Hey Everyone,
For the future, I would definitely love to connect with my community in the future. Some of the things I might do is volunteer at the public library where I live because I have a tendency to spend a huge amount of time there. I also feel as if I volunteer, it helps everyone not just a small group of people. I would also try to help out at my old church because I haven't gone there since my Grandmum died and would like to reconnect there in some way, shape, or form.
I would like to experience more of what I did this term. I did enjoy myself, more so at the food pantry, but I did thoroughly enjoy my time at the Warming Shelter. I liked the Warming Shelter, but at times I did feel as if there wasn't much for me to do. All that was required of me to do was put food out and ask those who left early if they wanted a breakfast bag. I felt like I was wasting my time, but I knew I was helping out in some way. The people there were kind and they had me laughing despite the fact that it was 6:30 in the morning. I would also like to engage in some other way. I think what would fit me best is helping autistic kids because my little sister is autistic so it would be something close to my heart. Or I would love to travel over to England to help volunteer over there because eventually that's where I want to live. I know plenty of charities that help out those who struggle, but I would love to volunteer somewhere. Maybe I'll do something during the summer. I don't know where I'll be charity or volunteer wise, but I will continue helping out!
It's been a good term!
~Amanda
Friday, December 5, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Early Americans and Neediness
Hello Everyone!
Today's topic is Early Americans responding to neediness. I thought this was an interesting topic as I can answer the modern Americans with ease, but Early Americans is a difficult one.
I would have to say that Early Americans appeared to not really give into neediness a whole lot. To me, they seem to enjoy brushing it under the rug so to speak. An example is from last week, or Monday, in class when we had the students reading the skit of the blind woman's testimony of being warned out of her town. I think that this shows kind of what Early Americans were like when people needed help. The government anyways. They sort of were like, "Hmm... you're pregnant? Oh sorry. We're warning you out. You can't have your baby here. Sorry!" It was a cruel sort of thing to do to these people who could have had help. The pregnant women for example weren't ill or anything, they were simply bringing new life to the town.
On the other hand, there is the private charities which were set up to help people in need. This was set up probably because the government was not all that willing to give out charity to those who need it. It moves me to see the charities being created to help others live a somewhat happy life. I think these are the people who are respected amongst the lesser privileged because they don't have as much. These charities made it their mission to help and it helped and carried well into modern American society. We have countless charities and they aren't all for the homeless or the needy. The fact that people in Early America knew the importance of helping others who were in need touches my heart. I also love to learn about them acting just like we do because we as students typically only hear about the bad history (the wars, the plague, etc.). It's a breath of fresh air to learn about people being genuinely nice.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Today's topic is Early Americans responding to neediness. I thought this was an interesting topic as I can answer the modern Americans with ease, but Early Americans is a difficult one.
I would have to say that Early Americans appeared to not really give into neediness a whole lot. To me, they seem to enjoy brushing it under the rug so to speak. An example is from last week, or Monday, in class when we had the students reading the skit of the blind woman's testimony of being warned out of her town. I think that this shows kind of what Early Americans were like when people needed help. The government anyways. They sort of were like, "Hmm... you're pregnant? Oh sorry. We're warning you out. You can't have your baby here. Sorry!" It was a cruel sort of thing to do to these people who could have had help. The pregnant women for example weren't ill or anything, they were simply bringing new life to the town.
On the other hand, there is the private charities which were set up to help people in need. This was set up probably because the government was not all that willing to give out charity to those who need it. It moves me to see the charities being created to help others live a somewhat happy life. I think these are the people who are respected amongst the lesser privileged because they don't have as much. These charities made it their mission to help and it helped and carried well into modern American society. We have countless charities and they aren't all for the homeless or the needy. The fact that people in Early America knew the importance of helping others who were in need touches my heart. I also love to learn about them acting just like we do because we as students typically only hear about the bad history (the wars, the plague, etc.). It's a breath of fresh air to learn about people being genuinely nice.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Friday, November 14, 2014
Community Service and Early America
Hello Everyone,
Today I am exploring the topic of how communities exclude, judge, and/or restrict people in today's society through my community service as well as Early America.
In today's society, especially the Day-By-Day Warming Shelter, it is clear that even though there is another shelter they can be turned away. the Warming Shelter is a place that the homeless can go when they are turned away from the other shelter for not passing their background checks. Since the warming shelter only runs on a temporary basis, they can only have a certain amount of people in the building. Their limit is 25 people which really is not a lot so the volunteers are then forced to turn people away which may seem a little disheartening.
