Essay: Supporting a selected community service

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
What began as a small project to support Friends of Youth by one DECA student soon become much more through inspiration and the support of the entire Mercer Island High School (MIHS) DECA chapter. Friends of Youth is a non-profit organization that supports children, teens, and young adults in various aspects such as youth homelessness, substance abuse, unstable at-home situations, mental illnesses, and teen parenting. This organization predominantly strives to provide housing for hundreds of people ages 0-24, as well as a myriad of support systems for the other difficulties previously mentioned. The initial goal of this project was to raise awareness and support for an underappreciated charity that provides a great deal of service in the Greater Seattle Area. This venture soon blossomed into an incredible outcome with immediate and long-term benefits to Friends of Youth. This project consisted of 4 sub-categories, all with the goal to aid the young beneficiaries of Friends of Youth.
This project was full of support from MIHS’ entire DECA chapter, other students, staff, and administrators, which was one of the essential components for the goals to be accomplished. The road to accomplish the goals and provide the resources and financial aid to Friends of Youth was bumpy, however, with help from various students and faculty from MIHS and DECA, well above the set goal of items and money was donated to Friends of Youth before the new year.
Besides the tangible aid to Friends of Youth through financial donations and necessary physical items, a great service to this deserving philanthropy was provided by making sure every DECA member was well versed in the doings at Friends of Youth. I, heading the project, also made sure the entire student body and staff at MIHS was at least familiar with the organization. This not only increased participation in the events and fundraisers, but helped gain new support of the philanthropy for years to come. Posters were hung all over the school stating the impact and mission of Friends of Youth, announcements were read every morning for a week with the same message. I also gave a speech at a school-wide assembly attended to by all students and faculty educating them on pressing issues of youth right in our backyard, preventative methods for many issues, Friends of Youth’s mission, and ways to support the amazing organization. I then presented in every DECA affiliated classes: 4 Intro to Marketing classes, the Advanced Marketing class, the Accounting class, and the International Entrepreneurship class on Friends of Youth with an emphasize on the projects and fundraisers and how they could support this project and Friends of Youth. Through these various support methods centered around sustainability, I benefitted the hard-working organization for the holiday season and many more seasons to come while raising unparalleled awareness for Friends of Youth under 2 months.
There were several main components of this overarching project accompanied by the underlying goal of sustainability. The first fundraiser was a school-wide raffle for MIHS’ principal’s parking spot was a decisive success with $500 raised through tickets sales, surpassing the initial goal of $250.
Next, I focused on the DECA-only drive for books. Most of these books were wrapped and given as gifts to many of the recipients of Friends of Youth. The rest of the books were placed in “little-free libraries” that I made with fellow DECA officers. These communal, decorated books contain several books each for ages 0-24 stationed inside of the houses of Friends of Youth. This aspect was inspired by the goal for a sustainable impact towards Friends of Youth.
I then ordered 180 yards of fleece for the creation of blankets. Along with their housing communities, Friends of Youth has many overnight shelters. I was inspired to create fleece blankets and sleeping bags that can be given to those who cannot obtain a bed on cold winter nights. Despite many bumps in the road, I, with the help of the entire DECA chapter created a total of 87 blankets, surpassing the preliminary goal of 50.
Lastly, I approached family members and friends, and with a brief, informative description to each of Friends of youth, I collected a resounding amount of $400 dollars.
The various components of this project impacted countless youth in the greater Seattle area, by providing holiday gifts, impressive financial aid, blankets for warmth, and the immeasurable awareness from an island full of new found support.
II. INTRODUCTION
A. Historic background of the selected community service or charity
Friends of Youth was officially incorporated in 1951, by a woman named Iva Matsen and her husband, with the help of the University Congregational Church in Seattle, Washington. Mrs. Matsen saw the challenges her community was facing and was particularly alarmed with the spare amount and low quality of foster homes for at-risk youth. Friends of Youth then became a place for where young people could find someone to talk to, accomplish personal growth, and help to positively contribute to their community.
