My Global Youth Service Day experience was a memorable and exciting one. For my part in this service day I was the volunteer coordinator at Southeast Clarke Park along with the FRIENDS of Southeast Clarke Park. It’s a very beautiful and family friendly park. There were about six enthusiastic youth with me at this site. We helped pull weeds and spread mulch around the park area. Everyone had a great time mingling with each other and getting a great workout while working under the sun. At the end of our activity, each volunteer had an opportunity to state how they felt about the day’s activity. One senior student from Clarke Central High School stated that the students at the high school were not able to get many opportunities to do such activities. She believed that it would be a great idea to get more clubs and student organizations involved in the community, even if its just students taking pride in their schools through activities similar to the one in Southeast Clarke Park. So, look for a change in direction for Global Youth Service Day 2010. There may be more of an effort to get the schools and school district involved in student volunteerism!

Athens Youth Give Back

On Saturday, April 25th, 2009 Athens Youth gave back to the community in a big way. With the help of Athens-Clarke County Stormwater, Athens Area Community Council on Aging, Sparrow's Nest, and UGA Greek Ambassador Program over 30 youth were engaged in environmental projects aimed to increase community awareness of pollution run-off into streams and how to build rain barrels for community use at homes, businessess, and schools. The projects were a great success and the youth were engaged and eager to help out. Most importantly, they learned the benefits of using rain barrels to save water and how pollution can run-off into our streams through the stormdrains in the community. Overall, it was a great day! They worked hard from 9:30AM-12:30PM and every minute was valuable and beneficial time. Our hope is that next year we will see our numbers grow so that the youth of Athens-Clarke County can make a bigger impact for years to come.

Global Youth Service Day

HandsOn Northeast Georgia is excited to be organizing local projects as part of Global Youth Service Day. This is the first time that we have had local projects associated with this global event and we have five great projects planned.

- Rain Barrels making

- Storm Drain decal project

- Clean-up at a local school

- Helping at a community garden

- Beautifying a local park

Thank you to Athens-Clarke County Stormwater and Georgia 4-H for their support of these projects.

To sign-up click here!

Youth under age 15 must have parent or adult supervision. All volunteers under age 18 must have a youth waiver signed.

With the help of the ORAC, I've been asked to become a project chair for the Area Committee to Improve Opportunities Now's (ACTION, Inc.) Senior Grocery Bag Program (SGBP). It a much needed program where senior citizens in the Oconee County area recieve grocery and personal items once a month. At the present time there are 24 seniors that receive this assistance with an additional 12 to receive it in April. It's a great program and there is a lot of room for expantion. We hope to get area buisness, churches, and organizations to sponsor the program each month. They can help with buying items for the Senior's bags, packing the grocery bags the day/night before, and handing them out, the next day. Currently, all the Seniors or their designated representatives come to pick-up the grocery bags at the Bishop Community Center. There is hope that the program can be expanded, in the future, to include delivery, too! Seniors can also be sponsored by individuals. Sponsorships for one Senior is $15.00 a month or $180.00 a year. A one-time contribution to ACTION, Inc., donations to Family Connection, as well as to the Food Bank ear-marked for the SGBP are also options. You can even purchase a gift card or a credit from a local grocery store for the program. Items can be dropped of at the ORAC office in Watkinsville as well as the ACTION, Inc's offices in Athens or Bishop. Any and all contributions will be welcomed!! There is also room for volunteers to come and assist with this and other programs. For more information, contact ACTION, Inc. at 706.769.3891 or 706.546.8293 ext. #17 or the OARC at 706.769.4974. You can also look on ORAC's website: www.oconeeconnection.org/ and click on Community Action Team (CAT) for information about this and other programs. Make the commitment, bring a smile to the Seniors of Oconee County today!!

A Taste of Athens

This year's 'Taste' was an incredible experience, for me. I had been staring at pictures, loaded into my screen-saver, from last year's event. I couldn't wait to go through the experience. I was not disappointed!! The foods, the smells, the visual presentations, and, most of all, the tastes!!! It was a dream come true. I wandered, very happily, among the 1,300 or so people (volunteers, vendors, donating customers, guests, media, etc.) watching and savoring the whole awesome spectacle. There was no cooking competition, this year, but the cake competition was fantastic. There were some truly, remarkable entries. I would not wanted to have been the judges. The items donated for the silent auction were fantastic too. There was a constant serpentine movement around the tables where the items were placed and bidding continued till the clock stopped it. Even as the event ended, one vendor, drawing cartoon caricatures, still had a line of people waiting to get their pictures made. Everyone I talked to stated how well the event went and how much they enjoyed it. I certainly was not disappointed and look forward to next year's event with anticipation!!

Seeing IS Believing

I took the Seeing is Believing Bus Tour on Tuesday Feb. 17th which was sponsored by the Junior League of Athens. I have to say that I did learn a lot about the Clarke County School District. There are many programs offered for students, as well as access to a very well qualified staff. As with all school systems, test scores, great stories and high achieving students as well as talented students were stressed throughout the morning. Sometimes it would be nice to know the challenges that schools deal with as well as the many successes. As long as we continue to sing the praises of those who excel, we will continue to give up on those who don’t. Education should not be a competition for trophies or acceptance letters; but that’s for another blog. After we loaded the bus to attend our designated school site, we were shown about the school by the principal. I had the pleasure of visiting Classic City High School. The instructional design of the school is very impressive. It’s nice to see people take an interest in their education. I have always been a firm believer in offering different educational routes for students. Though I couldn’t help but notice that the overwhelming majority of the students were black or Hispanic. Being a political scientist, I know that even though these students have the means to become productive members of society, they may never gain the political or economic success as their well educated classmates…but that’s for another blog as well. Overall, I was impressed with my experience at Classic City High School. Yet, my experience may have been different had I gone to another school. I guess seeing is believing. However what you believe depends on what you see.

Are you Involved or Committed?

This week we participated in the Junior League of Athens, Seeing is Believing Bus Tour of the local schools. The event over all was great and insightful. The tour and speakers were able to highlight many of the great enrichment activities and programs that the schools offer and some share some of the successes that the numbers don't always show.

During the morning, one of the speakers discusses the importance of not just being involved in our schools and with our youth but the need to make a real commitment- to invest of yourself. He highlighted his talk with an analogy about involvement versus commitment by discussing breakfast. The speaker said to think about the eggs, toast, and bacon or ham that people eat for breakfast. You see the chicken, they were involved in providing the eggs your eating, but the pig he really committed himself to the cause.

Many time we as volunteer participate in activities in the community and our schools. We attend days of service like MLK Day, Hands On Athens, and Rivers Alive. We attend fundraisiers and support canned food drives and buy Girl Scout cookies. And while these are all GREAT and important activities that result in a lot of good for our community- there is still a large need for committed volunteers to take on the leadership roles and undertake the organizing of the projects. Schools and nonprofits need volunteers to make that on-going commitment to help plan an event or to lend your skills and expertice to a larger, on-going project.

So as we move forward in banding together through these tough times- we ask all our volunteers to ask yourself are you involved or are you committed? If you want to make that commitment or have an idea, but just don't know where to start- give HandsOn a call. We have leadership opportunities and can provide you with the training and tools you'll need to tackle any cause. And to those of you that have already made the commitment by serving on a PTO or board, by serving as a project leader or a regular volunteer for a project. We thank you for making that commitment.