How VCU Serves--No, We're Not Talking Tennis

Volunteering should be just that--voluntary. Yet every student should volunteer as often as his personal schedule allows, at least if we're to continue America's tradition of lending our scythes and wheelbarrows to our neighbors in need. Just remember that '67 Young Bloods song, where the chorus belts out: "Come on people now/smile on your brother/everybody get together/and try to love one another right now." Everyone from 1600s farmers to long-haired hippies should agree that the happiest communities never see a shortage of eager volunteers. Key word: 'eager.' Keeping community service optional preserves the sincerity required to successfully perform the act; forcing someone to appreciate his campus and city only makes him bitter. That is ESPECIALLY true if that person is trying to balance a grueling course load and a crummy job at the same time that a community service obligation pops up. (Many VCU students either suffered such circumstances in high school, or have experienced them sometime as a worn-out Ram.) I can relate my own high school nightmares wrought by National Honors Society requirements. Somehow I squeezed in tutoring Spanish and French into the rest of my hectic life, but I ended up so tired most of the time that I thought I'd start reciting the Rosetta Stone backwards.

Coming to a school where community service was a choice was then a relief. I could choose exactly how I wanted to affect the community for the better while still respecting my need for sanity. At a campus as diverse as VCU, all students have different talents and priorities. Consequently, our relationships with community service are just as diverse. We all share our species and schoolwork in common, but the line sometimes ends exactly there. From burlesque dancers to mommies to waiters to fire throwers to gallery owners to sales associates--phew! and all the many other occupations VCU students hold--we have various things to juggle, whether those things are diapers or blazing torches. Some of us would be well suited to tutoring math while others of us should be walking dogs at the animal shelter. Others simply have too much going on to even consider volunteering until they hit the post-graduation world. For me, the best solution was helping out with local poetry and theatre events once or twice a month.

Here's what some other VCU students say about their experiences with community service. There are still people trying to bring bluebirds and rainbows to Richmond, after all.

Brittany Fulk

"I found a little pull tab flyer on the Rumors bulletin board that said, "Do you like art? Do you like kids?"--and I love both. So I started volunteering at Artsplosion Afterschool. It is run by Synergeo which is run by Americorps. They have about 5 or 6 year-committed employees with whom I was working. I would usually make it there for Thursdays from 3:15-5:30. Kids come from St. Andrew's School, a free private school in Oregon Hill, to a nearby church rec room for completely free after-school supervision. They do their homework around mentors who can help them read, etc. and they get a small snack. Then there is always an art project: assembling a new paper world by combining everyone's cutout features on a bulletin sheet, creating paper maché masks or sock puppets, or once filming a dance video! Sometimes then we would go outside to play. It was really fun to me, sort of like recess or elementary art class. I always did the projects with the kids and helped them with theirs. I also have been a reading tutor with two different jobs, so the homework part was engaging for me, too. The kids were really sweet and loving, too. I had to stop this year because school is becoming more demanding, and because I work until 4 everyday. I went to the first meeting to say 'hi' and knew I would really miss it, but there were some smiley animated new employees who I knew would make it a fun year for the kiddies. They can always use extra volunteers over at Artsplosion; the more they get, the closer they are to one-on-one homework help. They don't necessarily NEED that, but these kids can really use the boost and it does show when they are getting it. I like to think that those kids were learning better because of us. I wish I was still part of it."

Julia Bashore

"I volunteer at Clark Springs Elementary School, as well as the Delmont Learning Center, which is part of the Youth Life Foundation of Richmond. At Clark Springs, I help manage the classroom and supervise the students. At Delmont, I tutor second graders. I'm required by my Teacher Education class to serve at Clark Springs for twenty hours this semester. I've already completed those hours, but I'm going to continuing volunteering there because I enjoy the students and need the experience. I've tutored at Delmont since last year and continue to do so because I know the kids there very well. I was really overwhelmed the first time I went to Delmont, since I was unaccustomed to working with urban students. Now, however, at both Delmont and Clark Springs, I usually wish I could stay longer. I'd definitely recommend the Learning Center as a place to volunteer -- as long as you're enthusiastic about working with kids. As for Clark Springs, I was placed there by VCU, so I'm unsure as to whether they let non-TEDU students volunteer."