The first shelter of Friends of Youth was a rented ten-room house in a safe suburb of Seattle for elementary age girls and boys seeking temporary, but necessary support. This housing situation was soon upgraded into a rent-free house paid for by Mr. and Mrs. Griffin responding to an editorial placed in a paper by Mrs. Matsen. This was the first Griffin House, and the drastic support needed to push Friends of Youth in a prospering direction. Fifty years later, in 2001, the agency kicked off its largest campaign raising over $5.5 million for the Griffin House Campaign. There are now three Griffin Homes: The McEachern House, The Matsen House, and The Colin-Ferguson House. These homes are dedicated to the support are inhabited teens struggling with substance abuse, mental health illnesses, and unsafe at-home situations.
Friends of Youth also possessing a thriving Foster Care program. Not only do they house any in-need children and avidly search for permanent parents of guardians are all children ages 0-17, but they have a foster parent respite program. This program allows families who are unable to commit to full time fostering to take a child (or children) for up to 7-days at a time to provide necessary relief to parents taking care of multiple or difficult children every day.
In 1983, Friends of Youth began their short-term shelter foster homes and 24-hour crisis line. This program now consists of two 24-hour hotlines, and two shelters. These shelters are in Redmond, Washington (18-24 year olds), and Kirkland, Washington (7-17 year olds). These emergency shelters have beds, food, water, clothing, daily essential, and most importantly are a safe place for youth to obtain sanctuary from the dangers of a city at night or even dangers in their own house. In addition to these shelter, this is the New Ground Transitional Living House for youth adults who do not have a safe of stable place to live, here they can obtain career/educational guidance services and counseling. All 6 locations for shelter and housing for Friends are Youth are location in the Greater Seattle Area, King County.
Less than 1 year ago, the employees of Friends of Youth shocked Seattle with yet another brilliant addition to their program: The Safe Place program. How Safe Place works is business, non-profits, and community organizations are recruited and trained to became designated Safe Place sites. These sites (libraries, business, community buildings, or public buses all over the Greater Seattle Area) display a yellow and black diamond-shaped Safe Place sign. Any young person can enter one of these facilities, request help, and immediately be offered guidance and transportation to a Safe Place house where further needs can be obtained.
In addition to all of Friends of Youth’s wonderful housing options, they also offer support to children and teens in their own houses or counseling centers for various reasons. They possess substance abuse resources and trained professionals along with prevention services to many middle and high schools in King County. Lastly, they provide parenting resources to struggling parents with young children, especially teen parents, such as communal houses for up to 10 families to temporarily live in at a time.
Without the support of hundreds of donors, volunteers, friends, and staff throughout the decades, Friends of Youth would by no means be the powerful institution it is today. Friends of Youth has divided their support systems into three sectors: Child Welfare Services, Homeless Youth Service, and Youth & Family Services; all of which have sub-categories. The division is all follows:
Friends of Youth continues to grow into a prosperous philanthropy helping thousands of teens every year. Their programs are supportive of any teen in need regardless of culture, ethnicity, age, class, education, and sexual orientation demonstrating their commitment to bettering our society in every aspect possible. By focusing and aiding youth, Friends of Youth’s mission is accomplished by creating stable, safe, and healthy generations to come.
B. Description of the local DECA chapter, school and community
Mercer Island High School DECA Chapter:
The Mercer Island High School DECA chapter consists of 205 students in ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelve grade. The 8 DECA officers (6 Seniors, 2 Juniors) meet every other week on Wednesday morning to host meetings for the entire chapter. At these meetings, the officers educate newer DECA members on proper competition attire, role plays, written paper, and other DECA essentials. However, there is a serious lack of bonding within our chapter. With over 5 DECA courses: Intro to Marketing, Advanced Marketing, Accounting, and International Entrepreneurship, each with multiple periods, cohesion between our 205 students is difficult. Through various aspects of this project, I hoped to bridge the gap between young, old, new, and veteran DECA students.
Mercer Island High School:
Mercer Island High School has a total enrollment of 1,464 students in grades ninth through twelve. The school has over 40 clubs, and participates competitively in a myriad of division 3A athletics. MIHS is ranked 9th best school in Washington, which creates an environment of high achievers as the student body strives for success in every aspect. Our school moto is “Integrity, Innovation, Inspiration,” which are the three pillars all students attempt to base their accomplishments around. MIHS’ DECA is the school’s largest club, however many of the students uninvolved in MIHS’ chapter are unaware of what DECA at school is and does.
