Hey fellow summiteers!!!
This semester has been one of great success for The Beacon Project. We have had many fun experiences, and accomplished a lot. We began the semester with planning for the Fall Festival. After a couple of date changes, this ended up taking place on November 6th. Many families from the center attended. The children seemed to enjoy the crafts and activities a lot. It was a great success in bringing these families closer together. The next project for this semester, is the Symphony Christmas concert. This will take place on December 11th. We organized tickets for the Lighthouse families that wanted to attend, and have put together goodie bags to hand out at the event. There will be an ice cream social to follow, which we hope will continue to build on the relationship between the Lighthouse families.
The best experience this semester was the success of the fall festival. It was wonderful to see the children having so much fun. I am glad we got to bring them to the Drury Campus, so that the children and the parents could be exposed to the hope of further education. The biggest challenge we faced was one of communication and responsibility. It was often quite hard to get a hold of Lighthouse. We were able to work around this issue, but it was a challenge in the beginning. In respects to responsibility, Lighthouse set unfair expectations of us. We paid for the entire Fall Festival, and did the majority of the planning. We were expecting much more assistance that what we received from Lighthouse.
The biggest issue shaping our plans for next semester is our budget. Becuase of the fact that we had to pay for the Fall Festival, much of our budget is depleted. We are going to have to plan very efficiently for our projects next year. We are also planning to start our volunteering a lot earlier in the semester.
I think this semester has taught me even better time management skills. We have had a lot of planning and preparation to do, which has made me use all of my time extremely efficiently. I have also enjoyed working with the children. I hope that this will help me in my future as a teacher.
The Stress Free Now program was an interesting experience. On the one hand I was able to experiment with things I would have never tried on my own. This gave me additional understanding of an area had no previous experience with. I did not, however, enjoy it. I do not feel as though this program benefitted me in any noticeable way. I feel as though, while different and providing a new experience, it was not something I would want to do again.
As the semester is coming to an end, I am excited about going home more than anything else. I have not seen my family since the beginning of the semester, which has been a huge challenge for me. Over winter break I will be relishing in home cooked food, my own bed, and being surrounded by my family.
Tiffany
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!
Hey everybody! Things are looking quite jolly in Summit 1315 this month. We have definitely been spreading the Christmas cheer around our apartment, and all of us are super excited to get to go home soon. This month has marked the end of our volunteer hours at Lighthouse, and we will be hosting our last Lighthouse/Drury partnership event of the semester this Saturday. We invited the kids and their families to the Springfield Symphony Christmas concert on Saturday at 2 in the O’Reilly Center and are planning on having some sort of holiday refreshments afterward, so that should be a great end to the semester.
The best experience I had with Lighthouse this semester was definitely the Fall Festival. It was so rewarding to see our event become a success and to see how much fun the kids were having. I really feel like we were able to offer them a unique opportunity and help the Drury community become closer to the Springfield community. The toughest experiences with the agency this semester have been communication issues. There have been some instances of miscommunication that have had to be straightened out. I think in the spring semester we will be doing a lot of organizing, since Lighthouse is moving locations over Christmas break. They will probably use our help to get settled into their new building and also to simply help out in the classrooms again. We want to have one more event for the kids in the spring, such as an Easter celebration.
Due to the Summit Leadership Experience, I have definitely improved my skills in working in a group. I have learned to address conflicts as they arise and how to communicate better with the members of my group. Additionally, I have learned the myriad of things involved in coordinating an event and also the importance of communication when planning something on a large scale. I have also improved my time management skills due to the number of things I have to complete for this class, such as volunteering and Stress Free Now.
For me, the highlights of the Wellness program were definitely yoga and the massages. I enjoyed learning different relaxation techniques, and it broadened my perspective on things. The lowlights of the programs were the amount of time they required. Stress Free Now was actually very stressful, because our grade was based on the completion of the relaxation exercises, and honestly, I didn’t always have time to complete them. I would suggest not requiring students to complete five exercises a week. I think two or three times of trying a particular technique would have been sufficient.
Well, that’s all until next year! I’m so excited to go home for Christmas break and to take our swim team training trip to Hawaii at the beginning of January! Merry Christmas! :)
Molly Brown
Molly Brown
Monday, December 6, 2010
Last Week of Semester
Yay!
It's the last week! I hope everyone is as relieved as I am! I still have so much to do, but I can at least see a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Also, I hope everyone is Summit is doing very well. I know I am and I think the girls are too. We are a little stressed about this ten page paper that is due Friday (Andrew!!!), but I think we will definitely be able to manage.
The girls and I have now finished up our hours for this semester at Lighthouse and I believe each of us came out at more than fifteen. Let's just say the Fall Festival really helped us out with that. But all of our hard work was worth it because we had so much fun at the event! Working at the Lighthouse has been great too, getting to know all of the workers who employ the different aged rooms in the church and of course, getting to hang with all the awesome kids!
On Saturday, the Drury Singers are singing with the Springfield Symphony at 2:30 in the O'Reilly Center. We have invited the kids and their families to come watch us sing and so far the RSVP has been wonderful! We will just have to get the tickets sorted out so they can all show up to the event in style. Personally, I am so excited about getting to show the kids a wonderful time at the Symphony!
