Key Club service as of January 5, 2010

I attended the Monday meeting and Hyanna asked for volunteers to stay after on Tuesday to help take down the Christmas decorations that still lingered around the school, and I volunteered to help. I didn't know how much would need to be done but I wanted to help because not many people were volunteering and I want to do every little bit I can to help the group as a whole. I wouldn't have minded taking down all of the decorations myself and when I showed up on Tuesday outside the room we meet in after school ended, no one else was there. I was standing there waiting for ten minutes and I wondered if anyone else was going to come and help and eventually, they did.

The items that needed to be taken down to the basement were;
- All of the decorations in the front display window in Ms. Messersmith's room (consisting of wrapped boxes and other wooden decorations, the artificial Christmas tree in addition to lights)
- The Christmas cards made by French students that were on a bulletin board the front hall, as well as the wrapping paper covering the bulletin board
- All the decorations in the very front of the school where the chairs and tables are, which were lights and boxes.

As a group, approximately ten of us got everything taken down and brought to the basement and stored in boxes within a half hour, and I did the most I could to help - I did about ten trips to the basement and carried as much as I could each time, and I continually asked Ms. Vari if she needed help with anything else. I enjoy helping other people, and contributing to a greater good and that is one of the things that Key Club has given me the opportunity to do. If something needs to be done I like to offer to do it to eliminate other people's workloads and to also get the job done and it wasn't until recently that I felt this way. I used to only look out for my own interests, and seeing how tired I was that afternoon, a year ago I would have thought ' there are enough people volunteering that my presence shouldn't matter, I can just leave and go home and nap', but tired or not I made a commitment and wanted to follow through. I also appreciate how we got the task done as a group in a relatively short amount of time and teamwork was not one of my strong areas until high school, so I appreciate the opportunities I have to work collaboratively with others to get a task done.

I plan to offer my assistance in the future wherever it is needed and continue committing myself to the group, and I hope that I will become closer with some of the other Key Club members - none of them are close friends but we all have a common interest - community service - so it might provide opportunities to build friendships in upcoming months.