Participants Wanted!

Overall I feel like we have already begun to shape our plans out for the remaining DU YAP. It’s been kind of a bumpy start with making sure we had enough volunteers, and then trying to get kids to come out to Drury’s campus, but overall we are happy with the program itself. Our volunteers have been so patient with us trying to get everything organized. We really do appreciate their help, and their continued involvement with the YAP. What we really need to accomplish in the next few programs is the number of kids coming out to the program. Our first week we only had one little girl show up, Abby, and then yesterday we had two little kids show up. They were four years and their names were Robert and Kia. They say they plan on bringing as many kids as they can next week, and we look forward to seeing them again. Even so, we still hope to bring in more kids for the program. We plan on re-calling some of the special need organizations of Springfield, and continuing to visit the elementary schools. Nevertheless, no matter how many kids show up we are looking forward to next week’s YAP!

                -Suzy

Steadily Growing in Numbers

Overall, I feel as though my group has accomplished a lot so far this semester. We are half way done with our first Young Athletes Program. For our next two sessions, I hope that we can grow in numbers. By the end of week four, having eight to ten kids would really make me happy. It would be even better if they would promise to continue coming to our Young Athletes Program next semester as well. Also, I hope to get to know some more of the local elementary special education teachers. Knowing them would allow us to further grow our program and network with local teachers. Accomplishing all of this would make this program really worth it to me.

          -Emily

Learning and Growing Along the Way

We just had our second week of our Young Athletes Program and it was as enjoyable and wonderful as last week! I really am enjoying spending time and helping these children learn and grow. Not only that but I am also learning so much from this program and I enjoy seeing the children learn and grow. Throughout the remainder of the semester I hope to personally learn more about the children, learn more about what I can do to help them individually and grow more as a leader and team member. In regards to our project, I hope to a growth in the program. Currently, this program is new to the Springfield area so it has been a challenge locating different avenues to find children. We have seen growth since the program has began and I hope to see this increase as the program continues. Well, that’s all for this week. Au Revoir.

      -Shelby

Working with Joplin and Our First YAP

On the 24^th of October, Summit residents were asked to accompany the Drury Smart mob group to Joplin, to render help on the tornado wiped out site. I heard about the Extreme Home Makeover’s plan to build seven houses in seven days early in the semester, and got very excited and was eager to participate but didn’t know how. Fortunately Drury was forming a club called the Drury Design Build, headed by Tracy Sooter to design a tribute park for all the volunteers who helped in all sorts of ways after the destruction cause by the tornado.

So basically I was on site working on other things, when the smart mob team showed up on Monday. They ran toward the site and started laying down sods. The park, which had a large amount of bare ground was covered with the sods in less than an hour! What the smart mob did was very impressive and appreciated by all.  That concluded my stay in Joplin.

3^rd November, 2011

We had our first Special Olympics program last Thursday. I was happy with the number of volunteers who showed up to help us but was quite disappointed that only one child came. I thought it was going to be an unsuccessful first day but as the minutes started rolling with Aby, (that’s the child’s name) the feeling of disappointment quickly disappeared. Aby was co-operative and got along with all of us. Although she had trouble concentrating, she tried hard to listen to us and do as we asked her to. It was a wonderful experience that I know I wouldn’t forget in a long time. At the end of the program, we had a very happy and tired Aby. We are hoping we would get a few more children show up next time and for that, we are planning to personally go to some schools and talk to the children and their parents. That way, we can express the importance of our project and how much we want to help them. So I am quite certain things would be better next time.

                        -Pema Wangzome

Go Drury!!!

When we were told that we would be a part of the Drury SmartMob as well as Extreme Home Makeover in Joplin, I could barely contain my excitement. The four of us came back to our house, and talked about how wonderful this experience was going to be. What happened in Joplin was terrible, and we were all chomping at the bit to get a chance to make a difference. The SmartMob experience was definitely one that I will remember for the rest of my life. Driving up, wearing my SmartMob uniform, and seeing the work we had to do seemed incredibly daunting. I wasn’t sure that we would be able to accomplish what they needed us to do. But, as we worked together, I was amazed at the impact we made. It started as a dust heap. Then, bam! By the end of the day it was a lush, green, garden that was inspiring. I really loved the SmartMob concept and I hope that I can help out again in the future.

Our Young Athletes Program had its first meeting on Thursday November 3, 2011. We had plenty of volunteers, luckily. The downside was that we only had one child this time. We hope to grow next week, and keep growing in our numbers throughout the semester. The one child that did attend was a joy to work with. We went with her pace. She enjoyed throwing balls and playing with the parachute the most. She was a very sweet little girl. Her mother came with her and we could all tell how close she was with her mother. When we were doing the activities with her, she kept looking at her mother and wanting her praise. It was very sweet. Our first night has definitely made me even more excited to find more participants and really grow this program. I love working with the little girl, and I can’t wait to keep working with more kids.

