My Experience In Community Service

Community service has been an important aspect of my life since I was young. I have always loved helping others and working on local service projects. As I grew up, my passion for volunteerism did too. I began to get involved in existing community service projects, but also embark on my own.
I became involved in my church 's youth group, and I have gone on two mission trips. One my sophomore year to Roanoke West Virginia, and another this past summer to Pine Ridge South Dakota. Both of these trips were a week long, and consisted of fixing floors and toilets, repairing trailers, digging holes for and building outhouses, and doing any other work necessary. These trips were one of the greatest experiences of my life.
When I went to Pine Ridge, my group went to help in an area whose poverty level is second only to Haiti in the western hemisphere. It is typical that people have no electricity or running water in their houses. The people do not have much, but they were always welcoming and showed us great love and appreciation. The look on their faces, even when we had only accomplished small tasks, was so heartwarming, it

I was nervous to take on such a big responsibility myself, but when I checked the website and saw there was no chapters in Minnesota, I knew I had to do something. Within the first week I had already collected twenty dresses by word of mouth, and being active on facebook. I held my homecoming open closet and had ten girls head home, dresses in hand, knowing they would be able to attend their dance. Within the next three months I was able to collect over 50 dresses! I decided to hold the first prom open closet early, and had twelve girls come in November to pick out prom or formal dresses for school events. I would say I spend about eight hours a week on Becca’s Closet now. If it is a week of an event I usually spend about six more hours on a wednesday night, or saturday morning and