Hello All!
I am still continuing to work at the Salvation Army. Usually Mariah, Erica, and I work in the food pantry, but the Salvation Army employees are in need of extra help in the office during the busy holiday season. This past week Audrey, our advisor, had each one of us doing a different job. Mariah worked in the food pantry and Erica worked on the computer. I worked on making packets with information about bell ringing. I also stuffed and sealed envelops with information about volunteering to bell ring to various businesses, organizations, and churches who have signed up before. Since the Salvation Army is really busy this time of year, we are going to start volunteering an extra hour each time we volunteer.
To help with the need for bell ringers for the Salvation Army, we had the idea to get our Summit Park Leadership Community involved. We would like to arrange a day for the members of Summit Park to bell ring for an hour at a time for an entire day. The location of this event is unknown, but we will find this out this Friday at Bass Pro Shops, which is when the bell ringing kick off begins. This would help benefit the Salvation Army and be fun for each one of us to get to know each other. Katie, Erica, Mariah, and I have all discussed it and we think that the Summit Park Community needs to start encouraging and supporting each other’s projects. We believe that this would be fun and a great way to get to know each other a little better.
For our project, we are still continuing to meet with our faculty advisor along with our advisor at the Salvation Army to discuss possible ideas and plans. We have several different ideas in mind for our project. We are also continuing to have our weekly meeting between the girls involved with our project. I am really looking forward to working with the Salvation Army during the holiday season with various volunteer opportunities. I hope to reach out to the Springfield Community with my bell ringing skills. From now until the end of the semester, I would like to bell ring at least two times, along with our plan to get the Summit Park Community to bell ring for an entire community. I hope that I can get people to donate money and also encourage the Drury University Summit Park Leadership to get involved with the several volunteer opportunities that the Salvation Army has to offer.
Stay classy Drury University,
Haleigh Brown
Hello again!
This past Wednesday, I spent my time at The Salvation Army with Betty who works in the food pantry. It had been a couple of weeks since I had been in there and it was nice to be back. While I was there, Betty told me a little about the craziness that goes on at The Salvation Army. She explained that the Girls Auxiliary is the first group to ring bells on the opening Saturday of the Christmas season. She said that she does not like to ring the first Saturday because people are upset that they are already putting out the kettles to collect money. This made me sad to think about because it is for such a great cause. Oh well, though. Roughly thirty minutes before I was finished volunteering, I went to help Erica and Haleigh put together packets that are passed out to various organizations. The packets have information regarding the sign ups for bell ringing. I am looking forward to going next week to see what Audrey has for us to do. We are now going in for an hour extra each week, in order to help them prepare for the busy season. I wish that I had all day to help The Salvation Army get caught up on stuff, but sadly, I don’t.
Since it is reaching the Christmas season, The Salvation Army is desperate for as much help as they can get. Instead of working in the Food Pantry every week, our advisor, Audrey, is having us help her out in the office. There is a lot of office work that needs to be done. For example, two weeks ago, I was in charge of calling businesses and various organizations to ask if they are interested in volunteering this year for the Christmas season. Audrey expressed how thankful she is for our hard work that we do for The Salvation Army. I love it that we can be such a big help for the few hours that we are there each week.
My personal goal for the rest of the semester is to bell ring several times for The Salvation Army. I also plan to get others involved with the bell ringing. Audrey has asked our group to involve the other groups in Summit Leadership Park. We are going to ask our fellow classmates to sign up for a one-hour sifts to ring bells on a Saturday of our choice. While they are bell ringing, my group is going to bring them cookies or hot chocolate to show our appreciation for them. We have still been meeting with our faculty advisor, John Taylor, to talk with him about our progress throughout the semester thus far. I am looking forward to getting more into the Christmas season. I will be posing again soon with more details on what we will be doing for the busy and joyful holiday season!
Until next time,
Mariah Elizabeth Fulbright
Hello again! Last week I prepared a mailing list for the Salvation Army to the State of Missouri describing in detail their plans for expansion. Earlier this year, the Salvation Army announced that they will be expanding their Chestnut location to include more services for the homeless in Springfield. From what I saw of their floor plans that they are sending to the government for approval, it is going to be an amazing project and will truly open up the door for The Salvation Army to help more people out.
On a different note, it is finally starting to look a lot like Christmas around The Salvation Army! This is the busiest time of the year for them. From bell ringing to volunteering at the “Christmas Shop” where people in need can pick out toys for their children for free, there are definitely a lot of volunteering opportunities available around this time. My goal is to ring bells at least 3 times before Christmas and hopefully get the Drury community involved in the bell ringing as well. The Salvation Army gets so many generous donations around this time of year and they can use as much help as they can get! Personally, I would like to donate items for their Christmas shop and perhaps get my family involved in that as well.
I love that we are getting to volunteer at the Salvation Army during Christmas! It constantly reminds me of how fortunate I am and how important it is to help others out during this time of year, and all year round! I looked forward to Christmas all year when I was younger, so the fact that some parents are not able to give their children presents on Christmas truly saddens me. By helping out, I feel I can do my small part in making sure that children across the Ozarks can have a present to open on Christmas!
This Friday, we are going to be volunteering with The Salvation Army at Bass Pro Shops for their annual bell-ringing kick off! This is our first big event that we have had a chance to volunteer at so I am really looking forward to it!
Bye for now,
Hey everyone!
I wanted to talk a little about what has been going on in our Summit Park Project recently, we have been extremely busy! Now that the Christmas season has hit at the Salvation Army things have gotten really busy! Audrey has asked us to help her out getting things organized and planned instead of working in the food pantry. So far I have made calls out to organizations asking them to sign up to bell ring. I have also made packets of information, labels, and business cards. I am glad that we have been able to help Audrey out, and hopefully we are helping to keep things running smoothly!
I also wanted to mention some of the goals that I have for this semester regarding working at the Salvation Army. One of my main goals is to work in the Christmas store that the Salvation Army has so that families can provide gifts for their kids. I think that it would be an amazing experience to see the store in action, and be able to interact with the people that go there. I am also really excited to bell ring for a couple of hours. I have done this before, but I think that it will be a great bonding experience for Haleigh, Mariah, Katie and I to ring together! As for the rest of the semester, I am just planning on continuing to go in and help with the rest of the Christmas season!
-Erica
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