Mercer Island Community:
Mercer Island was founded between 1870 and 1880 by the Mercer family. The island located in between two large metropolitan cities, Seattle and Bellevue in King County, Washington, United States. Mercer Island is positioned in the middle of Lake Washington connecting to the two mainlands by Interstate 90. Mercer Island is a small, isolated community, with a population of 25,261 and just over 13 square miles around. Mercer Island is known for its prestigious education system and safe environment. With small two shopping districts located on North and South end of the island, Mercer Island remains isolated from surrounding cities providing a low crime rate.
III. CONTRIBUTIONS TO A NEEDED COMMUNITY SERVICE OR CHARITY
A. Purpose of project
This project served several purposes, the first of which was to support Friends of Youth’s three sectors through various fundraisers:
Another important goal of mine was to raise awareness and support of Friends of Youth with the MIHS student body and staff, especially the DECA chapter. Through this project, I also strived educated the student body on the prominent issues regarding modern teens that Friends of Youth deals with, and provide access to the Friends of Youth resources to members of MIHS’ student body.
Further, I wanted to add a component of sustainability to each aspect of this project to make sure I created a lastly impact. Moreover, I wanted to bond the DECA chapter with a common goal and give every member pride for partaking in such an impactful project. Lastly, I wanted to bring much deserving attention to out outstanding DECA chapter at MIHS. Through this project I hoped to raised awareness among the entire student body and staff through the various promotional methods of the fundraisers.
B. Rationale for selection the community service or charitable project
Seattle has the 3rd highest homeless population in the entire United States, with 13% of the count representing youth and young adults. Over 3,600 students are reported homeless as of October, 2018. Many are devoid of shelter and support. Born and raised in the Seattle area, since I was young, going into Seattle entailed driving past countless tent cities and seeing many beggars holding cardboard signs. My mom and I have worked in food banks, shelters, and other temporary support institutions and seen the poor state of many children and teens. Friends of Youth uniquely provides continued support to anyone entering their shelter, an aspect that immediately appealed me to support them. From the second I learned about Friends of Youth’s mission to provide “shelter, outreach, drop-in, case management, housing, education, employment and behavioral health support” to any, and all homeless youth in need, I knew I wanted a portion of this project solely designed to support homeless children and teens, thus the blanket portion.
In addition to Friends of Youth’s outstanding work to aid the persistently growing homeless youth population in Seattle, they are devoted to helping foster children, an under recognized problem prevalent in large metropolitan cities, such as Seattle and Bellevue. There are over 10,000 children in foster care in Washington, a large percentage located in the Greater Seattle Area. In the spring of 2016, I worked with a head social worker, Kendra Miller, at the Department of Human Health Services to find prevention methods for siblings getting split up in foster care. This research and work sparked my passion for helping children in foster care. Friends of Youth excels in supporting children in foster care and has an extremely high rate of success when placing children with foster parents.
Lastly, Friends of Youth incessantly supports young people with mental health illnesses; a subject that is near to my heart after witnessing many friends and family members struggle with assorted mental health illnesses. In addition, I am the membership chairman of Islands Friends Guild, a junior guild that supports the Mental Health Unit at Children’s hospital, through my work with these children, I have been sufficiently exposed to extremely prevalent issue regarding youth and mental health illnesses. The stigma around mental health illnesses today is appouling due to the considerable amoung of teens and children struggling with conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, & more. 1 in every 4 chidren under the age of 18 struggle with some crippling form on a mental health disorder. In addition to the struggles of these conditions, they lead to many of other detremental problems, causing suicide to be the 3rd leading cause of death for those ages 10-24.
The dejecting homelessness I witnessed throughout my childhood, my personal experiences fighting for youth in foster care, along with my passion to drastically reduce and support mental heath illnessess all made Friends of Youth the ideal organizaiton for me to support. Their unwavering dedication to providing aide and stability to children, teens, and young adults in these specific areas was truly motivated me to benefit and support their inspiring cause.
