally of the lady from the food bank, but enjoyed very much the summit speech school women and the special olympics representative, so overall the panel helped me narrow my options!

My group (Reese’s Gang)’s social issue topic is child welfare, so I believe all the potential organizations we have coming in/are in contact with match up very well (food bank, speech school, spacial olympics). Personally, I chose the special olympics because playing a sport helps my anxiety and happiness level tremendously as well as benefit my welfare, so I believe kids with disabilities should get the same opportunity that I do. Many kids also suffer from lack of food due to poverty or have speaking-related issues which can accept their welfare.

I felt confident in my calls; I’ve done so many through college coaches that it just felt like I was doing it again. As for some other team members, I was able to help them make their calls as well, even if they did not end up being successful. The important part of the failed calls is that we tried and followed through without quitting. MY group overall has seen a lot of success so far!

I thought the brown paper bag exercise was a great way to quickly get to know a little interesting information about everyone in the class. I really enjoyed it! At least 1 out of the 3 fun fact  each person shared was something I was unaware of about that individual so it was pretty cool to hear this information. I discovered that some of my classmates are a lot more comfortable with public speaking than others, like myself…I tend to get really nervous. Some people handle it better than myself, some people handle it worse. However, I think we did this activity to both get us more comfortable with each other and create more of a unit rather a divided class AND to work on our public speaking skills for future tasks with is extremely important to master.

Narrowing down my MAD choices from 20 to 6 wasn’t difficult since there were so many options to choose from: some I knew I was interested in, some I knew I was not interested in. However, narrowing the 6 down to 3 was difficult since you choose 6 you genuinely care about and then have to let go of 3 of those choices. Everyone in the class, for the most part, seemed to have the same difficulty. I also noticed that at least 1 out of 3 topics each person chose matched up with at least one other person in the class, showing how we all have a similar mainframe to what is important to us as individuals. My #1 choice was “people with physical and mental disabilities” due to my brother being autistic. It was my immediate and non-changeable first choice and it showed me how much of an impact my brother has on my general life and my priorities.

I hope to gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from helping others from Main Street Philanthropy. I absolutely love the feeling after giving someone a gift or making them smile or helping them out with a task, so I am hoping I will feel the same way after finishing this unit:)