12/5/2021 2 Comments Nearing the endMr. Barker told us at the beginning of this project that it would fly by. He reminded us to be conscious of planning and making sure we have the twelve weeks mapped out before proceeding to take action. I’m sure we all, in a way, doubted him thinking, “we’ll have plenty of time to do this”, right? This is something we certainly reflected on these past few weeks as we scramble to complete parts of our project. Though we had a clear idea in mind of what we wanted to do, it was more difficult than expected to meet together, write blog posts, go out and serve, etc. So, what are some things we’ve taken away from this? What might we do differently, if there was a next time?
The most obvious answer, planning. We definitely could’ve been more diligent about planning and setting dates of when we could go out to the community. While this definitely was one aspect we could’ve worked on, there are always the unaccounted things that don’t go as planned. For us, this was the delay in response from the homeless shelters or even the busy schedules to plan around. We still have yet to receive any notification from the homeless shelters about opportunities to serve, so looking back, it was a great thing to go “outside the plans” and take matters into our own hands. As weeks went by and we realized time was going by, we started to improvise and make plans ourselves to go out and serve. We found that while this was a school project, we made this something that we go and do without it being a “task”. If we were out and saw a struggling person on the streets, we might’ve helped that person, even if it was without other members of our group. It is something we enjoy doing and seeing people have a smile on their faces. The moral of the story, we were able to forget the plans and improvise at times when it was needed. We have certainly learned a lot from this experience that we can apply to future projects.
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11/28/2021 1 Comment Finishing touchesAs we come to an end, our group is mainly focusing on our final presentation. We had planned to give out Christmas cookies, but with only a couple of weeks left in the project, we decided we needed to finish the presentation. We hope to continue this journey after the 12 weeks, so we plan to give out cookies closer to Christmas time. Especially during the holiday season, everybody needs someone to remind them that they’re loved. We hope to be that someone to the people who may not have anybody.
This Wednesday we started working on making our presentation. We are making a slides presentation along with a video composed of vlogs we took throughout the process. We chose a simplistic slideshow with neutral colors. We thought that our project resembled something more peaceful than bold which is why we decided to go with a beige theme. The pictures included in our presentation are in a black and white edit. Our group thought it looked aesthetically pleasing with the color in our slides. We looked back at our previous blogs for information to write on our slides. For the video, we don’t have as much footage as we had hoped. Most of our footage would be considered bloopers. We didn’t want to video the people we were handing goods to because first, we didn’t have permission to, and second we didn’t want to give them the idea that we were only doing this for praise and attention, because we’re not. We also had struggles keeping the phone in an upright position. We plan to include a video of each time we went out so the video isn't too long. We also plan to make a bloopers video because we have so many funny videos. After we finish the presentation, we will decide who is going to present what. 11/21/2021 0 Comments Accomplishing GoalsDuring the process of this project, we have come face to face with multiple challenges. We first faced the challenge of not being able to find a shelter that would get back to us. When we decided to continue this project without the help of a shelter, we struggled to find people to give the bags and blankets to. We were upset at first because it was hard to complete our project, but we soon realized that this was a selfish thought. It’s a blessing that there aren’t many people that need help due to a loss of a home or job.
This week we handed out the blankets we had made the previous week. During our trips to hand out the blankets, we recognized some of the people we interacted with because we had interacted with them before. We had a mindset going into this project to connect with the people we come across, yet each time we were looking for new, different people to give to. One mother, who we had seen about three times during the process of this project, told us that she recognized us and is thankful for what we were doing. Our purpose was to be a light and form a connection with the people we interacted with. Though we struggled verbally communicating with them, we formed a connection by just being there. We accomplished our goal in a different way than expected. We handed out four of the six blankets. As the amount of time we have to complete this project nears to an end, we need to start focusing on the final presentation. Throughout this process we documented our progress by making blog posts and vlogs. Looking back on our blogs and vlogs will help us fill the slides in with information. We also plan to look at previous class presentations for inspiration. This week was full of progress as we completed out goal. 11/14/2021 0 Comments The Next Few Steps…More progress has been made moving forward with our project. Last week, we mentioned our plans to make blanket bundles to hand out to those in need. This week, we made those blanket bundles.