C. Description of the benefits of the project to the chapter and chapter members’
understanding of leadership development, social intelligence and community service
Benefits for Chapter
As previously mentioned, the staff and students, although supportive, are highly unaware of the endeavors and triumph of the DECA students. One of the goals for this this project was to increase awareness of DECA among people at MIHS. As well as make uninvolved staff and students at MIHS connotation DECA with amazing accomplishments, such as this project.
My announcement for Friends of Youth and this DECA project supporting their cause to the entire student body, staff, and administrators at an assembly shinned an extremely positive light on our school’s chapter. After publicizing the results of the book drive, raffle, and blanket making event, the principal of MIHS had me write a separate, shorter, paper on the purpose, details, and result of this project. This paper was published in the principal’s monthly report to the Mercer Island School district and presented at an important staff meeting. The attention brought to DECA around our school with the faculty and other officials signifies a progressive associated between MIHS and the DECA chapter and its student.
The awareness brought to the DECA chapter did not stop with Mercer Island school officials and staff members, but continued to grow among the impressively large student body of MIHS. The buzz marketing strategy I implemented during the raffle ticket sales resulted in countless discussions in classrooms, hallways, lunchtime and more regarding a DECA student’s project to raffle off the principal’s parking spot. As one can imagine, finding parking for students at a school of 1,600 is extremely difficult, the prospect of acquiring a parking spot in the very front of the school appealed to many. Therefore, students listened to announcements and read the flyers regarding Friends of Youth and the raffle. Now, the majority of the student is well acquainted with DECA and some of our doings at the school. This is essential to our chapter, seeing as it will most likely upsurge participation in MIHS’ DECA chapter for years to come as well as increase support from MIHS students in future projects.
Benefits for Chapter Members
The fundraisers for Friends of Youth taught MIHS’ DECA students that even small contributions can make a huge difference. All 205 members of our chapter participated in at least one of the fundraisers, whether it was buying a raffle ticket, donating a book, making a blanket, or spreading the word, this project would not have possible without their support. After speaking to each DECA class about Friends of Youth’s mission, the chapter became invested in supporting their amazing cause. The concept of giving back to kids their age with problems they could easily sympathize with sparked great interest and support. In addition, the sheer amount of donations in such a short time truly emphasize the students of MIHS’ chapter’s deep understanding of how incredible the effects of community service are on both ends.
The leadership development of my peers was incredible, as this project progressed, many students began spreading the word of the raffle or blanket making event to their classmates, helping me put of posters, and even bring in books from their friends. Every member of MIHS’ DECA chapter became invested in this project and excited to see the outcome, the overwhelming support of my peers exhibits how dedicated they became not only to support Friends of Youth, but their peer, showing true development in collaborative skills.
Due to the thorough education my peers received on the problems those at Friends of Youth face, MIHS’ DECA chapter became well versed in what they were supporting. Hearing about problems that those your age face is extremely difficult, but essential to developing sufficient social intelligence as a teenage living in a fortunate area. Hearing about children and teens less than 3 miles away from safe Mercer Island facing problems such as homelessness, severe poverty, crippling mental health issues, addictions, instable family situations and more truly opened the eyes of many of my peers. Education was a crucial aspect to this project, I am proud to say that every DECA student at MIHS learned something and now is more cognizant of the problems other face and the world around them.
IV. ORGANIZATION AND IMPLEMENTATION
A. Organizational chart, member involvement and job description
The following chart(s) outline the basic hierarchy of roles for each of projects I completed:
Raffle:
Without the support and help from MIHS’ principal, Vicki Puckett, this project would not have been possible. Her role in the success and completion of the raffle was essential. Not only did she provide give up her parking spot for a week, but she aided me in the planning and follow-through for this aspect of this project. Valerie Perrine handles all of the finances for MIHS, including student-run fundraisers. The raffle involved a lot of communication between Mrs. Perrine and myself to sort out proper rules in handling cash and other procedures for the raffle. Lunches were there main place where tickets for the raffle were sold. Noah Hendleman and Claire Chatalas, two MIHS DECA students, sold tickets during lunch A, and Maddie Dodds, another MIHS DECA student, and I told tickets during lunch B for an entire week.