And lastly, the Stress Free Now has been really relaxing. I have truly been enjoying every aspect of the program. I have learned so many new things about relaxation techniques and how to focus my thinking differently. My favorite part of the whole program will be Wednesday at 8:00 for me when I get my massage! I've been looking forward to it for the past seven weeks. It's going to feel so good!
So I hope everyone else is doing just as well as I am. Those of you who are overwhelmed, keep your head up! It will get better! In two weeks, maybe less, you will all be home sitting by your holiday decorations listening to bad holiday music wishing you were back in your own apartment instead of being nagged at by mom and dad, so cherish it!!
Love you all and Happy Holidays!
Deanna
It's the last week! I hope everyone is as relieved as I am! I still have so much to do, but I can at least see a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Also, I hope everyone is Summit is doing very well. I know I am and I think the girls are too. We are a little stressed about this ten page paper that is due Friday (Andrew!!!), but I think we will definitely be able to manage.
The girls and I have now finished up our hours for this semester at Lighthouse and I believe each of us came out at more than fifteen. Let's just say the Fall Festival really helped us out with that. But all of our hard work was worth it because we had so much fun at the event! Working at the Lighthouse has been great too, getting to know all of the workers who employ the different aged rooms in the church and of course, getting to hang with all the awesome kids!
On Saturday, the Drury Singers are singing with the Springfield Symphony at 2:30 in the O'Reilly Center. We have invited the kids and their families to come watch us sing and so far the RSVP has been wonderful! We will just have to get the tickets sorted out so they can all show up to the event in style. Personally, I am so excited about getting to show the kids a wonderful time at the Symphony!
And lastly, the Stress Free Now has been really relaxing. I have truly been enjoying every aspect of the program. I have learned so many new things about relaxation techniques and how to focus my thinking differently. My favorite part of the whole program will be Wednesday at 8:00 for me when I get my massage! I've been looking forward to it for the past seven weeks. It's going to feel so good!
So I hope everyone else is doing just as well as I am. Those of you who are overwhelmed, keep your head up! It will get better! In two weeks, maybe less, you will all be home sitting by your holiday decorations listening to bad holiday music wishing you were back in your own apartment instead of being nagged at by mom and dad, so cherish it!!
Love you all and Happy Holidays!
Deanna
Friday, November 19, 2010
A November with The Beacon
Hey guys!!
I can't believe it is already November! Talk of Thanksgiving, and Christmas has made me extremely excited about this month and the next. The Beacon group actually organized a Fall Fun Festival with The Lighthouse that was definitely an experience. The first part of our preparation included gathering all of our supplies. Once we had what we needed we got to work. We ended up baking over 120 cupcakes as well as at least 50 cookies to get ready for the festival. We put together all of the activities, and ended up having a really great day! The kids looked like they really had a good time, and the parents seemed to appreciate our efforts. In it was a great success.
I have also been volunteering in the lighthouse center with has most of all, been rewarding for me as a person. I love kids and getting to work with them once a week has shown me once again what a great place Lighthouse is and what an amazing job they are doing. I am actually proud to be contributing to such a cause.
As far as the roommates go, I still love them! Yes every once in a while a situation occurs, but it is always little and we work it out well. I am extremely thankful that I have these girls as my Springfield family. At first my interaction with the Summit community was pretty much nonexistent. The socials and the wellness classes have provided another way to actually connect with the group and establish a friendship. I absolutely love Summit and honestly wish I could live here for the rest of my time at Drury.
The one thing about this semester in Summit I will say I have not like is the Stress Free Now. I am being completely honest in hopes that it helps give a true feel for the experience with the program. It is often hard for me to fit it in to my schedule, and therefore really ends up stressing me out more than anything else. It has not provided me with the stress relief I was hoping for, and ends up just being another thing on my list of things I have to get done. This may be a successful course for students who decide that they have enough time for the commitment, but I do not and therefore it has not helped me much.
I look forward to seeing you today!!!
Tiffany
I can't believe it is already November! Talk of Thanksgiving, and Christmas has made me extremely excited about this month and the next. The Beacon group actually organized a Fall Fun Festival with The Lighthouse that was definitely an experience. The first part of our preparation included gathering all of our supplies. Once we had what we needed we got to work. We ended up baking over 120 cupcakes as well as at least 50 cookies to get ready for the festival. We put together all of the activities, and ended up having a really great day! The kids looked like they really had a good time, and the parents seemed to appreciate our efforts. In it was a great success.
I have also been volunteering in the lighthouse center with has most of all, been rewarding for me as a person. I love kids and getting to work with them once a week has shown me once again what a great place Lighthouse is and what an amazing job they are doing. I am actually proud to be contributing to such a cause.
As far as the roommates go, I still love them! Yes every once in a while a situation occurs, but it is always little and we work it out well. I am extremely thankful that I have these girls as my Springfield family. At first my interaction with the Summit community was pretty much nonexistent. The socials and the wellness classes have provided another way to actually connect with the group and establish a friendship. I absolutely love Summit and honestly wish I could live here for the rest of my time at Drury.
