Edgewood students volunteer around the world in Summer 2019
The Edgewood community is committed to working for #TruthEquityJustice in the 2019-20 school year. Many students' commitment to this mission began during the summer doing volunteer work at a wide variety of locations. Any Edgewood students who have a summer volunteer story to share, please email it to [email protected] (please include photos!)
Krista Hanna
This summer I went to Namibia and it was an unforgettable experience. The people, the culture and just everything about it. It took a painful 40 hours to get there with two layovers each at least seven hours, but it was the anticipation waiting to see these amazing kids that made it okay. My team taught basic health education to at least 500 kids at each school. We thought we weren’t doing much but they were tremendously happy with us just being there. It’s amazing how people with so little can be so joyful. We gave them toothbrushes and let me tell you, I’ve never seen someone so happy to receive a toothbrush. It was amazing, we were afraid not enough dentistries would donate toothbrushes to give over there but instead we had extra. We ended up having over 2000 toothbrushes and toothpaste to give the kids! One thing about this trip that really stuck to me is that one day we went to teach adults, however they thought we were giving them treatments. It was a very handicapping experience that I haven’t felt in a while. These locals probably had their hopes up for months. At this point I felt like it was my duty to scream it out to the world that many people around the world need so much help. We need to show our integrity and compassion to more than just our friends and community. We should branch out and help out of our comfort zone, when I came back from the trip I knew that I had to still maintain service around my small community and try to preach what I learned.
Maya Alberts
This summer I helped out with a few different organizations but probably the one I had a blast doing was with Three Gaits Equine, Inc. (a therapeutic horsemanship center for people of all ages with a wide range of abilities and special needs.) Every Tuesday throughout the summer I would help groom and get the horses ready while also helping assist lessons. It was great service and I had fun doing it.
Michael Orosz-Fagen
This summer I had two major volunteer opportunities. I was a Leader in Training (LIT) at Camp Gray. As an LIT I worked directly with campers grades 2 through 6. This was the highlight of my summer not because it was easy, but because it was hard. During my three weeks on camp I had a lot of time for reflection. We all have a responsibility to serve those around us. The typical definition of service might be seen as actively building a house or maybe shoveling the driveway for your neighbor, but in reality that is only part of service. During my time at Camp Gray, I was challenged when a camper would wake me up because they were not feeling good, or when you gave everything you had at every moment. The biggest form of service I learned was a smile. Smiling equals the playing field, you see the truth and beauty of a person in a smile. We talk a lot about compassion, but I think that sometimes we forget the real-world application. We are all going through something, you might not know what it is, they might not even know what is bothering them, but this is a prime time for compassion. Take for example I served at a local mission trip in Janesville. Imagine the courage it takes to ask a bunch of high school students to come in and help you. You might feel like there are people that need more help than you but the reality is you do need the help. It is up to all of us to respond with compassion and recognize the truth that we all struggle and respond correctly.
Nathaniel Frucht
Volunteering can be fun and not seem like work. This summer I was part of the Dominican Preaching team from Edgewood HS that went to the Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan. Part of our time there was volunteering. We worked with Habitat for Humanity one day. We helped clean a local park and clear room for a new one. This was a very rewarding day seeing how many hands come together to help out a family.
Another fun volunteering day that I did was to be a volunteer for Ironman Wisconsin. I spent the morning patrolling the waters of Lake Monona ensuring the competitors were safely able to navigate the 2.4-mile swim in choppy water. While I was volunteering to help other athletes it inspired the athlete in me to one day compete in the Ironman.
Any students with volunteer stories to share, please email [email protected] (please include photos!)