In Early America, I noticed that there was a lot of let's ignore the homeless and the poor. For example, in Salem, MA over 50% of their profits went toward poor relief. When they looked at their statistics they went "Oh sorry, we are spending too much on you. We're going to make a welfare program." So they then went and did that to push people off of poverty. These people became excluded from their society in that respect. They were forced to find their own resources because their government was judging them based on what they didn't have.
I feel as if in both societies poverty is seen as something that is always hidden. These people have gone through some tough things to get where they are. So why do we judge them? We don't know half of what they have gone through. Is it our right to exclude, judge, or restrict them? I don't think so. They have gone to great lengths to stay alive as the trainer at the Warming Shelter said. I think they should at least be respected.
Until next time,
~Amanda
Today I am exploring the topic of how communities exclude, judge, and/or restrict people in today's society through my community service as well as Early America.
In today's society, especially the Day-By-Day Warming Shelter, it is clear that even though there is another shelter they can be turned away. the Warming Shelter is a place that the homeless can go when they are turned away from the other shelter for not passing their background checks. Since the warming shelter only runs on a temporary basis, they can only have a certain amount of people in the building. Their limit is 25 people which really is not a lot so the volunteers are then forced to turn people away which may seem a little disheartening.
In Early America, I noticed that there was a lot of let's ignore the homeless and the poor. For example, in Salem, MA over 50% of their profits went toward poor relief. When they looked at their statistics they went "Oh sorry, we are spending too much on you. We're going to make a welfare program." So they then went and did that to push people off of poverty. These people became excluded from their society in that respect. They were forced to find their own resources because their government was judging them based on what they didn't have.
I feel as if in both societies poverty is seen as something that is always hidden. These people have gone through some tough things to get where they are. So why do we judge them? We don't know half of what they have gone through. Is it our right to exclude, judge, or restrict them? I don't think so. They have gone to great lengths to stay alive as the trainer at the Warming Shelter said. I think they should at least be respected.
Until next time,
~Amanda
Thursday, November 13, 2014
5: Community Experience
Hello Everyone,
Last Thursday I had the chance to spend some time participating in a simulation related to poverty. Of course, this wasn't seeing the public but we got to learn about what kinds of things people went through and how stressful the environment was.
Please note that the community service I have done was quite minimal at the point. I have six hours left and most of that was sorting food. The Saturday after the simulation took place I had an hour and a half training for the warming shelter. My contact with the citizens of our community was extremely small.
The simulation itself was pretty straightforward. I had the job of running the day care and making sure the people sent their children here, payed for the fees, etc. There were two families who didn't have to pay a penny for childcare because their family had "prepaid." The others, however didn't seem to want to have their children cared for.
At the start of the simulation, week one, everyone and their mother's brought their stuffed dolls to me. At the end of the week, people forgot to pick up their children and pay their fees so I had to enlist the help of the police officer who sent these people to jail.
The whole experience made me realize, especially in my part, that people don't get the help that they need. At one of the stations there was a voucher to pay for child care an no one got the voucher. I was shocked because I even said that they were available when I introduced myself. Since most of the simulation there wasn't a whole lot for me to do, I was able to people watch. I saw the small groups of strangers sitting on the floor in their "homes" and arguing about how to pay for things just to pay for food, transportation, etc. It was kind of eye opening.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Last Thursday I had the chance to spend some time participating in a simulation related to poverty. Of course, this wasn't seeing the public but we got to learn about what kinds of things people went through and how stressful the environment was.
Please note that the community service I have done was quite minimal at the point. I have six hours left and most of that was sorting food. The Saturday after the simulation took place I had an hour and a half training for the warming shelter. My contact with the citizens of our community was extremely small.
The simulation itself was pretty straightforward. I had the job of running the day care and making sure the people sent their children here, payed for the fees, etc. There were two families who didn't have to pay a penny for childcare because their family had "prepaid." The others, however didn't seem to want to have their children cared for.
At the start of the simulation, week one, everyone and their mother's brought their stuffed dolls to me. At the end of the week, people forgot to pick up their children and pay their fees so I had to enlist the help of the police officer who sent these people to jail.
The whole experience made me realize, especially in my part, that people don't get the help that they need. At one of the stations there was a voucher to pay for child care an no one got the voucher. I was shocked because I even said that they were available when I introduced myself. Since most of the simulation there wasn't a whole lot for me to do, I was able to people watch. I saw the small groups of strangers sitting on the floor in their "homes" and arguing about how to pay for things just to pay for food, transportation, etc. It was kind of eye opening.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Friday, October 31, 2014
Charity and Poor Relief
Hey Everyone,
The topic I am discussing for today is reflecting on charity and poor relief in the United States and what role it should be playing.
