Thomas Wyrick

I believe that the skill I helped develop were my interpersonal skills talking to strangers. Usually I tend to stick to myself when attending community service events, but at this event I attempted to put a more social foot forward. So, I made a much more concerted effort to talk to the guests and other volunteers. Trough this I met a very nice man named Dennis who imparted rather good advice on how I should proceed within my professional career.
My service helped me better understand the environment that I was serving by being more active and vocal with the guests. I met many mothers who were trying to get by or had fallen or some hard luck within their lives. I also met a military veteran in the rehab clinic, through this it has shown me that individuals within this community are not necessarily here due to their own faults, but rather the environments that they are put within.
As stated above I met Dennis and many of the guests. This will aid me when I return to help again as building a repour with the guests is what the programming leads are looking for. By meeting and enabling relationships we can make the stays for all of the guests much more hospitable, and aid them in their path of recovery.
My service contributed to the goal of the organization by being charitable, friendly, and feeding those who are need. The Room In The Inn Organization looks to house disadvantaged families and individuals within drug rehabilitation clinics. By providing sincerity and an ear to listen to, it helps all of their paths to recovery by treating them how they ought to be treated, which is as normal people.
My unexpected challenge this time through was releasing just how much I struggle to start conversations. While I can meander my way through introductions and general topics at hand, when it comes to relating with others and keeping topics of discussion flowing I blank more often than I like to admit. I tried to counteract this by not pressuring myself to think so hard about what to speak to the guests and other volunteers about, so I just said what came to my mind and that was usually good enough to warrant decent conversations.

I furthered developed my skills to suppress my emotions in order to achieve the task at hand. Prior to this service event I had visited my friend in the ICU hours before. I was rather shook up about it, but I had a task to do, so I focused on it. It was rather hard and I don't wish to expound upon it to deeply, but it took all I had to keep my focus on the objective and hand, while not letting my emotions get the better of me. For this I believe I now have a stronger understanding of my emotions.
I further learned about the community in which I was serving by talking to the guests about their lives and experiences. It was refreshing to have some genuine conversations about how they were all doing, learning where they came from, who their families were, and why they were here. It helped me grow my empathy for these people and beloved organization.
These relationships that I made with the guests will inspire and encourage me to come back and volunteer again. By expanding my pool of knowledge and understanding of some of the guests I had yet to talk to, it let me build even more empathy for the people I was here to serve. It also reminded me of my mission at play, and reinvigorated my efforts to help these folks as I was actively seeing their progress.
I do plan to return to volunteering at this organization. As stated above, by meeting some of the guests I had yet to introduce myself to it helps for me to better serve and grow my own unique connections with all of the guests. These connections are crucial as they allow me to better serve all of the guests and act as if it is capital I have invested into this organization, so it is giving me a reason to come back.
My unexpected challenge during all of this was just how emotional I was. It was a rough for the prior reason listed, but I put my head down and tuned it all out for two hours. It was good for me, it gave me something to do and take my mind off of it all. Now I know that helping others when I feel sad or at my lowest is a good coping mechanism for myself that was genuinely helpful. Helped me take out some of my anxiety and stress with a positive mechanism rather than sit around and worry.

Through this experience I helped develop my networking skills. While I was at the event there was a group of track athletes from the University of Memphis. I did not know them, but I know an alumni who was on the team, so I asked them if they knew him. Unfortunately, they came in to the program a year after he graduated, but it did provide a launching point for us to all have a discussion. Through their I learned their majors and now when I see them walking around campus I say hello to them and inquire about their days.
My service impacted my understanding of social issues as the majority of the kitchen volunteers I was working with were other EL volunteers. Through this, I now understand that the EL program provides an army of volunteers for our surrounding community, and with less than two hundred people in our program, you would think we have a lot more just from considering how big of an impact we all have made within our own organizations.
My new connections were the student athletes I met who were on the track team. It's not every day that I get the privilege's of interacting with our very busy student athletes. I appreciate my conversation with them as they are all extremely dedicated to not just their academics, but in everything they do in life. Simply put, they are some rather interesting people to talk to.
My service contributed to the mission and goal of the Room In The Inn Organization by providing a sense of community for families who are facing homelessness and those who are undergoing drug rehabilitation. By talking to the guests, giving them the time of day, and showcasing our acts of service by feeding/ cleaning up after them, we helped create a much more positive environment that they need in order to help rehabilitate themselves. Pair this with the fact that there are children within the building and it helps provide the kids with an environment within which they can grow.
The unexpected challenge I did not expect to face was that we ran out of food rather quickly. Because of this we had to reheat some leftover pasta very quickly to ensure that all of our guests had a meal to it. It was very stressful seeing the food slowly run out as more and more people came to eat dinner, but thanks to the quick thinking of our chef; we were able to feed everyone. Granted, we did reheat too much pasta, but I suppose too much food beats the alternative of too little.