Blankets:
My role in this project included ordering the fleece, submitted numerous requisition and purchasing forms, and orchestrated the creation of the blankets and more. The first step was contacting the MIHS finance department, driving to their offices and approving the purchasing of 180 of fleece, with the help of our advisor, Shannon Tapp. Next, the DECA officers, myself included, helped plan the event to make the blankets. However, this event was unable to occur (see section IV. B. for more details), so I choose and trained 5 DECA students to be leaders of their classes when the blankets were being created, over 150 DECA students helped to create these blankets.
Book Drive:
My role in the book drive entailed decorating and bringing in boxes, advertising the drive, then taking home the books and categorizing them. MIHS’ DECA chapter advisor, Mrs. Tapp helped organize the collection of books. Every day, one marketing student reports on DECA events, I asked Mrs. Tapp to have this student give a daily reminder about the drive during all marketing periods. The “little free libraries” were made by myself.
B. Description of the project and documentation
Description of Project
The first fundraiser I completed was the raffle for MIHS’ principal’s parking spot. Handling money in a high school is a difficult process, requiring support from many adults. This project started off with several meetings with, MIHS’ principal, Mrs. Vicki Puckett, the head of the ASB funds office, Mrs. Valerie Perrine, the DECA advisor, Mrs. Shannon Tapp, and myself. We discussed the proper procedures for handling cash, appropriate promotion methods, and various details for the raffle. An important component to the raffle was in addition to being able to buy raffle students with cash, students could provide their 6-digit student ID number, and use money from their student account to purchase a ticket. Since many students do not bring cash to school this was extremely beneficial. The $5 raffle tickets were sold December 3rd through 7th, one week, during passing periods, lunches, and before/after school for one week. Announcements were made over the school intercom the week prior to ticket sales and the week of, over 30 flyers were also hung around the school giving details of the raffle. The week of the December 10th through 14th, Principal Puckett generously donated her coveted parking spot in the front of the school to the winner of the raffle. This winner was announced at the school-wide assembly attended to by all students and staff, where prior to the winner being announced, I gave a speech describing the mission and work of Friends of Youth in order to educate MIHS on the importance and impact of this incredible philanthropy. The $500 raised went directly to Friends of Youth and was used for essentials in the Youth and Family services department of the organization.
I then began the blanket making night, a chapter-wide evening meeting for all DECA students to attend to make fleece tie blankets, watch a movie, and get DECA competition prep from our officers. Planning consisted of a great deal of communication between school officials, DECA advisor, and the DECA officers. This event starting out incredibly successful, the selection and purchasing of the 180 yards of fleece went smoothly, reserving a room at the school and acquiring 2 chaperones was also a simple task. I promoted this blanket making night, by hanging 10 flyers on the doors of each DECA classroom, with information of the night, I went into every DECA class and presented the details of the event; movie night, with popcorn, and making blankets for homeless youth in Seattle. I even got the DECA teachers to add extra credit on a separate project for those who attended the event. The DECA officers and I planned to hold an official mini-meeting before starting the movie, giving essential tips for DECA competitions. The event had lots of interest and a promising turnout. However, 4 hours before the event, Mercer Island was struck with a dangerous wind storm, causing all after school activates to be canceled, including the blanket making night. I was left with $500 worth of fleece bought with DECA funds, and a promised deadline to Friends of Youth, and no idea how to get these blankets made. Our advisor and I quickly troubleshooted and I hosted blanket making at my house, I sent out last minute messages to friends in DECA, and posted an announcement in the official MIHS DECA Facebook group informing MIHS’ chapter of the change in location. Over 20 DECA students showed up to my house at on Thursday night to make blankets. We were able to cut all of the roles of fleece into fabric sections. However, some students were unclear of the dimensions and instead of cutting blanket-shaped squares, cut rectangles. The easy solution was to turn these rectangles into sleeping bags, rather than blankets, leaving on shorter side of the fabric untied, so children and teens could go inside the blanket. After this Thursday night, about 1/4 of the blankets/sleeping bags were finished. The next Friday morning, I brought the rest of the fleece to school. Luckily, all Marketing 1 students were watching a film during class, their teacher/advisor to let me take the first 5 minutes of their class to explain how to make the blankets,
and use the rest of the class creating blankets in pairs. By the end of the day, all but 10 blankets were made, these were quickly finished by members of my family on Christmas. In the end, 87 tie blankets and sleeping bags were created, surpassing the already ambitious goal of 50.