Charity and poor relief in the United States is something we are always aiming to fix. Around Christmastime, especially since the holiday season is just around the corner, you see the salvation army collecting money to give to the poor. This is one of the ways I've noticed that we help give for people to have at least a decent Christmas. The holiday season is the season where we see the most giving back.
The role charity and poor relief should have in our society should be bigger than just once a year kind of thing. I think that people definitely need to make more of an effort to make this a bigger deal than it is. I feel as if we only do this whole charity thing at Christmastime to make up for when we didn't do it before. If we pushed charity more during the rest of the year maybe we wouldn't be so annoyed with the Salvation Army's bell ringing.
We should be doing more about giving back to the poor and giving charity because it makes us more humble. You don't hear too many stories about the good of people. I don't remember if I ever shared this story, but one of my favorite celebrities, Harry Styles, did an incredible thing. He was in Los Angeles and he bought $2000-$3000 worth of pizzas. He drove around the entire day handing out pizza to the homeless. To me, more people should be like that because it shows that their intentions are purely good. It wasn't the press or even him that said that, it was a friend of his.
Giving back more than just around the holidays is something that we should look into. Give to the Salvation Army on St. Patrick's day for a change. Volunteer in May. Donate food in January. Christmas seems to be our prime donation time, but giving back is something that needs to be instigated year round.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
The topic I am discussing for today is reflecting on charity and poor relief in the United States and what role it should be playing.
Charity and poor relief in the United States is something we are always aiming to fix. Around Christmastime, especially since the holiday season is just around the corner, you see the salvation army collecting money to give to the poor. This is one of the ways I've noticed that we help give for people to have at least a decent Christmas. The holiday season is the season where we see the most giving back.
The role charity and poor relief should have in our society should be bigger than just once a year kind of thing. I think that people definitely need to make more of an effort to make this a bigger deal than it is. I feel as if we only do this whole charity thing at Christmastime to make up for when we didn't do it before. If we pushed charity more during the rest of the year maybe we wouldn't be so annoyed with the Salvation Army's bell ringing.
We should be doing more about giving back to the poor and giving charity because it makes us more humble. You don't hear too many stories about the good of people. I don't remember if I ever shared this story, but one of my favorite celebrities, Harry Styles, did an incredible thing. He was in Los Angeles and he bought $2000-$3000 worth of pizzas. He drove around the entire day handing out pizza to the homeless. To me, more people should be like that because it shows that their intentions are purely good. It wasn't the press or even him that said that, it was a friend of his.
Giving back more than just around the holidays is something that we should look into. Give to the Salvation Army on St. Patrick's day for a change. Volunteer in May. Donate food in January. Christmas seems to be our prime donation time, but giving back is something that needs to be instigated year round.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Friday, October 17, 2014
Medieval Communities and Neediness
Hello Everyone!
Today's topic is reflecting on some of the things we have learned about medieval communities responding to neediness. I think this is such an interesting topic and I had trouble forming what to write about because there were so many things we learned about.
One of the examples that stuck in my mind was what we learned about last week; hospitals. Hospitals were initially put in place to house the poor and take care of people with Leper and who were too sick to be anywhere normal. This is something that is worth emulating because, well, it's obvious hospitals are still extremely relevant. The hospital by my house, in the 16 years I have lived on Meade St, Appleton Medical Center has grown in size quite a bit. When we moved there, I believe it was just a small building, one structure. Now, it is a large hospital and it has many additions to it. This kind of shows that hospitals are still relevant and that the medieval times have stuck with us.
The manors are another thing that I thought of when I thought about responding to neediness. This wasn't a direct kind of thing, but they helped out the peasants in the fact that these manors housed them. The Lords gave the peasants land in exchange for working the land. I think this was important back then since there was famine, lots of death, and the weather was quite unpredictable. In today's class, we learned that the rain in England started one day and continued for the entire summer, for two whole years. The grain rotted because of this. So for these people to be able to work on the land they live in and still be able to live there was an incredible feat. This doesn't happen too often anymore. The people who have this kind of situation are able to get discounted housing with foodstamps. We don't really do the whole manor kind of system anymore. One thing that we do is we have shelters where the homeless and the poverty stricken families can go and in order to stay in those places, they are able to do chores to live there.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Today's topic is reflecting on some of the things we have learned about medieval communities responding to neediness. I think this is such an interesting topic and I had trouble forming what to write about because there were so many things we learned about.