Previously we had made bags to hand out that contained food and hygiene products. We made six bags in total which ended up costing about $100. On top of that, we have to pay for gas to go to Winston to hand out the bags. Overall it cost quite a bit. Although it’s important to hand out the necessary supplies, we need to find a less expensive way to do so. We discussed ways to go about making the blanket bundles without spending much money. We concluded that we could take blankets that aren't being used at our house, and hand them out to those who need them. By doing this, we could save money while putting the blankets to use. The first step of this process was washing the blankets. We thought it would be necessary since the blankets were from our house. Next, we folded the blankets and rolled them up. We tied the blankets with ribbon to hold them in place. We all had some hand-warmers on hand that we put between the ribbon and the blanket. We forgot to print out the prayer cards for our food bags, so we printed them out to attach to the bundles. The prayer card reads, “I am praying for you. Here is a blanket bundle to warm your hands and hearts. Please know that I am praying for you. Know that nothing is impossible if you keep faith and trust God. Do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34”. We want to help people in more ways than one. We may see the people we help once or twice while handing out supplies, but they’re on our mind more than those few times. Some of the greatest ideas we’ve had were at practice or at church. We pray for the people we come face to face with and hope they find peace in the midst of their struggles. 11/7/2021 1 Comment Unexpected ProgressThis week, unexpected progress was made! Kadence went to Winston Salem to pick up some things and gave out the remaining bags to people in need. With already having the bags in her car due to the previous trip, she thought it was the perfect opportunity. The group has struggled finding time to meet due to their conflicting schedules. Because of this, Kadence decided to act on this opportunity. Unlike the previous trip to Winston, Kadence did not video this progress. She didn’t want to worry about videoing on her phone while driving. With having little done so far, this progress is exciting. It is also overwhelmingly exciting to bring joy to people in need.
Many hand out money to help those in need, but our group wanted to focus on handing out specific necessities. Food is always important, but what are some other things that are crucial that we may not think about? “My mom told me a story of a guy that she gave her dinner leftovers to. She walked up to him and sat on the bench he was sitting on. She handed him the food then had a conversation with him. The man shared that he was worried about the cold coming. He explained how the cold hurt his old frail bones.” Kadence shared. This story provided us inspiration for our next step in this project. Instead of making more food bags, we have decided to create blanket bundles with hand warmers. Like the food and hygiene bags we made, we will create six bundles to provide to those in need. We are inspired to communicate and connect with the people we interact with. Our group had discussed communicating deeper with those we come across, but found it challenging to do so in the busy traffic of Winston. We will need to discuss how we will go about this. We are excited to take these next steps in completing our project! 10/31/2021 0 Comments Taking Matters Into Our Own HandsAs many of the readers that have been following our journey may know, our group has struggled finding shelters that will accept our assistance. We have reached out to many, and heard back from none. Because the websites of the shelters haven’t been updated recently, our group wonders if shelters are even accepting assistance during the pandemic. Our group has felt lost and defeated as we have made little to no progress with the whole purpose of our project, connecting with the people. We even came close to changing our project entirely, but we decided not to give up. We have prepared bags that include hygiene products and non-perishable foods, but have been unable to give them out as we had hoped to go through this process through an organization. Because of our struggles with trying to find an organization that will get back to us, we decided to take matters into our own hands as we had first planned to do.
This past Thursday, our group decided to meet to hand out the bags we had made during Week 3. We gave out three bags in total. One was to a mother who was struggling, the others were to two men who claimed that anything helped. We didn’t see many people, which can be viewed as a blessing. We went into this hoping to form connections with the people we helped, but with being in a line of busy traffic, there wasn’t much time to do so. Although this hadn’t gone exactly as we had hoped, we’re thankful to be helping. In the following weeks, we hope to go out into the community as much as possible. We plan to give out the rest of our supply bags, along with blankets and hand warmers. We’ve also talked about making cookies to give out during the holiday season. Although we haven’t met our goal yet in forming connections with those less fortunate, we as a group have grown closer with each other through this project. 10/24/2021 1 Comment More & More strugglesLately, we have been struggling with understanding the meaning of why we are doing this, our overall goal, and how exactly we will be going about this in terms of giving our care packages on the streets, feeding the homeless at a shelter, or attending a coat/clothing drive and possibly collecting cans. As you can see, we have many options relating to how we could carry out the purpose of this project, yet, we feel as though we have gotten nowhere in the past two weeks which is the frustrating aspect of this.
Regarding the homeless shelters, we have reached out to about three and have gotten no response. We have considered sending follow-up emails and we will most likely go through with that just in case they didn’t see our inquiries or something of the sort. We created those care packages to hand out but if we feed the homeless at the shelter we won’t need the packages, therefore we created them for what? We are ⅔ of the way complete with this project and still have not interacted with the homeless like we wanted to. The coat/clothing drive would be held this month at a church whose name we have forgotten but of course, we will figure that out before we attend if we decide to. It would not be a bad idea to participate in the drive but if we want to, we have to decide soon before we miss out on it. Then again, our care packages would be useless in this situation because we wouldn’t need them for the drive. This is also not what we had planned to do in the beginning but we have to be open to change if we want this to work. Maybe we are all just set on what we had planned from the beginning that we aren’t willing to take what is being given to us. In terms of the care packages themselves, the easiest way to incorporate them into the project would be to ride around and hand them out to the homeless that we see on the side of the road at stoplights, intersections, etc. If we want to volunteer at the shelter, we could give the packages out whenever we aren’t doing anything else, that way the care packages aren’t just some dead weight. I guess we could hand the care packages out in any of these cases within our free time. Collecting cans and donating them would also be an easy thing for us to do in our free time that would eventually add to the overall project. 10/17/2021 0 Comments Finding a way around challengesWe have finally begun to make some progress moving forward with our project. These past few weeks have been particularly challenging and a little bit stressful for the three of us. We were still trying to find a homeless shelter to work with seeing that the other ones that we reached out to never got back in touch with us. We were also trying to decide what our overall end goal for this project should be. But, luckily, with time and thought we were able to work through this challenging time period.