The one thing about this semester in Summit I will say I have not like is the Stress Free Now. I am being completely honest in hopes that it helps give a true feel for the experience with the program. It is often hard for me to fit it in to my schedule, and therefore really ends up stressing me out more than anything else. It has not provided me with the stress relief I was hoping for, and ends up just being another thing on my list of things I have to get done. This may be a successful course for students who decide that they have enough time for the commitment, but I do not and therefore it has not helped me much.
I look forward to seeing you today!!!
Tiffany
Lighthouse so far...
Hey guys!
Lighthouse has been so fun now that we have been able to be with the kids. I have been able to work in both the infant room and the toddler room. Mostly just feeding and playing with the babies. When I was in the toddler room, they were just finishing lunch and getting ready for a nap so I helped get them all settled down. One little girl doesn't take naps, so I just looked at some books with her haha. They're all so cute! I helped the teacher in the Pre-K room clean and set up some stuff. I went around the room and cleaned some of the toys. Since they all touch the toys even if they are sick, it is important to clean them regularly. I have learned a lot about child care so far.
The other girls have filled you in on the fall festival. It was a huge hit! I worked at the pumpkin painting station and it was so funny. We had enough pumpkins so many kids did like 1 or 2 pumpkins. We did a lot of baking too haha which was so fun! I wanted to eat all of it... but oh well! We also had like 5 of the swimmer girls help us out with this which was great and a huge help! They worked some of the stations we had and were great with the kids. I think the funniest part was watching molly do the pumpkin broomstick races with the kids and she would always "lose" her pumpkin so that the kids would win. It was adorable.
As for the stress free program, I am going to have to agree with Molly. I have been to keep up with it, but then it stresses me out when I forget or realize last minute that I need to do it. Sometimes I remember it late at night and I am really tired. I really like the concept, but I have found it a little more stressful sometimes than stress free.
That's all for now :)
Jessica Cross
Lighthouse has been so fun now that we have been able to be with the kids. I have been able to work in both the infant room and the toddler room. Mostly just feeding and playing with the babies. When I was in the toddler room, they were just finishing lunch and getting ready for a nap so I helped get them all settled down. One little girl doesn't take naps, so I just looked at some books with her haha. They're all so cute! I helped the teacher in the Pre-K room clean and set up some stuff. I went around the room and cleaned some of the toys. Since they all touch the toys even if they are sick, it is important to clean them regularly. I have learned a lot about child care so far.
The other girls have filled you in on the fall festival. It was a huge hit! I worked at the pumpkin painting station and it was so funny. We had enough pumpkins so many kids did like 1 or 2 pumpkins. We did a lot of baking too haha which was so fun! I wanted to eat all of it... but oh well! We also had like 5 of the swimmer girls help us out with this which was great and a huge help! They worked some of the stations we had and were great with the kids. I think the funniest part was watching molly do the pumpkin broomstick races with the kids and she would always "lose" her pumpkin so that the kids would win. It was adorable.
As for the stress free program, I am going to have to agree with Molly. I have been to keep up with it, but then it stresses me out when I forget or realize last minute that I need to do it. Sometimes I remember it late at night and I am really tired. I really like the concept, but I have found it a little more stressful sometimes than stress free.
That's all for now :)
Jessica Cross
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Kids, Cakes, and Candy
Hello again my Summit peers. November is almost coming to a close, and I know everyone is so excited about getting a little break next week for Thanksgiving. After that, we are practically home free!!! We have been making a lot of progress at Lighthouse over the month of November. The Fall Festival we held at Drury on November 6th was a huge success. We probably had about 30 children and their families attend, which was a nice turnout. The kids looked like they were having a blast playing all of the games and winning tons of prizes. I ran the pumpkin sweep game, and while it definitely wore me out racing the kids back and forth sweeping a pumpkin with a broom, they seemed to enjoy every second of it. We had to do an enormous amount of preparation for the festival, such as buying supplies for the booths, making oodles of baked goods for the cake walk, and setting up the gym. The night before the festival we baked for six straight hours, and I believe our total baked goods count was over 120 cupcakes (iced and sprinkled), four batches of cookies, two batches of brownies, and additional cookies that Dee’s mom brought to help us out. It would have been all fine and dandy, because I love to bake, but Tiff and I aren’t eating any sweets, so literally being surrounded by dessert in our living room and having the scent of chocolate wafting through our halls was akin to torture. However, the stressful preparations were worth it to make the kids happy. We have also been volunteering at the center in the actual classrooms lately, so that has been a welcome change. I just got back from Lighthouse, and this morning I got to play with the toddlers then help with lunch time in the infant room. J The kids are so, so sweet.
I really do feel like we have been able to make an impact at Lighthouse in the brief time we’ve been there so far. Our Fall Festival was something different than many of the kids had ever experienced before, so I’m glad we’ve been able to give them some experiences they might not have had without our involvement. Also, I think it gave the parents a good opportunity to socialize and meet with other parents at the center, so they can gain a greater support network. The teachers frequently express their gratitude at having us in their classrooms to volunteer, because it makes their jobs a whole lot easier to have an extra set of hands.