Next, I began to advertise and promote the book drive for ages 0-24. This consisted of giving a presentation for all 7 DECA affiliated classes: 4 intro to marketing classes, the advanced marketing class, the accounting class, and the international entrepreneurship class. I placed boxes for each period to place their book donations. I also created posters to be hung all around the DECA classrooms promoting the drive. Not only did these poster provide essential information about the drive itself, but they described the mission of Friends of Youth, in yet another effort to educate the
DECA chapter on the importance of this truly exceptional philanthropy and encourage donations. To increase participation, I created a competition between all of the DECA classes; the class that brought in the most books got donuts on the last day of the drive. The drive was an outstanding success, with 323 books donated for all ages.
C. Impact goal for the beneficiary
Soon after selecting Friends of Youth as the philanthropy I wanted to work with, I met with Terry Pottermore (CEO of Friends of Youth) and Toni Dondero (Volunteer Manager of Friends of Youth) to discuss how I could most effectively and efficiently help support their organization through this project. Despite the previous research on Friends of Youth, I learned a great deal more about the charity and was able to base this project on their specific needs.
Ms. Dondero informed me of the desperate state many parents are in during the holiday season. The lack of ability to give and receive gifts creates a low morale and spirit among young parents and children. Thus, prompting the desire to create a component to help give holiday gifts to youth and parents alike. The goal with the book drive was to collect books that could be distributed at the shelters and housing compounds. I wanted books for small children and tweens, so their parents could give them as presents, but I also wanted books for teens and young adults to add some pleasure into their already difficult lives.
Ms. Dondero also explained how desperate many children and teens are in the cold winter when they are without shelter. One of her goals for me was to find a way to keep more children and teens warm during the winter even if they could not secure a bed in a shelter. Ms. Dondero said that many schools organize clothing drives for Friends of Youth, so I decided to do something different. I then set out on the mission to make sleeping bags and blankets for those who are turned away from shelters. The Friends of Youth shelters are legally only allowed to take in 20 youth per night, sometimes during the winter they get over 50 children, teens, and young adults approaching their facilities, the majority of which are forced to be turned away, I decided to make these sleeping bags and blankets so that they could be given to those unable to acquire a bed for cold night.
Ms. Pottermore explained to me the difficult expenses that their organization deals with every day. Along with paying for necessary accommodations like water, electricity, heating, rent, and more at their houses, they must provide necessary items such as underwear for children, feminine hygiene products, laundry detergent, and other items that never get donated. Pottermore explained that the Youth and Family Services sector of Friends of Youth is not sufficiently funded, and cash donations are essential in addition to tangible goods to keep their houses running and sufficiently provide for the children, teens, and young adults entering their facilities. I knew I had to come up with an aspect of this project that would directly acquire money to be donated to Friends of Youth. This transformed into the raffle for MIHS’ principal’s parking spot, which was a resounding success.
Lastly, something both Ms. Dondero and Ms. Pottermore placed emphasis on was the concept of creating a sustainable project. They told me that many groups, students, and other looking to support Friends of Youth simply create one drive and call it good. However, I knew I wanted to make more of a lasting impact. Therefore, I added several components of sustainability to this project, most of which were centered on raising awareness for their cause and educating my peers on the relevant topics of distress Friends of Youth supports. The goal was to educate the entire school through announcements, flyers, and a speech at an assembly. In addition to that, I wanted to individual present to each DECA affiliated class on Friends of Youth and how they could support me and the philanthropy. The intended outcome from this concept of raising awareness and educating was to provide Friends of Youth with support in the future and potentially prevent students at Mercer Island High School from ever needed the support of Friends of Youth (or similar organization). Which is ultimately the goal of Friends of Youth, to decrease the number of children, teens, and young adults who require help, by setting them up for prosperous futures.
V. EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Evaluation of the project
In less than 2 months, 323 books were collected, 87 blankets were made, 4 “little free libraries” were built, and $900 were raised by the Mercer Island High School’s DECA chapter, all of which was donated directly to Friends of Youth. I could not have been more pleased with the results of the fundraisers. The incredible participation and support by MIHS’ DECA chapter along with the fact that ever goal was surpassed demonstrates the overwhelming success of this project. Not only were the quantitative goals met, but the goals for educating MIHS’ student body and increasing awareness and support for this project within the DECA chapter was a decisive success. As a result of this project, Friends of Youth now possesses countless more supporters of their mission, surely due to benefit them in the future. My peers learned the benefits of community service, and the incredible difference that one DECA chapter can have on hundreds of lives. After the first fundraiser, the raffle for MIHS’ principal’s parking spot, I gained a true understanding what it feels like to do be part of a foundation with such a meaningful mission. This project hopefully not only changed the lives of hundreds of children, teens and young adults benefitting from Friends of Youths care, but members of MIHS’ community as well, I am so grateful to have played such an important role in something so much bigger than myself. I cannot begin to express how impactful it was seeing the employees, volunteers, and recipients of Friends of Youth’s faces when I was able to bring in my donations and a check. The gratitude I received is incomparable to pride I felt being able to make such a huge impact for such an important cause. Overall, this project was a resounding success, I foresee and hope that with the suitability mission proves successful in future as I continue to work alongside Friends of Youth.
B. Impact of the community service of charitable project
The impact this project had on Friends on Youth was far from minor. The three main aspects of this project each benefitted one of the three pillars at Friends of Youth: Homeless Youth services, Youth and Family services, and Child Welfare services. The 323 books that I collected are now safely with countless children, teens and young adults. They served as a gift or many, a bit of holiday spirit for children and parents alike. Thought the majority of books have already found permanent owners, many of them rest in “little-free library” books that can be found in each house or community area of Friends of Youth. Although books seem merely a simple joy to most, to some, they represent a prospect for education, one of few things designated purely for enjoyment, and for some, purely something to call their own.
The $900 raised, from the raffle and additional donations, supported Youth and Family Services by paying for the less flashy, however equally necessary needs of hundreds of people. The money was put towards cleaning supplies for youth moving into transitional housing, a couch for one of the newest houses, and daily essentials, such as food and various toiletries to last several months. For some families, knowing that there will be food on the table, and not having to worry about buying toilet paper, soap, and feminine hygiene products is a great stress relieve, something I am proud to have contributed to.
The 87 blankets and sleeping bags made can now be found either in shelters in Seattle or on the back of what would have been a freezing child or teen. The impact 87 blankets can make in a city with temperatures reaching as low as 20 degrees during a winter’s night is indescribable. The fleece used for these blankets and sleeping bags was extremely high quality, thick, warm, and durable, made to last through several difficult seasons. Now, 87 children, teens, and young adults previously devoid of enough warmth for the night can sleep with some comfort, physically, and emotionally: knowing there is someone out there supporting their cause. Each packaged blanket included a personal, genuine note, wishing the best of luck to its future owner along with other words of encouragement and support.
C. Recommendation(s) for future project
A recommendation for a future project would be for the students of MIHS DECA to host a “babysitting” for the children at Friends of Youth. This group of children would include foster kids, runaway kids, kids living in the houses of Friends of Youth for mental health reasons and the children of teen parents; to alleviate young parents struggling for one night. Although ambitious, this project would truly open the eyes of the sheltered DECA students at MIHS.
This project would entail a movie night with snacks and games, most likely at MIHS, where our entire DECA chapter would chaperone the kids and organize the event. Not only would the students acquire essential business skills from planning such a large-scale event, but these would be exposed to the real world and real struggles. Mercer Island is a very fortunate community, a mere fraction of MIHS’ students struggle with poverty or instable family situations. I cannot express how impactful visiting Friends of Youth’s houses and offices and meeting many of the children there was to me. I would hope that this event would allow DECA students to undergo the same experience as I did when I was exposed to difficulties many children face at Friends of Youth first-hand.
Furthermore, this event would be a mean a great deal to Friends of Youth and all of the adults supporting their cause. This babysitting night would provide foster parents of a respire, as well as teen parents, and give children struggling a night replete with deserving fun. Overall, any project for Friends of Youth needs a committed team, a deep understanding of their history and mission, and a passionate dedication to improving the lives of the less fortunate.