Our issue of not having a shelter was solved around this time last week when Jordan told us that her mother is friends with someone who works with a homeless shelter. We are going to get in touch with her so that we can get started with the purpose of this project because we don’t want to run out of time. Throughout our struggles, we have learned that if we don’t do anything to make it happen, it won’t happen. We can’t sit and wait around for the homeless shelters to get back in touch with us. That’s why in the meantime, we put together our bags that we want to hand out and brainstormed ways to get in touch with a shelter. While at dance practice, Kadence came up with the idea that our overall goal should be to give out "x" amount of bags to the homeless. It’s a concept that we were overthinking in the midst of other chaos. We agree that it is so funny how an idea can hit you at the most random times. With that being said, we have six bags right now that are ready to be given out. We will continue to make more and we will discuss the amount of bags that we want to have prepared by the end of this project in order for a goal to be reached. Meeting these roadblocks and finding a way around them as a group has built all of our characters and taught us to do whatever we can to make this project work, even though it might not be going the way we planned for it. Follow along with us to watch our progress! 10/12/2021 1 Comment working the kinksWith week three of Genius Hour coming to an end, it has quickly hit us that this time is flying by faster than we thought it would. So, what did we do this week?
This week was a productive week in terms of reaching out to other homeless shelters, getting care packages done/put together for the future visits to the homeless shelters, creating a schedule, and working the kinks of our project. We began the week by discovering an organization that is more geared to the idea that we originally had, called Watchmen of the Streets. This Christian-based organization isn’t considered a homeless shelter because they go out as a group of volunteers and go to the homeless, pray over them, and interact with them more. We were thrilled when we stumbled upon this as this was more along the lines of what we wanted to do originally, not as much a homeless shelter. Their website and the pictures shared were incredibly uplifting/inspiring and we are hopeful this works out for us. This was also a great discovery because we have not yet heard back from Bethesda Center of the Homeless. With that being said, we inquired and submitted an application to volunteer. We are excited and hope this works out! As we began to look into this idea more, they suggested ways to get involved with their organization. This included making homeless care packages, making visits to the homeless camps, or praying for volunteers and ministers. We began thinking from there and decided to create prayer cards for the care packages. This led us to coordinating a time for us to go out and gather supplies for these care packages. We had a few scheduling issues because we are all busy and involved with different things, but Jada and Kadence were able to go out and buy supplies. They were able to find hygiene supplies and food at Walmart and Dollar General that kept them on-budget. From here, they created six care packages that had products such as various snacks, hand sanitizer, tissues, deodorant, wipes, gum, chapstick, etc. Despite our scheduling issues, we feel good about our progress we made this week and hope to hear from Watchmen of the Streets soon. 10/6/2021 5 Comments the next step...Today, we visited the website of the shelter that we are hoping to volunteer at, Bethesda Center for the Homeless. We entered an inquiry to set up a date to attend the shelter and feed the homeless. As of now, we are still waiting for a reply from them concerning availability and dates. We are crossing our fingers that everything works as planned.
When it comes to the productivity of our project, we have been a little concerned. There have been many roadblocks and difficulty figuring out where to start and what to write about in these blogs. We decided to start by calling the shelter. That didn’t work out as planned, so we agreed that the easiest way to get in touch was by visiting their website and finding out information from there. Once the people from Bethesda get back to us, we will be able to set up dates and times that we can go participate at the shelter. We will also be able to update those interested in our journey. Until then, we will be making plans to go out within the next week to gather supplies that we may need for this project and working out some kinks in our plans. If there is one thing we have learned so far, there is always room for improvement. We are wanting to interview those at the homeless shelter somehow. The execution of this is something that we are discussing because we don’t want them to feel as if we are invading their privacy. We also don’t want it to seem as if we are doing this because we have to or we are wanting to “toot our own horns” so to say. We chose this as our project and we believe that their voices matter. In no way would we want to cheapen that. With all of that being said, this is a sensitive subject and we want to make sure that we do this the right way. Hopefully, we will have several new updates in our next blog. |
AuthorsKadence, Jada, Jordan Archives
December 2021
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