One of the examples that stuck in my mind was what we learned about last week; hospitals. Hospitals were initially put in place to house the poor and take care of people with Leper and who were too sick to be anywhere normal. This is something that is worth emulating because, well, it's obvious hospitals are still extremely relevant. The hospital by my house, in the 16 years I have lived on Meade St, Appleton Medical Center has grown in size quite a bit. When we moved there, I believe it was just a small building, one structure. Now, it is a large hospital and it has many additions to it. This kind of shows that hospitals are still relevant and that the medieval times have stuck with us.
The manors are another thing that I thought of when I thought about responding to neediness. This wasn't a direct kind of thing, but they helped out the peasants in the fact that these manors housed them. The Lords gave the peasants land in exchange for working the land. I think this was important back then since there was famine, lots of death, and the weather was quite unpredictable. In today's class, we learned that the rain in England started one day and continued for the entire summer, for two whole years. The grain rotted because of this. So for these people to be able to work on the land they live in and still be able to live there was an incredible feat. This doesn't happen too often anymore. The people who have this kind of situation are able to get discounted housing with foodstamps. We don't really do the whole manor kind of system anymore. One thing that we do is we have shelters where the homeless and the poverty stricken families can go and in order to stay in those places, they are able to do chores to live there.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Friday, October 3, 2014
Memoria...
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Memory in the middle ages was a huge thing, even in today's society. The art of being remembered is something that is relevant way back then as it is now.
Memory and commemoration in general is something that people do to be remembered. They do this for something as little as a name on a classroom room number plaque. These people give money and their own spare time to help out their society in any way they can. Some people don't have a lot of money to begin with so they give what they can and that may be just a $20 deposit to someone so they can buy books for students.
I think the motives of these people are mostly genuine. These people are the ones I went to school with who wanted to make everyone happy. Not all of them, but most people I know who would give their time and money would be for something like this. These people live to make others happy and this puts a smile on the giver's face.
Others, however, seem to do this for a sort of selfish reason. They give money to schools and charities so it looks good. A prime example of this would be a celebrity, I believe most of them are forced to help charities out because it looks good for them. They are the ones who attend events because, like I said, it looks good for their name. The celebrities who do extra to help make money for charities outside of these events are the genuine ones, I believe.
My favorite example of this was told by one of my favorite artists, Ed Sheeran. He told the story of one of his good friends, who is in my favorite band, Harry Styles. Styles had bought £3000 worth of pizzas and handed these pizzas out to the homeless so they could have something to eat. This wasn't covered by press or anything until Sheeran had told this story. Genuine people like Styles are the people who I look up to.
Many people I have come across are the genuine givers, some are the not so genuine. The people who do things out of the good of their hearts is people who I look up to. The people who do things to create a name for themselves, I think they need to reevaluate why they are giving to a certain cause.
Until Next Time,
~Amanda
Monday, September 22, 2014
Community Partners
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So today I will be discussing community partners within my class. I am going to be talking about the Day by Day Warming Shelter in Oshkosh as well as BEAMING in Neenah.
The Day by Day Warming Shelter is the one I chose to help out with throughout this semester. It's close to campus and an all-around convenient kind of thing to do. Plus, growing up I never really knew of anyone homeless where I live. Sure, I have heard about stories of them being in my city, but never really saw or met someone who didn't have a home.
The interesting thing about the warming shelter is that it is designated to take anyone despite being rejected from another place.
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That really warms my heart, but it's also heartbreaking because the shelter does only have, I believe, twenty beds available. I think it's really nice that the staff and the volunteers go out of their way to make the shelter feel right at home. They clothe, feed, and shower them. It's almost a family environment.
The second community partner I will be writing about is BEAMING. BEAMING is sort of tied to my family since I have a cousin who has gone through the program since he was really little. I even told one of the women who came into class about it and she told me that he got a business card and helped out in the barn this summer. It was nice to know because I haven't seen my autistic cousin for about two years now.
BEAMING aims to help kids and adults with special needs relax. To help them relax, they have the person ride a horse. I think it's really unique because it incorporates something that people in our society don't really get to see all that much. The children, besides riding horses, get to have fun and do activities with the volunteers. The program leaders have a theme every week and the activities usually coincide with that.
I'm thoroughly excited to see where my community service experience leads from here. I'm interested to see what kinds of things I learn about myself as well.