               -Emily Stebbins

HOLY SOD AND SPORTS!!!

Summit Leadership Park had many appealing qualities to me. I saw and still see Summit Leadership Park as being a great experience and a great way to get involved. I knew that being part of a community service project with a group my close friends would be a great experience, that we would have an enjoyable time, and that we would make an impact on the community. There are so many wonderful perks with being involved in the Summit Leadership Park and I am extremely excited for the upcoming year. Overall, I believe that Summit Park was the best choice for my sophomore year.

Through Summit Leadership Park I hope to gain a lot. Our Summit Group has chosen to work with the Special Olympics and are organizing, planning and instructing a Young Athletes Program. This requires a lot of hard work but the reward is far greater.  As an Education Major, this will be a great way to gain experience in working with children who have different learning types and styles. There is a high possibility that I will have students in my classroom similar to those that I am helping with this program. Next, I hope to gain experience in organizing and planning. I have never planned a project or program as large as this. Through this project, I will be working with people who have experience in planning and organizing such events and will gain insight from these people and from my personal experience throughout the year. Lastly, I also love being around kids and helping them learn and grow. I am hoping to gain great relationships with the kids I will be meeting and helping and am excited to see them learn, grow and have fun.

This experience will have a great impact on my life. With this project, I will gain insight and knowledge in working with children with special needs. This alone will have a huge impact on my future career and give me different viewpoints on my own life and my own strength and weaknesses.

Our project for Summit Leadership Park is with the Special Olympics where we will be doing a Young Athletes Program. This program is designed for kids ages three to seven to give them a chance to get involved in different sports before they enter the Special Olympics at the age of eight. So far, we have accomplished a lot in the planning of the program. We had a slight set back because of the Joplin tornado but we are now underway with the project. This has also been our only major struggle that we have had this far. We were able to meet with our Community Correspondent a few days ago and discussed many elements of our program. We now have volunteer forms and paperwork and complete lesson plans for our weekly program. We also decided that the first program that we will be doing would be a four-week program, which helps us fit everything into the busy fall schedule. We have booked the Weiser Gym for four weeks on Thursday nights for about an hour and a half. We also received some contacts for individuals that have experience in running the Young Athletes Program and contacts for places where can give us ideas of children that would be interested. All we need to accomplish now is contacting schools and daycares for children that would be interested and finding volunteers. So be on the look out for that!

Overall, it is going to be a great year and I am very excited!

                      -Shelby Hoover

Joplin Service and Our First YAP Night

            I have actually never been to Joplin before, so unfortunately I only got to see Joplin after the effects of the tornado. I have never seen the affects that a tornado can have on a city, other than in pictures or in the news. So when I arrived with a bus of 150 other volunteers I must say that I was shocked by how terrible Joplin was hit. Don’t get me wrong, I knew from the news that Joplin had been hit badly and that it really needed help in rebuilding, but being able to see it for myself was shocking.

            Arriving in Joplin nobody knew what to expect as we got off the bus. We ended up laying down sod around the Drury architecture student’s memorial site. It didn’t take us very long to lay it down, but there were times when we seemed to be getting in each other’s way. We then moved towards the playground area, where we again laid down sod, raked up rocks, and swept the sidewalks.

            Overall I felt like the concept behind the smart mob was a good one; however, I feel like we should have been told before hand the work that we would be doing. I think we would have been more productive had we not needed to go through an explanation before we did anything. Also, I don’t think there should be as many people at the next smart mob. I felt that a lot of the time I was just in the way. I would look around to try and find something to help with, but I would end up standing next to others who didn’t know how to help out.

            Even though there were a few things I would have changed about the smart mob, all in all I felt like we did accomplish something and that given the chance to do a smart mob again I would.

            As for our project with the Young Athletes Program, we just had our first night tonight (11/4/2011) and we had plenty of volunteers come out. However, we did not have very many children. We had only one little girl and her mother show up. The little girl’s name is Abbie, and it was really nice to be able to see her responses to the different areas set up. We had four different areas set up; they were t-ball, parachute, soccer, and an obstacle course. With it being our first night we didn’t really know what to expect, but I feel like it turned out pretty well. By the end of the night I feel like we accomplished in making not only Abbie smile, but we brought a smile to her mom’s face as well. Before they left Abbie’s mom assured us that she would be here again next week. We hope to have more kids by next week, and we plan on getting more by going and visiting the elementary schools in person to get the kids involved.  

                  -Suzy Bartek