where volunteering and my favorite hobbies collide

the two deer I painted in the mural

First thing's first. I have 5 more hours to add to my list of volunteering. Recently, in honor of Earth Day, I was able to participate in an awesome project organized through my company. We went to a local middle school where about half of the volunteers spent time planting trees and gardening and the other half worked on a mural on the school's wall with the help of a local artist. So much fun. Having planted trees for Volunteer Day before, I opted to paint since it's also one of my hobbies.

I will say, I was a little nervous I'd mess up since it was going to be a permanent fixture at this school, but the artist who drew out the general lines of the mural was awesome and gave great tips on the overall look that he had in mind. He drew the entire thing out as a tribute to local plants, animals and water sources in our area and then gave us some photographs as inspiration.

After working on a small section of sky, I was into it and decided to jump in further. I grabbed some paints and decided to tackle the nearby deer in the painting. Not going to lie, I love how they turned out! The artist actually sent me an email recently and told me that the section of mural where my deers are is the teachers' favorite and he said he may contact me in the future to help him out on future mural projects in the area. So awesome!

It was a lot of fun in general, combining some of my favorite things: art, nature and volunteering. Not to mention that it wasn't too shabby getting to spend half of the work day outdoors painting. :)

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Continuing on with the volunteering trend - last night was The Big Show for my group of Young Storytellers (http://youngstorytellers.com). So so so much fun. It's always such a great experience seeing the kids we work with each week have their scripts come alive on stage by so many talented improv actors. Each script is SO different, which just goes to show that individuality starts early. It's such a nice break from my regular schedule to spend an hour each week with an awesome group of 4th graders. The stuff they come up with is nothing short of inspiring at times.

A cool thing for me was that my mentee from last semester and the one I currently have are best friends. This is just completely by chance since we are paired up at random, but it's pretty adorable. The boy I had last semester came and helped his friend (my mentee now) make his poster advertising his show and hung out with us before the event began. He stayed and cheered his buddy on and it was really cute.

past and present "mentees" working on show posters

Another thing that never ceases to amaze me though is how very, very different boys and girls already are at this age. I mean, these kids are only 10! The boys are writing about action and sports and monsters and wars...while the girls are writing about relationships and animals and school scenarios. Both fun and unique in their own way, but oh so very different. Not to mention that the girls show up on performance day in cute dresses with their hair brushed and the boys come looking like they just rolled around in the dirt. I made my kid wash up in the bathroom before I let him put grubby fingerprints on the freshly typed scripts I'd made. ;)

I oddly am always paired with a boy and since our selection process is randomized, this is just coincidence. I kind of love it though because it often alters how I think about things because I want their story to be their own. If I'm trying to help my kid work through an idea that he has, I definitely prompt him to go with his gut because my initial responses to his ideas are in no way similar to what he eventually comes up with. And that in itself is pretty awesome I think.

Case in point: the setting is a snowy day in LA.
- Brittney thinks this must be a major plot point, I mean, blizzards aren't standard practice around these parts and so that must mean something crazy is about to happen.
- For Justin on the other hand, it is plainly obvious that the snow is just setting and provides food for his main character...a snowplow.

If I had brought my own experiences and knowledge to the table, I would have influenced his story and by doing that, changed what turned out to be a sweet and humorous story. Granted, I will say I helped him add some conflict and solution to his script, but only by asking him questions that led to his eventual decisions as the author.

Anyway, point is, so fun to go out of your comfort zone every now and then.

You'll always be surprised what you can learn when you do.

even if you have nothing else to give, you can still give your time

A pic I took of one of my kids' scripts.

I've always been very passionate about volunteering. I love helping people of course, but there's something more than that. When you take a couple hours out of your day to do something for someone else, you're completely transported. I don't care what the project is. The feeling is the same.

For instance, I volunteer every semester for the Young Storytellers organization (check it out here: http://youngstorytellers.com). For that one hour, every Wednesday that I leave my job and go to an elementary school and work with a child, I don't think of myself or my responsibilities even once. What a gift. It's honestly rejuvenating. The program itself is awesome - I work with my "mentee" for about 7 weeks on a script of his/her choosing, work with the other mentors on teaching the whole group of 10 kids about storytelling and writing in general and then at the end of the program, we bring actors to their school who in turn act out all of the kids' screenplays. It's truly amazing to see their faces at the end when they see their imaginings come to life on the stage. I gain new insight on things just by being surrounded by kids, get to spread the love I have for reading and writing, and simultaneously I help a child realize his/her potential. How amazing is that? I love it and have been with the organization for 2 years now.

Which brings me to accounting for one of the things on my 30 before 30 list - at least 50 hours of volunteer work this year. Even though it's much more than the hours I'm going to allot myself here, I think for this session of YST, I'll say I get 10 hours of service. An hour a week, plus a few hours for "The Big Show" and not to mention the typing and editing of my kid's script at the end.

So for now, I'm 10 hours into my goal. Not too shabby and I have a bunch more projects in the works. Next week begins another so I'll keep you all posted!

In the meantime, get out there and volunteer! No matter what you choose to get involved in, you'll never be sorry you did. And, if you ever need help getting started or need an idea of what to do, feel free to ask me! I love this kind of thing so I'm more than happy to help.

One tip to get started: think of the things you like to do. Do you enjoy gardening or working outside, but live in an apartment and don't have a yard. Be good to yourself then while at the same time helping the environment. There are all sorts of tree-planting organizations out there (I know, I've done it before and it's awesome!) or maybe find a school that needs volunteers to help with their gardens. There are all sorts of projects out there for all kinds of people with all types of interests. Who ever said volunteering had to be all work and no play.

Have fun with it and be kind to your community. :)