The only difficulties we’ve run into with the agency have been relatively minor. It took us awhile to get started volunteering because of a lack of communication involving volunteer application forms. Additionally, the Fall Festival was a little more stressful than I anticipated, because we ended up being responsible for a lot more than we originally thought. It seemed like we were mainly responsible for it instead of it being a collaborative effort, which was frustrating at times, but we survived.
Things in the apartment have been going fairly well. We have the occasional dispute about dirty dishes and temperature, but, for the most part, we haven’t had too many disagreements. My roommates are like my second family, and they help me get through a lot by always being there for me. I’ve also started getting to know more people in the Summit community through the monthly socials and the wellness activities.
Honestly, I’ve been a little disappointed with Stress Free Now. I often accidentally call it Stress Now when I refer to it. Freudian Slip? I think yes. I see the importance of relaxation and forgiveness and everything the program tries to address, but finding time for a 20 minute daily activity seems to just add more stress to my life. It’s stressful to try to remember to complete the activity each day. The Wellness Experience is a little more fulfilling and enjoyable, especially the yoga. I still haven’t figured out the benefit of Tai Chi, but I definitely feel like the yoga sessions helped relax me. I also thought the speakers we had at our last Summit class were very interesting.
Well, that’s all for this month! Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving break, and I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s progress at our mid-term meeting! Happy Thanksgiving!
Molly Brown
Monday, November 15, 2010
Progress at Lighthouse
Hello fellow Summiters. How has your last month been? To me, November has flown. It also doesn't help that Harry Potter is coming out in four days!!! But that is besides the point. Our Lighthouse project has been going splendidly. We have officially finished cleaning the resource room and have moved on to actually helping out the teachers and playing with the kids!
One of the greatest moments of our volunteering so far, was putting on the Fall Festival in the practice gym of Weiser a few weeks ago. So many people came, and it was really great to get to meet all the kids involved with Lighthouse. Not to mention their great families. All of our hard work really paid off. Including the cake walk which we slaved over! We made over 113 cupcakes, not to mention an assortment of other things (also, my mom made us cookies) to fill up the walk with goodies. And it went off with a hitch! It was the most popular event at the festival and everyone won some sweets. I think the employees at Lighthouse were really pleased with it, as were the families who came to it and supported us.
I think we have a great impact on the agency. They seem to really appreciate our help, and they are so friendly and nice. They truly seem grateful for us and not like we're in the way. I have definitely made many new friends at the church. There hasn't been too many difficulties honestly. We had a lot more responsibility for the Fall Fest than we were originally anticipating, but that didn't bother us. It was so much fun to get ready for. We had a big girls night in the apartment and it was wonderful!
Speaking of the girls, everything here is going marvelously. I don't think we've really had any serious problems yet. Just a few tiff's here and there, but everybody gets on everybody's nerves once in awhile. Our group has a really great dynamic and we all have so much fun living together. I love walking into my apartment and really feeling like I'm home. I hope the other girls feel the same way too. Not to mention, they are always cooking something delicious so it smells so good all the time! Also, I find myself waving to all my neighbors when I walk to class. Doing the wellness activities has given me a chance to get to know them better as well as the Summit Socials.
The Wellness is going extremely well for me. I find myself actually using the relaxation techniques to calm myself down about everything I stress about. I have really tried to use it especially in swimming. I love the yoga, and even though the Tai Chi was very different than anything I had ever done, I really enjoyed it too. It has been a really great experience for me so far and I am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to try it out.
Well, I think that's about it for this month! I will see you all this week for some Tai Chi! Hai Ya!!!
Deanna Sorenson
One of the greatest moments of our volunteering so far, was putting on the Fall Festival in the practice gym of Weiser a few weeks ago. So many people came, and it was really great to get to meet all the kids involved with Lighthouse. Not to mention their great families. All of our hard work really paid off. Including the cake walk which we slaved over! We made over 113 cupcakes, not to mention an assortment of other things (also, my mom made us cookies) to fill up the walk with goodies. And it went off with a hitch! It was the most popular event at the festival and everyone won some sweets. I think the employees at Lighthouse were really pleased with it, as were the families who came to it and supported us.
I think we have a great impact on the agency. They seem to really appreciate our help, and they are so friendly and nice. They truly seem grateful for us and not like we're in the way. I have definitely made many new friends at the church. There hasn't been too many difficulties honestly. We had a lot more responsibility for the Fall Fest than we were originally anticipating, but that didn't bother us. It was so much fun to get ready for. We had a big girls night in the apartment and it was wonderful!
Speaking of the girls, everything here is going marvelously. I don't think we've really had any serious problems yet. Just a few tiff's here and there, but everybody gets on everybody's nerves once in awhile. Our group has a really great dynamic and we all have so much fun living together. I love walking into my apartment and really feeling like I'm home. I hope the other girls feel the same way too. Not to mention, they are always cooking something delicious so it smells so good all the time! Also, I find myself waving to all my neighbors when I walk to class. Doing the wellness activities has given me a chance to get to know them better as well as the Summit Socials.