This experience has influenced my future career and educational goals by reminding me that I need to spread the word to individuals within my local communities about all of the good work that is occurring at this facility. By educating my peers about how good people can fall on harsh times and that there is an entire community dedicated to helping get these people back on their feet, it will help expand this network of help, and ultimately aid our beloved city. Professionally I was informed that many businesses can partner up to sponsor events that The Room In The Inn holds. These events provide fundraising opportunities, which are vital for the furthering of the programs they offer are mostly funded through private and small state funded grants.
This experience helped shift my views further into the belief that in order to help fix our city and aid our fellow Memphians it will take all of us. While you should not expect someone to volunteer at every available opportunity as individuals must take care of their own personal matters first, everyone has a couple hours a month in which they can give back and aid their fellow man. By donating a couple hours here, a couple dollars there, and remaining consistent with small acts of service, I believe that this could create a compounding effect of help that can truly elevate our fellow community members.
The relationships that I have made with the guests provide me the reason to keep coming back. They inspire my future involvement by allowing me to see first hand at just how powerful and helpful this organization is. I see mothers caring for their children, children being fed, those undergoing addiction becoming alleviated of their afflictions, and so many more positive effects of this organization. Seeing progress inspires me to come back as it makes me feel as though we are actually accomplishing something.
I do plan to continue volunteering at this organization. The reason for this is I love seeing progress being made on a daily basis with the folks we are serving. Individuals area finding the independence again thanks to the meals and sense of community that is provided each and every day. Personally, I want to be apart of that change and bettering of these folks lives. I have yet to see any other charity that I have worked with accomplish nearly as much and so soon in their four year history.
I would change how wrapped up I got in my tasks this go round and not focusing on the guests as much as I would have liked to. I got stuck on dish duty for the most part while also having to keep an eye on the boiling pasta water. While I do understand the need to monitor boiling water and an industrial dish washer very carefully, it took away time I could have spent interacting with the guests and other volunteers. Next time I might ask for a more social job, but I will serve where I am needed.

This experience helped strengthen my problems solving abilities as this was my first time back to the clinic in a couple months. While not too much had changed the did replace the dinner time chef and because of that some of the kitchen protocol had been altered. For the most part, I solely volunteer within the kitchen, so having that routine altered was a bit of a shock, so I had to rely on my fellow volunteers to inform me about where the new utensils were, what time we would be serving food, and a plethora of other subjects. Through this endeavor, I became a much more flexible cook and server, while also learning when I need to take a backseat in my leadership roles.
This was a rather humbling experience as I saw some familiar faces that were still in the rehabilitation clinic and family ward. While the objective is to get these people back on their feet, properly clothed, fed, and moved into more permanent housing, it put into perspective just how arduous of a journey that can be. That is not to say it should be viewed as entirely depressing, but rather it shows the resolve of the volunteers and those who are in recovery.
I worked as part of a team who combined to cook and serve the meals. This was very helpful as up top I made the statement that kitchen protocol had changed. Thanks to the patience and mentorship of my fellow volunteers they aided me in my transition to the new protocols, while also ensuring I was not left walking around dazed.
The organization supported and guided me by providing me the opportunity to work with some exceptional volunteers. Thanks to their impact I now know the new protocol and can help operate the kitchen by myself if need be. They also provided the food, facilities, utensils, and washing equipment, that would become necessary to accomplish our objective.
I would tend to believe that my service did align with my personal values and beliefs of helping those that are less fortunate than myself. The men and women who live at this clinic are exceptional folk who have merely fallen upon hard times. I believe that their is good faith when you aid those who are in need of a little bit of help, and that is what I believe I helped accomplish with my fellow volunteers.

