Explanation of My Community Service Fun-tivities

            On my first day of community service, I got to the food bank at 8:00.  I worked with 3 other guys at the end of an assembly line stacking boxes on pallets.  A line of about 20 or 30 people filled the boxes with different types of food, the boxes went through a taping machine, and we stacked them in a certain pattern.  After we stacked them up, the whole pallet was pulled over to the shrink-wrap machine and was wrapped in shrink wrap.  On that day, the tape machine broke, and we had to adjust the way the tape was hitting the boxes.  We had to change it more towards the center because it was just taping one side of the box.  The second day I was in the same assembly line, but I put bags of rice (or pasta?) into all the boxes.  The boxes were pushed down the line and I put one bag of whichever grain it was into each box.  I then gave the boxes to the “taper” that pushed it through the tape machine.  On the third day, I loaded boxes onto the pallet again, with 3 new guys.  We got a break every 1-1 ½ hours.   

The Magical World of Civic Duty

Civic duty is defined as “the responsibility of a citizen” (Self).  Basically, it means volunteering your time and effort in order to help better your community.  Civic duty can include “participation in government, church volunteers, and memberships of voluntary associations” (Self).  Actions of civic responsibility can be displayed in advocacy for various causes, such as political, economic, civil, environmental, or quality of life issues (Self). 

            Civic Responsibility dates to ancient Rome whose citizens wanted to contribute to Roman society (Self).  Although Civic Responsibility has existed for centuries in society, it was officially approved as a blueprint for democracy in 1787 by the ratification of the United States Constitution.  In the 18th and 19th centuries and through the 1930s, civic responsibility in America was tied to a commonwealth perspective (Self). From voluntary fire departments to the public arts to the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and 1940s, citizens participated in projects that shaped communities and ultimately the nation (Self).  In the 1960s, community responsibility and civic responsibility became more popular. “The Cold War and nuclear threats were common fears that coalesced citizens of the United States” (Swanson).  In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, volunteering at civic duty organizations was declining (Self).

            The importance of civic responsibility is vital to the success of democracy and philanthropy (Self). By engaging in civic responsibility, citizens ensure and uphold certain democratic values written in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. “Those values or duties include justice, freedom, equality, diversity, authority, privacy, due process, property, participation, truth, patriotism, human rights, rule of law, tolerance, mutual assistance, self restraint, and self respect” (Self). Schools teach civic responsibility to students with the goal of producing responsible citizens and active participants in community and government.  Most civil service volunteers are philanthropists, as the two ideals are very similar in what they embrace (Self).  Civic duty is a key concept of democracy.  It embraces helping others and making your society better for everyone.

            Civic duty is the responsibility of a citizen to better his community.  The concept has been around for some time, although lately we have been falling behind in pursuing its ideals. The idea of civic duty is important to our society, because without it, we would not be a true democracy.  Civic responsibilities play an essential role in defining who we are as Americans, and what we stand for as a nation.  We leave up to ourselves, as citizens, to better our own society, and to make our nation better for all.

 Works Cited

Self, Jennifer. “Civic Responsibility.” Learning to Give.Org. (2010). Web. <http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper11.html>

Swanson, Stephanie S. "Social Capital and Civic Responsibility; How to teachers can promote volunteerism and civic responsibility." (1999). Pacific Lutheran University.

 

I <3 Helping People

            I did my community service at St. Mary’s Food Bank.  When I got there, I thought “Okay, I’ll pack up some food and get out of here.”  I had no idea how big the scale of what I was doing was.  I walked into the back room to a warehouse full of boxes, and food, and machinery, all for the sole purpose of serving others.  There were hundreds of people there to help this organization, coming through their own free will to help others.  I was a small part of a something huge.

            When I was finished after my first day of packing, the supervisor came into the break room to tell us how we did.  When I heard the results, I was astounded.  He told us that collectively, we had packaged over 30,000 pounds of food, and had helped to feed over 5,000 families.  When I heard that, I felt extremely proud of myself, and of all the other people that were there helping.  It had been a group effort, something that could not have been achieved by any single person.  Together, we had saved thousands of lives.  And that was only in three hours. 

            Now imagine what that organization can accomplish in a week.  Or a month.  Or a year.  That’s millions of pounds of food, and millions of lives saved, all through volunteer labor and donated food.  In the break room at the food bank, they had giant checks up on the wall showing different donations.  It was incredible to see how much different people and big businesses cared about the starving families.  Jeff Dunham, for instance, donated $25.000.  And Campbell’s donated 25 million cans of soup.  They didn’t receive any compensation, or get any sort of recognition.  They did it simply because they wanted to help somebody. 

            The same can be said for most of the people that were there volunteering.  I was there just to get my ten hours, but there were only a handful of students there.  Most of the volunteers were large groups, all coming in to make a difference together.   The two guys helping Mitch and I were from Desert Credit Union.  They weren’t from a Church, or another volunteer organization; they came because, as a whole, their entire company decided to come volunteer.

            Another thing I was surprised about was how happy everyone to be helping.  I thought there would be at least one guy bitching about how he didn’t want to be there.  But everyone was there by their own free will, and everyone was happy making a difference.  I saw kids, parents, grandparents, other students, and all of them were working hard with smiles on their faces.  I found myself having fun as I stacked boxes, really enjoying the fact that I was saving lives.  I had no idea of the magnitude of what I was doing at the time, but that’s really what was happening. 

            When I look back, I realize that I was only there for ten hours.  I made a difference in peoples lives in only ten hours.  I wish I could have done more actually.  I have plenty enough to get by.  I can’t imagine what the people I helped go through everyday.  And if it weren’t for organizations like St. Mary’s and the collective effort of all the donators and volunteers, none of the help they get would be possible.

Pitchers

 The box lifting team (a.k.a. Team Badass)

 Second assembly line

 First assembly line

 It looks like I'm just standing there, but I'm actually moving boxes with my mind.

  Break time, bitches.