~Amanda
Friday, September 19, 2014
Gift Giving
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Today I am going to be discussing the act of gift giving. I chose to go around the topic of our modern culture opposed to the medieval one.
Gift giving, I feel, is one of those symbolic things. Many people may not think it is, but in the art of giving a gift, we show our appreciation to this person. The gift may have just been a joke for a White Elephant Christmas Party, but the fact that you brought a gift still shows you care.
In class, we discussed a "Dear Abby" article whether or not it was okay to bring a gift to an engagement party that was announced on Facebook. I think it's okay not to bring a gift. I say this only because if they are inviting you via FACEBOOK, you shouldn't have to bring a gift. The invitation was impersonal, so it gives you the right to be the same way. In modern culture, especially on the technology side of things, we have given up on doing things that go the extra mile. The article was just a small example of that, the host could have easily spent a few minutes making a card on the internet and printing a photo announcement and mailing them.
In Medieval times, gift giving was seen as a form of status. These people liked to out-do each other. Our society is nothing like that anymore. I like that because if someone gave a gift that was better than mine, I wouldn't be mad. I just didn't know what to get them is all. Also, gift giving is a sort of ritual to celebrate that particular person whether it be their birthday or something of a milestone.
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| buzzfeed.com |
Gift giving in today's society isn't to show each other that we're better than one another, but it shows that we care about one another. The art of gift giving is also about not being impersonal, you want to get that person something that will be memorable and not just "I liked it, so I got it for you!" So make gifts mean something, even if it is in reference to an inside joke.
~Amanda
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Adjustment and Patience
Today I am posed with a question:
What volunteer experiences or community experiences have I engaged in? What did you do? What did you learn?
I'd like to begin by saying that my family is not the typical "community" type of family. My Dad is the person who works a lot, often working overtime on the weekend to bring in more income, and my mom would rather fulfill her time watching Netflix shows. My family has always been the ones to do what they can to survive and stay in our home. We also like comfort, we have always been the family to enjoy each other's company and live comfortably.
I myself have dived out into my local Appleton community. The one that really rings a bell is when I was a sophomore or junior in high school. I volunteered to go to an elementary school on a weekend and teach local children Spanish. We did a few fun activities and helped them with snack time. It was fun, I definitely don't regret that experience, but I did learn that Spanish was not my forte! Neither was teaching young, restless children. I give props to the teachers who teach 4-14 year-olds. They are a tough crowd!
This particular experience has taught me to adjust. Adjusting has always been something I had to get used to, especially after my grandmother passed away Spring 2012. My whole life I grew up next door to this woman and suddenly, she wasn't there anymore. Bringing me back to my point, adjusting in this particular situation aided me in helping these 20 - 30 students getting the most out of this Saturday that I could. Especially when they were cooped up in this small area for most of the day.
I also recall a second experience that started when I was in middle school. I went to a Kindergarten through eighth grade school, a Charter School to be more specific, and I was always one to volunteer myself for things. Most of the time, I often regretted signing myself up for these tasks, but other times it was quite enjoyable. This particular one or two incidents would be food service.
My elementary/middle school is not a large school, there is one main lunch lady and she has to deal with the lunch numbers, etc. So to help her, the school enlists sixth through eighth grade help serving the younger minds. I was always eager to help the lunch lady because I had heard rumors about free lunch. I didn't just sign up for the free food (who doesn't love free food, though?!?), I signed up because I wanted to help out. I had always been one to help out in the best way I can even if I didn't have to.
From serving lunch once, twice, maybe five days a week, I learned to be patient. Little kids, especially five to six-year-old's are at the most unpredictable age. They don't know if they want green beans, they say they will and then continue pushing them around their plate until recess is called. Trust me, I've been there. It's happened to me.
A final thing I learned from this was that I just need to go with the flow. I can't control if I accidentally knock a can of peaches over with my elbow, it was in my way. We were in a cramped little space. There was about a foot and a half between the table and the wall. Not a lot of room. Anyway, I learned going with the flow is what more people should live by. Like today, I forgot my umbrella and it was raining buckets outside. I didn't sweat the small stuff. I just let myself get soaked as I walked the fifteen to twenty minute (very long) walk to my dorm.
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| mashable.com |
To quote New Girl, yes, "Schmidt" happens. It's about going with the flow and not letting things affect my daily life style. I take this to heart, we can't just control everything that goes on every single day of our lives. Things go wrong. That's life.
I look forward to getting into the community more, I am excited to see what kinds of different people are out there and what I learn from this experience. The more I get out into the world, the more I learn.
Until next time,
~Amanda
~Amanda
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