"To move forward you have to give back. And to me, that is the greatest lesson of life." - Oprah
Alternative Thanksgiving Break: Atlanta, GA
Thanksgiving break 2011, I decided to go on an Alternative Break trip rather than going home back to Connecticut for the week. Through JMU, nine students and a learning partner took an eight hour bus trip down to Atlanta, GA to volunteer at Cafe 458 and CareerWorks (two non-profit organizations available to help the homeless population in the area). Over the week, we volunteered as servers, helped in cooking and preparing meals, painted, assisted clients with internet job searching, worked in the clothing closet and more. We also decorated over 250 holiday bags for the clients over the week. Within Atlanta, a city with an extremely dense homeless population, I was influenced to take what I have learned over the week and bring it back to the Harrisonburg community.
Gap View Ranch and Kennel
"Welcome to Golden Retriever country!" Gap View Ranch and Kennel is a premier Golden Retriever breeder of Central Virginia. They have over 70 pure bred Golden Retrievers that they house on their 100 acres of land in the Shenandoah Valley. Unfortunately for these dogs and pups, they are unable to get the amount of attention and walks needed due to the lack of volunteers and high quantity of dogs. Throughout the past two years, I have volunteered at Gap View, giving walks to the adult dogs and socializing the small puppies. As a dog lover, this is more of a treat for me. For Delta Sigma Pi, we have also incorporated Gap View into a semesterly community service event for the entire fraternity to attend. Socializing the dogs and giving each dog enough exercise is crucial to the success of breeding and creating well-rounded, healthy pups for families to adopt.