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GLCYD projects help kids help communities
On a typical spring Saturday, thirteen-year-old Garet Marshall of Marquette might spend the afternoon having fun at a ballgame or riding his bike with buddies, but on a recent not-so-typical Saturday, he spent the afternoon painting flower pots and swapping stories with senior citizens.
And he had even more fun.
“It was really good to sit down with them and talk, to hear their opinions,” Marshall said of his new-found older friends. “I don’t usually get to interact much with older people, and it was cool.”
Marshall was among eighteen students from the Bothwell Middle School National Junior Honor Society to team up with seniors at Brookridge Heights Assisted Living Facility on Join Hands Day, a national day of service in which youth and adults work together to make a difference in the community.
The students and seniors decorated flower pots, planted them with geraniums and wrote spring-themed poems together. Some of the flower pots and poems were given to Brookridge residents particularly in need of a dose of springtime cheer; some were set out to brighten the common areas of the facility, and some were donated to hospice.
“I feel good about what we accomplished,” Marshall said. “The pots looked great and the seniors enjoyed talking with us. I don’t think they get to talk to kids very often. I feel like I made a difference in the community. I would definitely recommend volunteering to other kids.”
Marshall is far from alone in his reaction to serving in the community. Research shows that young people who have opportunities to serve are more likely to feel good about themselves and to reap a host of other benefits.
Service to others: a “gateway asset”
Service to others is one of 40 Developmental Assets identified by youth development researchers at Minneapolis-based Search Institute. The assets are important to the well-being of all young people, regardless of racial/ethnic background, socioeconomic status or other differences. The more assets young people have, the more likely they are to grow up healthy, competent and caring.
Service to others is sometimes referred to as a “gateway asset” because when children experience it, it leads to additional assets. In fact, serving others has positive effects on at least twenty of the assets, including caring school climate, youth as resources, positive peer influence, youth programs, achievement motivation, caring, planning and decision-making, and sense of purpose.
The Great Lakes Center for Youth Development (the Center) has implemented projects and programs around the U.P. that capitalize on the power of service to bring about healthy outcomes for youth.
Days of service highlight opportunities
The flower pot project that Marshall enjoyed was hosted by the Center as part of a national day of service. As the convener of the U.P. Volunteer Network, the Center coordinates with partner organizations around the U.P. on these annual days that are intended to inspire and mobilize citizens to serve in their communities.
In addition to the Join Hands Day project in Marquette, Ishpeming Cub Scout Pack 321 potted flowers with residents of Pioneer Bluff Senior Housing and then delivered them to local nursing homes. Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) volunteers and youths in Escanaba worked on a similar project as did students at LaSalle High School and seniors from Community Action in St. Ignace. Iron Mountain High School Key Club members and RSVP volunteers held a bake sale to benefit the Dickinson County Cancer Unit. Students at North Dickinson High School in Felch helped put on a community meal.
The center hosts annual service activities on Family Volunteer Day in November, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January, and Global Youth Service Day in April.
Serving community, a student at a time
Sixteen-year-old Emmie Mattson has a vision for her school.
“No one will have to worry about not having the right clothes or about not being able to afford new clothes,” said the Iron Mountain High School sophomore. “They won’t have to worry about people judging them because of the way they’re dressed.”
Mattson and a group of about a dozen students are bringing her vision closer to reality as they prepare for the opening of the school’s first-ever clothes closet for students in need.
Mattson and crew have been spending a lot of time after school sorting and organizing new and gently used donated clothing in the storage space-turned boutique. They’ve been amazed to see donations pouring in from the community including bags of items with tags still attached.
“We’ve gotten a ton of donations,” Mattson said. “It makes me feel really good to know that others care about our school. People are excited for the clothes closet to be open. There’s a need for it.”
Mattson first heard the idea of a school-based clothes closet from her aunt who helps run one at Escanaba High School. Then at a youth summit hosted by the Dickinson County Healthy Youth Coalition last fall, a light bulb went on above Mattson’s head. At the summit, students were tasked with coming up with activities they could implement in their schools to build the assets they had identified as being in most need of improvement.
“We were talking about what we could do to help create a more caring school climate, and I brought up the idea of the clothes closet,” Mattson said. “I thought it would also help build the assets of service to others and caring. By showing we care, it inspires others to care.”
The students were able to get the closet up and running with assistance from Abbey Thiel, an AmeriCorps VISTA who serves in the Iron Mountain Public Schools. Thiel is one of four VISTAs placed in U.P. school districts by the center to engage students in service targeted at building assets in themselves and their peers. One of Thiel’s roles as a VISTA is to support the students in their efforts to improve their school and community.
AmeriCorps VISTA is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. VISTAs, or Volunteers in Service to America, serve full-time for a year with nonprofit organizations and are often placed in schools or other youth-serving organizations. They receive a modest living allowance, and upon completing their service, they can choose a monetary award to be used toward education or a stipend.
“These students have blown me away with their desire to see change in their school,” Thiel said. “They are big dreamers, and they back it up by taking initiative and following through with their plans.”
Another of Thiel’s roles is to help ensure sustainability of the projects and programs the students implement so the change they create is long lasting and deep.
“There is a culture developing of helping their fellow students,” Thiel said. “Language around the school is starting to change and focus more on giving back, reaching out and helping those in need.”
Among the projects Thiel has worked on with students since starting her VISTA term in November are a food drive in partnership with the Salvation Army, a supply drive for tornado victims in Alabama, a “penny war” for earthquake/tsunami survivors in Japan, a “senior prom” to honor local RSVP volunteers, and a project in which high school students read to elementary students in an effort to boost the asset of reading for pleasure. All of the projects are student-driven and promote asset building.
“Students are beginning to realize the great importance of caring about others, and how they can make a difference in their community,” Thiel said.
Other school districts with a VISTA hosted by the center are North Dickinson, Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace.
As Thiel and the others work within the schools, not only are they helping students to build assets in their peers, but the VISTAs themselves are building the students’ assets by being positive adult role models and providing caring adult relationships.
For more about the 40 Developmental Assets, volunteer opportunities for youth or the center’s VISTA project in schools, call 228-8919 or visit www.glcyd.org
—Linda Remsburg
Recovering Memories, by Becky Korpi
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