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| Amanda's college a cappella group "The Poor Richards" |
When I started at YSA as the Grants Manager two months ago, service and volunteering were not foreign ideas to me. Growing up as a member of the Girl Scouts (woohoo troop 6320!)
ontinuing my service through high school and college, I pretty much thought I knew all there was to know about service: Do it. It helps people. It will make you feel good. What I didn’t realize though, was how much I was underestimating the potential of what service can do and how much I was overestimating my understanding of it.Due to the fact that going through everything I’ve learned during my time at YSA would be a total snooze fest for you, I’ll just pick my favorite. I used to think that service was something you had to make time for, separate from other activities and hobbies. I learned, however, that I was utterly wrong. YSA’s ADDService campaign helped me understand that some of the best service happens with things you are most passionate about. ADDService to dance (not for me… I’m far too clumsy). ADDService to chemistry (again not really my thing). ADDService to stamp collecting. You get what I mean. Once I realized this, I felt empowered to find places to ADDService in my life and even discovered that I already had!
At my small, liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, the a cappella singing group was my thing. I loved every moment of it, even the hours of rehearsal in our windowless dungeon of a practice room. Every spring, my group would get a bunch of elementary school kids from Lancaster Public Schools and teach them about singing, arranging, performing, and we always had a ball. Afterwards, we would put on a concert with them for their school. Doing this took no more time out of my day than regular rehearsal would have and had 16 times the benefit (one for each student we taught)! It’s a great feeling to know that there will always be enough hours in the day for volunteering if you just ADDService to your everyday life!
