Personal Narrative: Volunteering At Kids Zone

For over two years I have been blessed to be involved in teaching young children. When I had begun to help at Kids Zone it quickly changed into a transitional period. The administrator, Melissa Cooke, moved to Michigan six months after I had started helping and so it was being run temporarily by the Fisher family for a few months. Unfortunately when Melissa left, the entirety of the volunteer staff stopped volunteering. It was up to the Fisher family and I, five unqualified people to lead the Kids Zone program every week. We kept the program floating until our current Administrator, Walter Rodgers, was hired and quickly changed gears altogether. Within months we had increased our weekly attendees from 15-20 to 40-50 children. By spending my

I was given a position of power, I went from a random volunteer that would show up on Saturdays and float around to help watch the children during the program and slowly got to where I am now. Now I am a core team member that attends a conference call meeting on a weekly basis. I am contacted when a decision needs to be made. I am Walter Rodger’s right-hand man. I lead song service as well as lead the teaching program, having often times been left in charge when the Administrator is gone for the week. I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t stuck around with Kids Zone. I learned that I had potential, I simply had never seen it. As soon as I was given responsibilities I began to blossom into a hard working. Because of my experience volunteering, it is now second nature for me to go above and beyond, to offer help when I know I can offer it.

The dictionary defines community service as volunteer work intended to help people. Through experience, I have learned that volunteering is much more than that. Seeing others smile because of your actions is rewarding; there’s a sense of pride and happiness that only helping others can evoke. Emigrating from Russia in 2002 wasn’t an easy task; however, Church in the Valley accepted us as one of their own. Strangers we hardly knew gave up their time to help us and it was this experience that sparked my interest in casting my