Reflective Essay: Why I Volunteer At Tanager Place

While going through nursing school at Mount Mercy I volunteered at several places. During my sophomore year at Mount Mercy I decided to volunteer at Tanager Place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Tanager Place provides a place for children to stay while they attend a variety of behavioral health programs that help them manage their mental health illness. Every week I would go to Tanager and help assist the leaders with the after school programs where we would create activities that the children could learn certain skills from. One day we played dodgeball and the children ended up realizing that teamwork is crucial and that everyone should be nice to one another because if they didn’t throw the ball to their teammates who were out they would be the only one left and their team would lose. Creating activities for the children made me realize how much we can teach them through a game and how their personalities can change within a matter of weeks. Volunteering at Tanager Place was a great opportunity for me to be able to help children overcome a stressful moment in their life and see how big of an impact I made in their life.

The Indian Creek Nature Center was building a new building down the road for the children and needed assistance in planting plants all around the building. While I volunteered there I helped dig up lots of plants and replant them around the building. I helped plant the plants on a large turtle that they had made out of dirt for the kids to be able to climb and sit on while they were there. Volunteering at the Indian Creek Nature Center was a great opportunity to help the staff because they were in desperate need and were unable to get much assistance from the community. I was so happy to be able learn how to plant plants properly and be a part of the landscaping process of the children’s learning