I had the opportunity to spend a week as a college leader, helping take 38 high school students from all over Oregon down the west coast performing community service projects. We started off in Portland OR, and made our way to Bend OR where we worked in the Civic Center and helped clean out the place and better prepare it to feed and provide showers for the homeless. From there we went down to Shasta CA where we volunteered in the Shasta National Park, cleaning the premises by picking up garbage and racking up old leaves. We then went to Sacramento where we visited a retirement home and talked and shared stories with the elders there. Our final destination was in San Francisco doing a Save the Bay Project where we weeded out bad plants.
It was such a great experience to see so many young adults giving up a week of their summer to better their surroundings and make a positive difference. One of the old ladies at the retirement home approached some of the other college leaders and myself and said that it's kids like this that give hope to our future; it was so humbling and touching to hear someone who has seen so much in a lifetime say something like that.
These students grew so much just in that one week; they were really able to see how just simple little acts of kindness and community service can make such a big difference.
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