Local Community Service Day

I come home every day tired.  Every day.  I work with teenagers, and usually, I come home feeling great about them, but many days I wonder if what we do where I work is enough.  Yesterday, I had the priviledge to work with a whole bunch of Parkville High School students who committed themselves to the day for service to their community.  We called it the Parkville/WalMart Community Service Day, and we WORKED  :)

We had 31 high school students work for other people all day at the Towson WalMart.  They collected coats for kids and supplies for military care packages for military personnel serving overseas.  They did facepainting for both children and adults.  They promoted their school for it's magnet program, it's football team, it's Robotics Club, and all the various things that they are proud of about their school.  They gave out giveaways provided by WalMart, and giveaways provided by Parkville High School's Athletic Department and Magnet program!

It was really fascinating watching these students interact with the customers of WalMart, whether they were asking for donations of Coats 4 Kids, or doing face painting on the kids of customers.  We had a severely disabled woman come out and as she was leaving get caught up in the idea of the facepainting.  One our juniors came to her vehicle, and provided her with a painting of the "B" that she wanted on her arm.  Our student did it with a smile on her face.  When little boys danced around causing the kids' brushes to wiggle, none of the students allowed themselves to get upset.  It was part of the game.  These girls doing facepainting showed a maturity beyond their years, alongside of a playfulness that allowed them to paint and make even crying children happy!

Our students were at many spots inside WalMart, both upstairs and down.  They learned about their administrators as all 5 of them came to WalMart to help out and encourage.  The kids clamored to do facepainting on each of their faces.  When the administrators 'let' the kids do it, I think the students were flabbergasted - here were their top level authority figures at school, allowing themselves to have things painted on their faces!  By the students.  Being able to talk with their administrators in a non school setting, seeing Mrs. DiMino with her kids, and sitting with the others for hours at a time gave these kids a new respect for who their administrators were.  "She brought her kids!" said one student.  "I didn't think she had kids."  "They're really little, and so cute" said another.  Then when she told the kids to surround me as Fox 45 prepared to film some footage of us talking about what we were doing, she declined to be on-camera, saying that this was "about the kids, not me" their opinions of her flew off the radar.  Here was Mrs. DiMino turning down the opportunity to do be on TV so that they could be instead. That was cool!

What I don't think any of these kids really grasped as they had fun working on behalf of their school and members of their community was this.  They gave up a Saturday of doing whatever it is that these teenagers might have done - attending a football game, shopping, video gaming, walking the mall, getting a slurpee with their friends, going to their friends house, or just hanging out and chilling.  They gave it up for others.  And. . . they had a blast.  Pictures attached to this blog are of kids having fun.  They didn't get ugly ever.  They weren't mean to anyone else.  They didn't make fun of the disadvantaged who looked different from them.  They helped people directly.  One picked up a fifty dollar bill from the floor and gave it to the man she saw drop it. 

Parkville High School, I am so proud to be associated with you.  You should be proud of yourselves.  And Parkville, I invite you ALL to start becoming proud of the students of Parkville High School. Come see them at varsity and junior varsity sports events.  See tlhem at their concerts, plays and dance recitals. Learn about what their school has to offer at Back to School Night on September 15th. Support them as they try to raise money for their high school events.  Come out to support their events as they host events for the community.  Come and find out how wonderful the teenagers of Parkville High School are.  Then. . . tell more people how awesome YOU found them to be!