The Wellness is going extremely well for me. I find myself actually using the relaxation techniques to calm myself down about everything I stress about. I have really tried to use it especially in swimming. I love the yoga, and even though the Tai Chi was very different than anything I had ever done, I really enjoyed it too. It has been a really great experience for me so far and I am very grateful that I was given the opportunity to try it out.
Well, I think that's about it for this month! I will see you all this week for some Tai Chi! Hai Ya!!!
Deanna Sorenson
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Day 1 at the Lighthouse
Hey guys! It's Jessica:
I had my first day at the Lighthouse on Monday. I really like working with Dollie, the assistant manager (not sure of her exact title, but basically the boss of us!). She is very nice and super organized, which is mostly what we have been helping her with all week. We are trying to organize more folders for her and making copies of things. Next week we will most likely start working with the kids. I'm really excited about that. I have been assigned to the infant room! I love babies! So I think that will be fun! They have 3 or 4 babies right now I think... at least she said they have 3 new ones. But anyway it will be fun. I loved my experience on Monday. It was a very relaxed and positive atmosphere. They're all so nice and you can tell they love the kids they work with. Dollie is so excited to work with us. She said she is so thankful for us working there right now, I guess it has been pretty hectic with them moving in a few months. They will get a new location in the beginning of January, so thats cool!
As the other girls have said, we are having the Fall festival here next week! So it should be fun! Hope the kids enjoy it :)
Alrighty, I will keep you guys posted on the next month at Lighthouse.
-Jessica
I had my first day at the Lighthouse on Monday. I really like working with Dollie, the assistant manager (not sure of her exact title, but basically the boss of us!). She is very nice and super organized, which is mostly what we have been helping her with all week. We are trying to organize more folders for her and making copies of things. Next week we will most likely start working with the kids. I'm really excited about that. I have been assigned to the infant room! I love babies! So I think that will be fun! They have 3 or 4 babies right now I think... at least she said they have 3 new ones. But anyway it will be fun. I loved my experience on Monday. It was a very relaxed and positive atmosphere. They're all so nice and you can tell they love the kids they work with. Dollie is so excited to work with us. She said she is so thankful for us working there right now, I guess it has been pretty hectic with them moving in a few months. They will get a new location in the beginning of January, so thats cool!
As the other girls have said, we are having the Fall festival here next week! So it should be fun! Hope the kids enjoy it :)
Alrighty, I will keep you guys posted on the next month at Lighthouse.
-Jessica
Hey everyone!! I hope everyone's projects are going well! We have had some great progress on ours. Our biggest plan in the works right now is our fall festival. It is going to take place on November 6th from 2-4 in the basketball practice gym. We are planning different booths and games with the help of Lighthouse and Chase bank. Some of the games we are planning include a cake walk, for which we are going to make cupcakes and cookies, pin the tail on the turkey, face painting, pumpkin decorating, and other fun activities. We have also decided to have some crafts that the parents and children can do together.
The aim for the festival is to get the families from Lighthouse meet each other, and interact with each other more. We hope that in doing this they are able to build a support group for each other. At the moment most of these families have no support group and so if a child gets sick or there is an emergency, they have to miss a day of work which just sends them back into the bad financial situation they are trying to get out of. By having a support group, hopefully the parents could find someone to watch their child and allow them to be at work more consistently. Another goal of the festival is getting the parents more involved with their children. Building a strong bond between the family members is something most of these families need help with. By interacting with the children Lighthouse hopes the families will have a positive experience in this sense.
Planning this fall festival has been an interesting experience for me because growing up, I was never in the situations many of these families find themselves in. I would never have thought about the issues that come from not having a circle of friends or family to help give support in tough times. Seeing how these families are struggling has put things into perspective for me. I really hope that the fall festival is successful in this respect. Lighthouse does such a great job at providing instrumental lessons to assist these families in becoming more self sufficient, and I think that this fall festival could be another one of the these lessons.
I go to volunteer at the actual Lighthouse center tomorrow, and I am so excited about finally getting started.
See you tomorrow!
Tiffany
The aim for the festival is to get the families from Lighthouse meet each other, and interact with each other more. We hope that in doing this they are able to build a support group for each other. At the moment most of these families have no support group and so if a child gets sick or there is an emergency, they have to miss a day of work which just sends them back into the bad financial situation they are trying to get out of. By having a support group, hopefully the parents could find someone to watch their child and allow them to be at work more consistently. Another goal of the festival is getting the parents more involved with their children. Building a strong bond between the family members is something most of these families need help with. By interacting with the children Lighthouse hopes the families will have a positive experience in this sense.
Planning this fall festival has been an interesting experience for me because growing up, I was never in the situations many of these families find themselves in. I would never have thought about the issues that come from not having a circle of friends or family to help give support in tough times. Seeing how these families are struggling has put things into perspective for me. I really hope that the fall festival is successful in this respect. Lighthouse does such a great job at providing instrumental lessons to assist these families in becoming more self sufficient, and I think that this fall festival could be another one of the these lessons.
I go to volunteer at the actual Lighthouse center tomorrow, and I am so excited about finally getting started.
See you tomorrow!