D.J. Granger

"I was in Camp Thunderbird in middle school and participated in a Meals on Wheels assignment. Our first location was an old halfway house downtown Richmond on a street I don't remember. Me and my camp crew rolled up in the Camp Thunderbird Van to probably the most dilapidated place I had ever seen, a rundown hotel that would been the perfect place for a ghost or murder movie scene. The carpets were a deep red, the walls were scratched fake wood, and everything was rusted and smelt like [urine]. We brought in two big white paper bags full of food, and the old man at the lobby desk said we needed to deliver to a guy on the top floor. My counselor nominated my friend Ashley and I... I don't even think there were any stairs inside, just a rusty elevator straight out of the 1920's, so we got on and it clacked all the way up. It let out on a dim narrow stained wall hallway that, not surprisingly also smelt like [urine]. We heard moans and creaks, and TVs going a little too loud. There was one door cracked open towards the end of the hall, and of course it's our guy's room. We crept down the hall and knocked on the door...nothing. I knocked again, and said something like, 'We've got your food.' Still nothing. My friend tries to push the door open, but something is behind it keeping it from budging. Then she tried to force it in, and out of nowhere the man inside starts screaming at us like a madman, so we dropped our bags and ran... Needless to say, I never did Meals on Wheels again."

Caitlin Moore

"I currently volunteer as a mentor through Carver Promise with a first grader, a little boy at Carver Elementary School. I also volunteer at my church. I attend Area 10 Faith Community which is held in Carytown in the Byrd theater. I volunteered during a parent/teacher night at Fox Elementary with my church. I, as well as others, were responsible for 'babysitting' or watching the kids while their parents and teachers met. I did these because it makes me feel good. Giving time is the greatest gift you can give sometimes. I also love working with kids so that was an added plus! I would definitely volunteer again. It's so rewarding so I would certainly recommend it to friends. Both are great places to volunteer and are overseen by people who truly care about enriching their community."

Ian Cardenas

"I played wheelchair sports with injured veterans at Hunter Holmes McGuire Medical Center. Most of them were completely unable to use their legs and required wheelchairs. I served the veterans of wars ranging from Vietnam all the way to the Iraq war. I did this to show my appreciation for the soldiers of our country and the sacrifices they have made to protect us. After volunteering and playing sports ranging from wheelchair basketball to wheelchair golf, I felt more satisfied with what I had done than I think I have felt all semester. It was a great oppurtunity and I had a lot of fun while helping others also have fun; people who do not always get to have a good time. I would definitely volunteer again. I made friends that I never thought I would ever be able to say I know, men who fought for our country and sacrificed their lives for me. It was a true honor. I would recommend this volunteer opportunity to everyone I know. The smiles on their faces that day are an irreplaceable memory, and to know I helped bring those smiles...that's what I live for."

Chandler Honeycutt

"I did a good bit of community service in Yorktown where I lived before Richmond (restored an old mural, cleaned roads, etc), but other than finding parking tickets on the road and in bushes and making sure they ended up where they needed to be I've not done anything here, sorry. Why don't I volunteer in Richmond? There are two parts to that, one being that I do a lot and work as often as possible so I don't have much time for volunteer work. The other is that I did volunteer work in a town that I had lived in for long enough to know its every detail, to find and sleep in its mysteries. I had enough of a relationship with the place that I felt I could then start giving back to it, a bit like the type of parent/child relationship where the parent gives to the child until the time that the child (at that point an adult) can help the parents, who have lost their means. Here I am still exploring; there is so much yet to find and love and understand."

Karen Fallen-Rhoades

"Area 10 Church on Cary Street regularly cancels Sunday morning services and sends its members out on the streets of Richmond, cleaning up Cary Street, putting together school supplies for area kids, helping at the homeless shelter, gardening at Fox Elementary. I helped one Sunday organizing furniture and helping a displaced family pick out a table and chairs and other things they needed. Next semester, I hope to work at Safe Haven, but still not sure if it will fit into my schedule."