Fall Activities

Hello everyone! Youth Volunteer Corps is back for another great Fall semester!

We started off the semester with a teen fair hosted in Collin County at Strikz Entertainment in Frisco. 10 nonprofit agencies were present to recruit students and tell Collin County teens about the great work they've been doing. Before the teen fair, we hosted a service project at Connemara Conservancy in Allen, TX. We had 40 people come out to clear trails and learn about why it's important to restore our native prairie. The project was a success, and Connemara thought very highly of the Youth Volunteer Corps volunteers. We're really glad we got to go out and help!

Coming up in Tarrant County, we have a project on October 9th at the Community Enrichment Center, where we are helping to deconstruct and do some landscaping in the Emerald Run Apartments. Students can go to www.handsonnorthtexas.org to sign up for the project or contact dpandya@vcnt.org or skey@vcnt.org

On October 23, Make a Difference Day, the Volunteer Center will be hosting the North Texas Volunteer Challenge. Students can learn about opportunities at the North Texas Volunteer Challenge on the Volunteer Center website: www.vcnt.org

Apart from projects, YVC has been assisting with a Community Works classroom at Irma Marsh Middle School in Castleberry ISD. The classroom is service-learning based, and students investigate a variety of community issues, conduct community needs assessments, and aim to serve with everything that they do.

Keep checking the blog or the YVC facebook page for more information about our upcoming events and other news from YVC!

In Service,

Youth Volunteer Corps

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Today is the very last Friday, and the very last day of our four week program. The Summer of Service students graduate tomorrow. We are very proud of them, but we're sad to see them go. We've spent the day reflecting on not only this past week, but the entire four weeks of service, and reinforcing just how proud of them we are.

We've also got some State Farm folks with us, and the students have been having a great time telling them all about the service that they've done. Our speaker today was Carol Clyde from SMU, who spoke to us about the interconnectedness of leadership and service, and we took some great pictures with her and in our teams.

State Farm Week

This week, our students are lucky to have employees of our amazing sponsor, State Farm, come out to their service sites and serve with them. Students get to mentor another volunteer and help get them engaged, and they have already made some memories and taken some pictures with their State Farm volunteers.

Summer of Service is almost over!

This past Friday, the Summer of Service students did an "Open Mic Night" reflection on their week. There is only one more week left, and the students wanted to share their creativity with each other. Some people read poems. The following were submitted for the blog:

In Summer Ministries
By Carlissa Cole

In the summer heat, I sweat very heavily.
In the summer days, I stayed and buried; plants.
In the church we painted. In Central Dallas Ministries
We planted. In my heart, I loved to see the beautiful day that I created.
My group and I held our heads high when we saw all of our goals being accomplished.
We loved our plants with much passion.


Musings from late July: A collection of haikus
By Audra Martin

Ridding soil of weeds
Mists of water to parched plants
Shovels in the clay

Brick lined flower bed
Children taught in the garden
Sprinkling cinnamon

Noon rays bake our flesh
Hide in room with no windows
Grumbling stomachs fed

Painting with colors
Making something from nothing
Bonding like family

Leaving sweat and love
Central Dallas Ministries
Pass on: Petunias

We took some great pictures, and painted a mobile mural to donate to another YVC Site!

Week Three Begins!

Week three got off to a great start yesterday, with the Snapdragonz working at Fair Park, the Shasta Daisies at Central Dallas Ministries, and the Petunias at the Dallas Zoo.

The Shasta Daisies have already had some great moments at CDM.

Halfway Celebration!

Our Summer of Service class is once again at the Dallas Public Library celebrating the end of week 2. We can't believe it's half way over already!

The students went and visited a local non-profit--The Stewpot and learned about their mission and some of their operations and goals as a homeless resource center. In addition to their regular operations, they operate a therapeutic art program and have paintings hanging all over their walls. The students and team leaders admired the paintings and the good work done at the agency.

Snapdragonz at Central Dallas Ministries

The Snapdragonz had a great week at Central Dallas Ministries, and took some fantastic pictures.