Tiffany
Members of the Beacon Project = Future Professional Organizers
Hey hey everybody! I just got back from volunteering at the Lighthouse this morning, and the two hours I spent there seemed to fly by. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend any time with the kids today, because our supervisor, Dollie, needed some major organizational backup. Due to recent staff changes, the records and files of Lighthouse are in disarray, so Dollie has been desperately trying to get everything organized. This would be a huge job for just one person, so she enlisted the help of the Beacon Project this week as her organizational task-force. Lighthouse is moving to a new facility over Christmas break, because they are way too cramped in their current quarters. They are moving to a Baptist church downtown and will have a plethora of space there, something they are ecstatic about. Since they are expanding so much, they will be hiring additional employees. So, today I spent the majority of my time today making copies of the Lighthouse Staff Handbook to put in folders to give to the new employees. I also continued organizing their overflowing resource room. When people say things have to get worse before they get better, they are definitely telling the truth. As I tried to organize more, the room seemed to get messier and messier. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see some progress being made soon and then move on to working with the kids!
As I spend more time at Lighthouse, I realize just how great of a thing it is that they are doing. They allow for the parents of these children to have free child care, so they can hold steady jobs and get back on their feet again. I love the atmosphere of Lighthouse, because it is so full of energy and happiness. All of the staff that I have come in contact with are such nice people. They truly care about the children and seem to really enjoy their jobs. They realize the importance of the services they are providing, and since it is a Christian organization, their faith-based attitudes are very uplifting.
Fall Festival planning is going really well. We had to change dates, because Lighthouse had a conflict, but the official date for the Lighthouse Fall Festival is November 6th from 2-4 p.m. If anyone wants to come by and help or just check it out, it’s in the basketball practice gym at Drury. We are going to have ten booths for the kids and their families to rotate through, including a cake-walk, pumpkin painting, fall crafts, pin the feathers on the turkey, and face-painting. We’ve been coordinating with the Lighthouse family event coordinator, Brandon, to make sure we know who is responsible for what and what we need to do before November 6th to be ready. It will be a really good opportunity for Lighthouse families to meet and talk to each other, and I know it will be a blast for the kids too.
I hope we see everyone at the pumpkin painting social tonight!!! Be sure to bring your artistic talent!
~Molly
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
First Day on the Job
Hello everybody!
Yesterday I went to Lighthouse for my first day of volunteering! And as you may think I got to spend time with the kids, that wasn't so much the case. As I only have time to volunteer at a certain hour I get to come when all the little kiddies are taking a nap. They are so precious! Until they wake up...Just kidding! But, I spent my time in the resource room organizing! Much, much fun.
The Lighthouse is moving onto new headquarters over Holiday Break. They are going to be downtown near South Street if you know where that is. This is a wonderful opportunity for them as they are pretty cramped in the little church they are located at now. Over the summer they also had to completely reinstate new staff members, therefore they didn't have a manager for quite some time. Over this time donations were still coming in and people giving them things for the kids to play with were helping and it was all going to the same place. The resource room. As I was talking to Dollie, our volunteer go-to-gal, she was describing to me the room. She told me it was a mess, but it was nothing compared to what I was in for. My mouth literally dropped when I saw the disaster of that room. So, as I sat, flattening out posters for them to put in the classrooms my job seemed like an impossible task. And the teachers get a thirty minute time a day to work in there. That's it! I barely did anything and I was there for an hour! But, with time, and with my other roomies helping too, I know we can clean that place up. Then, maybe then, we can play with the little ones.
We also have pretty much pulled together our fall festival. It is going to be held in the practice gym at Weiser on Saturday November 6, from 2 to 4 if anyone is interested in coming and seeing for yourself what we've helped put together! It is going to be wonderful. The girls and I have come up with great ideas for games and different booths that I think the children will really enjoy. Also it will be a great opportunity to get to know them better seeing as spending time with them might be a little limited right now.
Now, onto the next activity!! Hopefully we can get together a shindig after the symphony concert in December. We're still working on that one. But it's finally good to get things moving along. I feel so good about what we are doing and I know we are making a difference in the childrens lives and in the lives of the teachers and staff just by helping out. I hope everyone else's projects are going very well!
See you all tomorrow for pumpkin painting!
Your fellow swimmer babe (teehee, thanks Hannah),
Deanna Sorenson
Yesterday I went to Lighthouse for my first day of volunteering! And as you may think I got to spend time with the kids, that wasn't so much the case. As I only have time to volunteer at a certain hour I get to come when all the little kiddies are taking a nap. They are so precious! Until they wake up...Just kidding! But, I spent my time in the resource room organizing! Much, much fun.
The Lighthouse is moving onto new headquarters over Holiday Break. They are going to be downtown near South Street if you know where that is. This is a wonderful opportunity for them as they are pretty cramped in the little church they are located at now. Over the summer they also had to completely reinstate new staff members, therefore they didn't have a manager for quite some time. Over this time donations were still coming in and people giving them things for the kids to play with were helping and it was all going to the same place. The resource room. As I was talking to Dollie, our volunteer go-to-gal, she was describing to me the room. She told me it was a mess, but it was nothing compared to what I was in for. My mouth literally dropped when I saw the disaster of that room. So, as I sat, flattening out posters for them to put in the classrooms my job seemed like an impossible task. And the teachers get a thirty minute time a day to work in there. That's it! I barely did anything and I was there for an hour! But, with time, and with my other roomies helping too, I know we can clean that place up. Then, maybe then, we can play with the little ones.