Within my career, I hope to work for an organization that recognizes the value that the Room In The Inn brings to its own community, or at the very least an organization of similar merit. I hope that they would also either donate or hold volunteering opportunities, to showcase that engaging within our community matters. I learned that the community I was serving was very appreciative to many of the things I take for granted, such as meals, bedding, and heat. It has re-shifted my gaze to being appreciative of the necessities within life. I made a new relationship with a lady who worked for Amazon that informed me that in her free time she volunteers at local kitchens because Amazon will match her community service with a dollar amount that Amazon will give to charity. It was rather inspiring and has led me to research further employers within my industry that hold the same practice. My service contributed to the mission of the organization by being hospitable, kind, and feeding good people who just needed a little help. What I would change about my approach was I was rather timid that day. I could have done a better job socializing with the guests, but I will do better next time.

This task challenged my problem-solving ability by having me work with complete strangers in order to cook meals that I have never cooked before for people I have never met. It was a lot of patience combined with trial and error, along with effective communication between my fellow volunteers. It changed my perspective of my role within the community by showing me that I need to become more engaged in philanthropic endeavors. When talking with my peers it is very apparent that they do not understand just how underserved some of our community members are, and they are not aware of the resources that can be used to aid these members of our community. These relationships affected my future involvement by influencing me to come back over an over. I appreciate that the staff and workers genuinely care about the service they are providing. The organization supported us by providing the food, utilities, and utensils, it was just up to us to cook and deliver the meals. The unexpected challenge I faced was I could not figure out how to work the industrial dishwasher. Being someone who considers themselves rather handy with technology and then struggle with a dishwasher was humbling.

I improved my hospitality with the guests of the facility by being welcoming, showing interest upon what was occurring within their lives, and showing a willingness to understand who these folks are as individuals. My impact informed me that there is still much to be done within our community when it comes to helping members who are struggling with housing, drug addiction, and financial issues. This work needs to be done via community outreach and acquiring government funding. I worked as part of a team, it was a very good experience as it allowed for all of us to only have to complete a handful of tasks in order to feed the rather large group. I do plan on continuing to volunteer here as I see a direct impact in the aid that we provide to these people's lives every time I volunteer to feed people here. My approach would change by asking more questions. A decent amount of the time I get lost or confused within the kitchen as I do not cook for industrial amounts of people usually, so I would ask for more help on understanding what certain procedures are happening, or how certain equipment functions.

This experience changed my educational goals by opening my eyes to just how much help some individuals within our community, and just how little I know about other resources within my local community. This experience changed my belief of what my role is within my community by giving me the opportunity to see how disadvantaged some of my fellow community members are, and how there are outlets that I Can utilize to help others. These relationships will influence my future involvement by incentivizing me to come back and help again. Both the staff and guests are just wonderful. The organization supported and guided me through this opportunity by having a staff member guide all of the helpers within the kitchen, This ensured that everyone was being utilized, while also working effectively. The only challenge I faced was working with people who were much younger than myself. They were very good at helping, but the age barrier made it a tad challenging to communicate with them at times, so we all just slowed down and acted deliberately with our actions.

This event challenged my problem-solving abilities in the realm of figuring out how to feed an industrial amount of individuals and also taking the time to slow down to talk to your team members and the people you are feeding. My perspective changed for my role within my community by putting into perspective just how many people in my local community are effected by homelessness and drug abuse, while also just how little our state and local governments underfund these resources. The relationships I have made while attending this event will inspire me in the future to ask my friends and family to join me in the future to volunteer to not only help, but also meet some very friendly folks. The organization supported us by having a chef aid us in the kitchen by giving us objectives that we would then break down into smaller steps for our groups to complete. My service did align with my personal values and beliefs by lending a hand to my fellow members of the community in order to help them get back on their feet.