Serving with a Smile (LUNCH) at Room in the Inn (2023-24)

During my Serving With a Smile lunch, I helped set up a room for a baby shower. This benefited members of the community because I was helping set up a party for a new life. I served the residents at Room In the Inn who are staying there to not be on the streets with their families in the hopes to get back on their feet. I did not actually interact with the residents this time, I worked more administratively. The staff were very thankful that they had volunteers to help them set up the room. We had to move a lot of stuff so it would have taken them a lot longer to do. During my service, I learned that Room In the Inn hosts a lot of events for their residents. I did not know this before since I am usually downstairs in the kitchen. I thought that this is nice to know because it shows that the administrators are trying to make the place a comfortable space and celebrate their presence. I worked as part of a team for my service. This impacted my experience because if I were working by myself I would not have been able to carry everything out of the room and bring more stuff in. My experience would have been less positive since I would have been doing a lot of work by myself. Working as a team made my experience more positive because we were able to complete our tasks efficiently. .I plan to continue volunteering with this organization. I will continue because I like a lot of the administrative staff as well as the cook. I also enjoy serving the residents and possibly helping their day get better by serving them food. I like this service because you can see the direct impact while you’re doing the service since you aren’t working behind the scenes.

On April 15th I volunteered at Serving with a Smile. This time they actually didn't have us in the kitchen. We got to help move furniture and prepare for a baby shower! The people at Room in the Inn were appreciative of our service. During my time at this event, I got to improve my team working skills. I got to work as a team with Mikayla and a few other students. Personally, this impact helped give me gain some perspective on how fortunate I am and how much I enjoy helping others.

It was awesome.