We also have pretty much pulled together our fall festival. It is going to be held in the practice gym at Weiser on Saturday November 6, from 2 to 4 if anyone is interested in coming and seeing for yourself what we've helped put together! It is going to be wonderful. The girls and I have come up with great ideas for games and different booths that I think the children will really enjoy. Also it will be a great opportunity to get to know them better seeing as spending time with them might be a little limited right now.
Now, onto the next activity!! Hopefully we can get together a shindig after the symphony concert in December. We're still working on that one. But it's finally good to get things moving along. I feel so good about what we are doing and I know we are making a difference in the childrens lives and in the lives of the teachers and staff just by helping out. I hope everyone else's projects are going very well!
See you all tomorrow for pumpkin painting!
Your fellow swimmer babe (teehee, thanks Hannah),
Deanna Sorenson
Friday, September 24, 2010
Jessica here!!
Hey guys!
I'm so excited to be a part of this project with the summit program. So far it has been a great experience! ... Not to mention so nice having our own apartments :) ... but besides that we have all been talking with our partners at lighthouse and have been getting some great ideas for these next few months. I am really excited to get to start working with the kids and getting to know them.
As the others have probably talked about, we not only plan on helping them at the daycare, but also planning some really fun events for these kids and their families. They all seem so sweet and really deserve to have something fun to do with their parents. The people at lighthouse seem really nice and appreciative of all we plan on achieving this year.
The girls and I have been doing great together, we have had several movie nights and stuff where, I have to say, we make the best pizza ever! haha. It's been a lot of fun and it makes life so much easier to get up early in the morning for practice if everyone else in your apartment has to as well. So far, no one has overslept... haha. I can say from experience that I am very thankful they are here to wake me up! As for everything else, we have been respectful to each other and have had a lot of fun.
Andrew: I loved that we got to sit down for coffee with you! We all had a lot of fun and it was nice to get to know you and tell you more of what we plan to do in the next year!!!! Thanks so much for giving us this opportunity.
Ok... bye for now!!
-Jessica
I'm so excited to be a part of this project with the summit program. So far it has been a great experience! ... Not to mention so nice having our own apartments :) ... but besides that we have all been talking with our partners at lighthouse and have been getting some great ideas for these next few months. I am really excited to get to start working with the kids and getting to know them.
As the others have probably talked about, we not only plan on helping them at the daycare, but also planning some really fun events for these kids and their families. They all seem so sweet and really deserve to have something fun to do with their parents. The people at lighthouse seem really nice and appreciative of all we plan on achieving this year.
The girls and I have been doing great together, we have had several movie nights and stuff where, I have to say, we make the best pizza ever! haha. It's been a lot of fun and it makes life so much easier to get up early in the morning for practice if everyone else in your apartment has to as well. So far, no one has overslept... haha. I can say from experience that I am very thankful they are here to wake me up! As for everything else, we have been respectful to each other and have had a lot of fun.
Andrew: I loved that we got to sit down for coffee with you! We all had a lot of fun and it was nice to get to know you and tell you more of what we plan to do in the next year!!!! Thanks so much for giving us this opportunity.
Ok... bye for now!!
-Jessica
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The beginning of the Summit experience!!
Hey guys!!
My name is Tiffany and as you can tell I am a member of the Beacon Project. Things have been going really well so far in our apartment! Summit is amazing. It is definitely a privilege to live here, and I hope that after all our projects this year we will have done enough to have deserved the honor. Living with other girls from the swim team also makes life so enjoyable. I think that together we are going to get some awesome things accomplished this year.
I originally started thinking about living in Summit last year, after I had visited a friend from the swim team’s apartment here. I know it sounds bad but the original reason for my motivation was maybe not the best. I saw how nice the apartments were and decided that all the extra time and effort would be worth it. I talked to Molly, Jessica, and Deanna and we decided we would try to get in. Once we started thinking about everything more seriously, my cause for motivation to live in Summit changed. I began to see how rewarding it would be to actually volunteer my time towards a good cause. I have always looked at other people volunteering and respected them and everything they do, but I somehow always found an excuse about why I was too busy. I would volunteer for the odd thing here and there, but always found that I wished I could do something more. I realized that living in Summit could give me this opportunity.
Looking at the year ahead of me, I am excited for all of the possibilities that we are going to have. My group and I started to work with some ideas at the beginning of the year, and so far everything is falling into place really nicely. We have been meeting with our community advisor specifically on two main projects this semester.
Our first project is going to be a fall festival on October 23rd. We are hoping to use one of the gyms on the Drury Campus which will allow all of Lighthouse’s 50 or so families to attend and enjoy the festival. We are hoping to provide food, crafts, and some fun booths for the kids. Our goal is to give these families time to visit with one another, building a support group for themselves in the community. We set the plans in action today with a meeting with Lighthouse to organize the details of the Fall Festival. There is still a lot to be done, but it is looking great so far!
