Service Learning Spring 2006 Ben McFarlin

What is so important about community service?  One of the most rewarding aspects of community service is being able to help out your community.  By participating in community service you have a chance to meet other people.  Volunteering is very rewarding and everyone should volunteer at least once.

Bethany Presbyterian Church  I chose to do my community service for my church, Bethany Presbyterian.  There was a work day on the weekend of the 8 th which I was unable to attend, so I went and worked some over the Easter Weekend to help clean up the grounds for Easter Sunday.  I also helped build pieces to a set for a play the youth is putting on as well as help with the annual Easter egg hunt.  Lastly I took part in a talent show our church held to raise money for the youth to go on summer conferences.

The Talent Show  The Youth group has been going on summer conferences each summer for about 7 years now; and the church always holds fundraisers to help the youth out with paying for the trip.  One of the ways in which the church raises money is to hold a talent show and the people who come to watch donate money afterwards.  My brother, one of our friends, and me played a medley of three classic rock songs consisting of Let It Be, American Woman, and Free Bird.  My Friend played piano, my brother was on guitar and I played the drums.  There were 12 acts in all and I think the talent show raise around 400 dollars.

The Easter Egg Hunt  Every year since I can remember my church has held an Easter Egg hunt the Saturday before Easter for kids ages  I got to the church in the morning before all the kids and helped hide all the eggs.  Also if any kids needed help I was there to help them and point out eggs that some of the kids might have missed.

Set for the Church Play  For the past two years the youth group has put on a play for the Church members to raise money for the summer conferences they go on.  This year the scene is set in Paris and they needed to have these Eiffel Towers made for the tables for which the people will be sitting.  There were nine towers I had to make and; though they were small they were quite difficult to put together.  Each tower took about 30 minutes.

Cleaning up the grounds  The first project I had for cleaning up the grounds around the church was to clean out and fix a birdbath fountain monument that was placed in memory of one of our members.  The pump in the birdbath fountain quit working and so the water was just at a stand still and the water had gotten really nasty and algae had covered the fountain completely.  It has not been taken care of in a while and so I volunteered to clean it up and try and fix the pump.  I used Clorox and brushes to clean the algae and took and the pump which my dad and I fixed, and then filled the bath back up with water and turned on the pump and its nice and clean now.

Cleaning up the grounds (continued)  The next thing I did to help clean up the grounds was to walk around and pick up any trash that was around.  There was not too much trash to pick up but there was some spread out over the Church property.

Cleaning up the grounds (Continued)  The last grounds work I did was to spread around hay.  There are a lot of bare spots around the church and we had some hay brought to the church which I spread out over the bare spots.  This was the hardest and longest project that I had to do.  Though it was hard, once I was done it looked very good.

Community Service  The church was very appreciative for all of the work that I did: cleaning the birdbath, picking up trash, and spreading hay.  The youth was also appreciative of the Eiffel Towers I built for the set.  Everyone had fun at the talent show and really enjoyed our music.