Week 6- 30 Hour Famine

This week I got to do something I have been waiting to do for a while now. I got to do the 30 Hour Famine. For those of you who have not heard of the 30 Hour Famine, it is a weekend when youth groups around the country go 30 hours without eating to raise awareness and money to fight world hunger.

It started on Friday at 12:00 p.m. and went to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.  At 6:30 on Friday I met up with my youth group for the rally. At the rally we sang songs and watched a movie called Journey to Jamaa. The award-winning short film, "Jamaa" is inspired by the real life story of Margaret and Derick, two orphaned children from Uganda who make the journey from Kampala to Kasangombe in a heartbreaking bid to overcome poverty and experience hope. The movie touched my heart and I’m sure it touched the heart of everyone there that night.

After the rally, the girls went back to Gwen’s house, and the boys back to Jon’s house.  Gwen and Jon are two of the leaders. At Gwen’s house really all we did was get out our sleeping bags and go to bed, but the next morning was more fun. Instead off eating breakfast we just had orange juice because you can have juice and water, but that’s it. Then the guys came over. We talked a lot about the famine and the video we had watched the night before. That’s truthfully when I started to feel hungry, but like last yearI just have to get through it. You forget about it and before you realize it, you don’t even realize you’re hungry. 

Later, we went to collect cans for the local food pantry. We froze out there, but by the time we were done we had collected over 200 pounds of food.

Then… we went to the food court. It always amazes me how your sense of smell seems to be so much stronger when you’re hungry. The food smelled amazing! But of course, we couldn’t eat it. When we looked around we say how much people had piled on their plates. They probably had enough food to feed three people and then through out half of it! It makes me feel so guilty whenever I throw out even just a little food.

The final thing we did, eat tacos. Every year now, when the famine is over we eat tacos. I’ve never had tacos that were so good.  When we were done we had collected over $1,600 and over 200 pounds of food. This money will feed over 127 kids and their families for a year in Africa.  I love how much I learn from the famine every year, and every year it touches my heart. I’m so glad for all the people who participate every year and make the famine possible.

http://jamaa.worldvision.org/about/the-film.html- Description of "Journey to Jamma"

Week 5- Forward Stride

Going into this week I knew exactly what I was going to do. Unfortunately, those plans fell through. I was going to volunteer at this great food bank called Helping Hands. At Helping Hands I would have bagged food for people to take home. The event was supposed to start at 6:30, only some people got there at 6:15. When my friend Hunter and I got there at 6:37 they were already done.  So now I had a problem. It was Friday night, and I needed to volunteer before Monday. When I told my friend Megan that I needed to volunteer she came up with the greatest idea. I could come and volunteer at the barn where she rides.

Dee



Duckee



When we got to the barn we went to what’s known as the pink penguin hall. When we were there we swept the hallway. It was a long hallway. While we were sweeping I got to meet a lot of horses. One horse was named Duckee, she was really sweet and had the coolest looking eyes. Another horse I met, named Dee, was all brown and really tall. He ended up scaring me really bad when I was standing next to a window and he stuck his head out right next to me. I might have screamed, just a little… or a lot :). It took a while to get all the hay and bedding swept up, but when we were done it looked really good.




The barn Megan rides at is called Forward Stride.  Forward Stride is a great organization. Not only do they offer riding lessons for all ages, but they also offer therapeutic riding. Therapeutic riding helps people improve their sensory integration, gross and fine motor skills, proper posture, independence and social skills, self esteem and more. I loved helping out at Forward Stride and I hope that I get to again soon.



Duckee and me



Megan and Tigo











Week 4- Fundraising for the Famine



Last years clothing drive



This week I got to do something I have been looking forward to doing for a while. I got to start fundraising for the 30 hour famine. The 30 hour famine is a project that is taken on by youth groups around the country to raise money to fight hunger.  A child dies every ten seconds because of hunger. That’s nearly 8,000 kids every day. During the 30 hour famine we go serve our community (last year we volunteered at a clothing drive), learn about world hunger (we visited the Real Life Exhibit), and meet up with others in our area that are doing the famine. Oh and did I mention, we don’t eat. That’s right; we go 30 hours, a day and a quarter, without eating. It sounds really hard, but it’s not. We can drink water and juice, but that’s it, but when you are with others who are doing the same things, it doesn’t seem that hard. When we’re done, we all have a big dinner. It starts on Friday the 25^th, we eat lunch, but then we stop. We skip dinner, then breakfast the next day, then lunch, and then at six o’clock on Saturday, we eat. This was such an eye opener for me last year. Before this, I didn’t realize how much food we throw away, how much money we waste, and how cheap it really is to feed people. For thirty dollars a month, about a dollar a day, you can feed a child in Africa. This will be my second year doing the famine and so I am more excited than nervous this year, Last year I thought it would be really hard, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it, but I know now that I can do it. Last year I was only able to raise about ninety dollars, that’s enough to feed 3 children for a month, but this year my goal is to raise at least $100.00, and once I meet that, I’m going to up my goal to $150.00. I would love to be able to raise $180.00 to $200.00, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to. If you want to help me out you can at this link.



Visiting the Real Life Exhibit last year



 http://twv.convio.net/site/TR/30HourFamine/30HourFamine?px=1148858&pg=personal&fr_id=1310

Week 3- 3 Adults, 6 Babies, and Me

This week I did something similar to what I did the first week. I volunteered at my church, only this time in the nursery.  The nursery is only for newborn to 2 years. Once they turn two they have to go to the nursery because it can be really hard to deal with boisterous two year olds along with newborn babies.  This week we had a full house. Six babies! All under a year (except for one). Lucky for Gwen (who was running the nursery that week) and me, they were all really well behaved. I was surprised; there was no crying for more than about a minute. One little girl cried, but that’s to be expected from someone who’s only about three months old. Another little girl cried because she decided to flop over in her dad’s arms and hit her head on the chair, she was fine though, just scared her. Lucky for us, one of the fathers stayed and held his daughter the whole time because he could see we had a full house… or room. Partway trough, Katie, a lady from our church, came in and held some babies because she saw how many babies there were.



Winter riding a toy bike



                Of the six babies, I already knew 5 of them and had worked with them before.  One of them was Winter. Winter is the sweetest little girl ever! She’s 9 months old and Gwen’s daughter. I have known Winter since before she was born. Gwen is one of the leaders in our youth group and is a really good friend to all the girls. When we found out she was having a baby we were so excited. We have endless nicknames for her and all absolutely adore her. One of my favorite things to do in the nursery is help Winter walk around. She isn’t quite walking yet, but if you hold her hands and help support her she takes tiny little steps. I also love holding the babies, and just taking care of them. I can't wait until I get to help out again.