Our next project is going to be to organize an event where the Lighthouse family members can attend the Christmas concert performed by the Springfield Symphony. The plans are still in the works for this, but I am really excited because it looks like it is going to turn out really well.
Because I am an elementary education major I am hoping to learn a lot from this experience. I feel as though volunteering with the kids, and getting to interact with the families will teach me skills that I couldn’t learn sitting in a classroom at Drury. Through The Beacon Project I hope to gain knowledge that will help me in my field one day to be a more effective teacher.
-Tiffany
Deanna Signing In...The Second Time
Hey!
So I must have messed up my first post because it apparently, as everyone can see, didn't show up. I'm sure Molly has informed you greatly of what we have been up to recently in her post, bu I wanted to share a little bit from my side of Summit.
Things have been going really great! No roomie fights and our apartment looks wonderful! We would only expect the best for working so hard to live here, and it is the best! The girls had a meeting with one of the members of our Lighthouse program today to discuss everything about our fall festival that we are going to put on. We are going to try to see if we can even do it here on Drury's campus! Hopefully the kids and their parents will really enjoy seeing how beautiful it is here and how wonderful college life could be for them one day!
In other exciting news, we are hopefully going to get started with our volunteering soon! We have had some difficulties with getting in contact with them since Erica Harris retired but we have finally reached Deanna ( yeah! her name is my name!) and things are going really great.
Last night was so much fun, we had coffee with Wiemer at the Mudhouse. We talked and laughed for a little over an hour and got to know him better in the process. Not to mention had some delicious coffee's and smoothies! So for all of you who haven't done it yet, get on it! It's awesome!
Well, I think that's about it for now. Gotta get started on other Summit related activies (homework...). See you all in class tomorrow! Have a great rest of the day!
Deanna Sorenson
So I must have messed up my first post because it apparently, as everyone can see, didn't show up. I'm sure Molly has informed you greatly of what we have been up to recently in her post, bu I wanted to share a little bit from my side of Summit.
Things have been going really great! No roomie fights and our apartment looks wonderful! We would only expect the best for working so hard to live here, and it is the best! The girls had a meeting with one of the members of our Lighthouse program today to discuss everything about our fall festival that we are going to put on. We are going to try to see if we can even do it here on Drury's campus! Hopefully the kids and their parents will really enjoy seeing how beautiful it is here and how wonderful college life could be for them one day!
In other exciting news, we are hopefully going to get started with our volunteering soon! We have had some difficulties with getting in contact with them since Erica Harris retired but we have finally reached Deanna ( yeah! her name is my name!) and things are going really great.
Last night was so much fun, we had coffee with Wiemer at the Mudhouse. We talked and laughed for a little over an hour and got to know him better in the process. Not to mention had some delicious coffee's and smoothies! So for all of you who haven't done it yet, get on it! It's awesome!
Well, I think that's about it for now. Gotta get started on other Summit related activies (homework...). See you all in class tomorrow! Have a great rest of the day!
Deanna Sorenson
Summit in September
Hello everyone! This is Molly. Things have been going really well during this first month in Summit Park! For starters, I love our apartment, and I love living with my roommates. Our apartment feels so homey, and it is wonderful to live somewhere other than the dorms. We are getting things ironed out with the Lighthouse, so hopefully we will get to start volunteering sometime next week.
Besides the obvious reasons of free laundry and a dishwasher, the main reason I wanted to live in Summit Park was for the volunteer opportunity. I always did a lot of volunteer work and community service in high school, so I was disappointed in myself that I did not volunteer more in my freshman year at Drury. Summit seemed like a really good opportunity to ensure that I devoted some of my time to community service. Also, I wanted to get involved in the Springfield community. On a college campus, I feel like it is very easy to get caught up in the “college life,” and forget that another world exists outside of Drury. Last year, I tried to get involved on the Drury campus, but I think I did a poor job of getting involved in the area.
Through this leadership experience, one of the things I hope to do is to learn more about the Springfield area and simply become more involved in it. Just through researching for our Summit presentation last semester, I learned a lot more about Springfield and the opportunities it offers for its residents. Additionally, I am still undecided about what I want to major in at Drury, but I am leaning toward something in the field of education. By volunteering at the Lighthouse Child and Family Development Center and experiencing constant contact with children, I hope I will be able to decide if an education major is right for me. Since we are planning on coordinating a couple of events for the children and families at Lighthouse, I would like to gain better organizing and planning skills throughout the year.
Today, we met with the director and family outreach coordinator at Lighthouse to discuss our Fall Festival we are planning to hold at Drury on October 23. We came up with a lot of great ideas for games and activities that will encourage the parents to come together and establish social networks with fellow parents at Lighthouse. It will be a lot of work to plan this event in a month, but we are all very excited to get started! We will keep you posted on the organization of the Fall Festival!
-Molly
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Hello!!!!
Hello Fellow Summiteers!!!!
Just testing out the blog. We hope everyone else is doing wonderfully on their projects. We just wanted to see how this good stuff works. We had our first advisor meeting tonight which made us so excited about everything that we have planned! Hence, the start to our blog and an awesome year working with Lighthouse and Summit. "Yeah, hence!"
Peace and Blessin's, Peace and Blessin's,
The Beacon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)