Youth Villages Holiday Heroes Workshop Volunteers

How did your direct service benefit members of the broader community?

Working with Youth Villages at their Holiday Heroes workshop allowed me to complete many tasks that provided service to members of the broader community, specifically hundreds of kids during this holiday season. The purpose of Holiday Heroes is to help with donations and shopping via wish lists provided by hundreds of youth that are less fortunate during this holiday season. Many of these children haven’t had a true Christmas, so our job was to provide them with that.

Describe your service.

If people-facing: Which population(s) did you serve? What was their reaction to you/your group being there?

If environmental: Which park/community did you serve? How do you think your service will benefit the plants/animals/people who utilize or reside in that area.

For my service, I worked with Youth Villages for their Holiday Heroes Workshop. While I did not come face to face with the children for whom I am providing service for, I did participate in many things that will take part in them having the best Christmas. In the Holiday Heroes office, there was an in-house room filled with tens of donated gifts for kids of all ages. We used the kids’ wish lists and shopped in the room, picking out gifts based off either what they liked or what they wrote specifically on the list. After picking out the gifts, we separated them and organized them by child and household, then we wrapped the gifts. This entire process was a special moment because I was able to serve children in homes and communities all over Memphis and provide them with a memorable Christmas. In addition, we are also helping the parents in the case that they are unable to provide their children with everything they want for Christmas.

3 additional reflection questions:

Did your service align with your personal values and beliefs? If not, how did you handle any conflicting feelings?
What did you learn about the community or environment you served?
How did your service contribute to the overall mission or goals of the organization or cause you were working with?

This service not only aligned with my personal values of serving but also contributed to the overall mission of the organization I was working with. One of Youth Villages many goals is to put the kids first always. One trait that stands out about me to most people is how selfless I am, which goes with why I like to serve. In many things that I do, I tend to always put other people first, which is the purpose of volunteering. For the Holiday Heroes workshop specifically, it brought me a lot of joy to put the kids first this holiday season and provide them with a Christmas they’ve never had before. Through this opportunity, I learned about the community I was serving in which there are many kids out there who are less fortunate. Because youth villages provide to so many children, I was able to see how many they serve, and the ways in which they go about serving them.