Hard Truck Apocalypse Community Patch
Charise Zelnick
As I continued picking up trash from various beaches something in the community started to change. Instead of people gazing at me with looks of confusion, people began to notice me and come up to me as I was picking up trash. I received many comments about how they had seen me around the beaches and that they appreciated my actions.
I came back the next week determined to talk to some new people. I figured if I was going to be putting lots of time into this project, I should at least make some friends. So, slowly but surely, I started to talk. I asked questions about the different plants and as I engaged with others, I began to feel much less scared. I was surprised at first that all of these adults would want to talk to me, but as it turns out they really did. As we talked, I began to open up and so did they. These people that seemed unapproachable turned out to be some of the nicest people I had ever met. They welcomed me with open arms, fully willing to show me the ropes of not only gardening but also being part of their community and the world in a larger sense.
Over March Term in 2020, I was fortunate enough to do an internship with ARM of Care for a second year. ARM of Care uses the creative arts to restore and empower individuals who have been commercially sexually exploited through human trafficking or are at risk for being trafficked.
Despite the unexpected social distancing a week into my internship, it went smoothly overall, and I was ultimately able to accomplish all that we had planned. I am really grateful for and owe a lot to the experience I got working with ARM of Care since March the previous year. Because of that connection, I got to know the organization and its mission a lot better, which helped me with self-motivation and helped deepen my level of consideration for my work this March Term. There were a few major changes in my internship this year, which brought new challenges, different perspectives, and more introspection.
I have been volunteering for the Meguro After School program in Tokyo, Japan that takes care of disabled children when their parents need someone to take care of them while they are busy at work. When I decided to commit my 30 hours of community service to this organization, I was optimistic, telling myself that this is my chance to finally learn how to take care of children and meet new people in Japan. Before I knew it, I was in front of the building where I would be volunteering for 30 hours, which seemed unbelievable at the time.
While I was focusing on all the negative aspects of volunteering here, one of the kids came up to me and offered me a cup of tea. I was extremely surprised because this boy seemed to be able to walk and talk normally. He came to introduce himself to me before anyone else and it was very evident to me that this boy was working hard to be seen as a normal person.
The best part of my experience here was being able to take care of the children that I soon came to love. There were about ten children that came every day and I was able to learn most of their names on the first day. For the first two days I went to volunteer there, I was given easy responsibilities such as feeding the kids lunch and snacks, washing the bowls and cups they used, or putting away all the toys.
Prior to conducting my service project with the White Pony Express (WPE), I believed that personal achievement was the most important objective in life. In our society, we are often taught that nothing short of perfection is acceptable, and that anything less than that is failure. Even the way we look at food at the grocery store is reflective of this judgement. There are many who would not even consider buying, for example, corn whose rows are not perfectly straight or tomatoes with too many disfigurations, even though there may be nothing amiss with the product. In light of this, Imperfect Foods, with whom I have collaborated through WPE, was founded to rescue food that is senselessly neglected. Before my project, I believed that we as humans should work towards perfection, and to a good extent still do. However, I used to think this was the ultimate goal of life, and I was shown otherwise.
When I heard about the opportunity to conduct a 200 hour service project as a sophomore, I decided it would be in my best interests to take on such a project as it would bring me closer to the ideal of a perfect model citizen. Since service was valued highly in my community, I believed that excellence was correlated to service, and that consequently this achievement would make me a better community member. I also reasoned it would be a great use of my time, especially since as a teenager, I knew there were not very many conventional ways for me to be a useful member of society.
In my second year of volunteering for WPE, I took a position as a deliveryman on food distribution runs, a role I had never done before. I would usually arrive at the distribution center early in the morning and go out on a truck to rescue surplus food from local grocery stores. This time, I went out on an afternoon delivery to supply food to pantries and soup kitchens so they could distribute it directly to those in need.
One day, after unloading at one of our stops, I encountered a homeless man sitting on a bench near the pantry. I offered to grab him anything he wanted from the truck, and upon his agreement, I jaunted to the back of the truck, where my eyes fell upon a crate of fruit cartons I had quality-controlled and packed that morning. As I handed a pack of strawberries to the man, who gratefully accepted it with a smile, something clicked in my mind. I came to the crucial realization that personal achievement is not purpose itself, but a contributing factor to a much larger cause.
Our personal achievements matter only insofar as we use our gifts to positively impact the lives of others. With great ability comes great responsibility. And I am determined to use mine to its fullest potential.
One of my favorite experiences was reading with the students. They had very mixed reading abilities. A few of the kids could read all of the books in the classroom with little difficulty, while others had trouble recognizing their letters. All of the children, regardless of ability, were very excited to read books. They would come up to me at all points in the day holding books, desperate for me to read to them. This experience made me realize just how important it is for kids to have individualized reading help. I always tried to make myself accessible so that they could ask questions about what a word or letter was. I tried to encourage some of the more fluent readers to read out loud with their friends, so that the other kids could benefit from hearing the story and seeing the words on the page. It made me sad to think that in a few years many of them would lose their enthusiasm for reading.
The most challenging part of my work was trying to keep a large group of little kids behaved. I learnt a lot from Mrs. Postigo, who was firm and consistent while giving directions and reprimanding students. It was hard not to laugh when they misbehaved in adorable ways. Eventually, I learned to control myself and get them to stick to the rules of the classroom.
Community Service is an essential part of life. The beauty of community service lies in the way that it allows for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together and advocate for causes that they are passionate about. Not only does it help those in need, it is also a way in which students can grow and develop their own selves. At The Athenian Upper School students are able to gain these experiences through weekend service trips, ongoing community service groups, and intensive individual projects. This specific website is intended for the students of Athenian to explore newer and more impactful areas of service. Explore our website to find the area that service that speaks to you!
Refugees often say that war feels like a wave of violence washing over them, leaving behind death and destruction. The feeling was no different for Katra Ali Hethar, who fled war-torn Somalia in 1991 with her nine small children.
Being responsible for so many lives was a logistical nightmare. But even in moments of emergency, when given the opportunity to hop on a truck or car, she refused to leave a single one behind. She decided that they would either all survive or all perish together, choosing to take turns carrying them on her back. Eventually they made it across the Shebelle River, to the safety of a refugee camp in Kenya.
Two years later, the entire family, including her husband, who had a minor stroke that required immediate medical attention and left Somalia separately, found refuge in America. After living briefly in New York, then some years in Atlanta, the family settled in central Minnesota in 2006. In the nearly three decades since, the mother who survived war and that perilous journey has supported all her children, including three more born since her arrival, into adulthood. The United States offered them a home and security.
Like most migration stories, hers is full of both sadness and hope. Adjusting to life in a new country had its share of struggles. Moving first to St. Cloud, and later to Waite Park, a small town that is virtually a suburb of its larger neighbor, has been another kind of journey for a woman who never worked outside the house but dedicated her life to her children and to her community.
The women and men took their shoes off and sat on the floor on a pleasantly soft blue carpet, wearing name tags and exchanging small talk. They conversed with their Somali hosts as, on a muted TV, the Milwaukee Bucks faced the Toronto Raptors in the NBA playoffs. At sunset, they ate dates, drank water, and then enjoyed a Somali meal of meat sambusas, baked goat and rice, with malawax (sweet pancakes) for dessert.
Abdi Daisane, the owner of a daycare center and also an active member of the community, was my guide during my visit. He took me on tours of the town, meeting with community leaders, entrepreneurs, and religious figures. He told me that when he ran for city council in 2016, people mostly had questions about Islam. And he was happy to address their concerns. He was not elected, though intends to try again in future. (The body presently comprises six men and one woman, all of them white.)
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