Prompt: Describe a meaningful contribution you have made through school, church, or community service
St. Louis Dream Center
Last summer, I went with a group of nine people to St. Louis, Missouri. There, we worked with Joyce Meyer's Dream Center, which is an organization in the heart of St. Louis. The purpose of the Center is to help individuals and families in the inner city with everything from clothing and food to entertainment for young children. We spent ten days at the Center, helping the project leaders with nursing home outreach, Adopt-a-Block, Street Ministry, KidZJam, and the center store.
My first day in St. Louis, I worked in a warehouse, organizing furniture and backpacks full of school supplies for the Center to sell at discount prices. When that was finished, the task was to create care packages for Adopt-a Block, a simple community outreach program. When the 200 required care packages were finished, and the furniture organized for the sale, we took the van out. We first went around a residential block with trash bags and cleaned up the streets. Then, we went door-to-door with the care packages, along with books, miscellaneous household items, and offers of help around the house. We then invited them to church services and the sale. Street Ministry is closely related to Adopt-a-Block. The purpose of this program is to offer the same help to people who do not live in homes, but perhaps stay in a shelter, under a bridge, or in the park. We went around the city with blankets, coats, candy and water, and talked to people about the help offered at the Center.
The next day I went to a nursing home, and the sight was shocking. It was nothing like the nursing home that I knew from visits with my grandmother. There, I saw elderly people playing checkers, watching television, or reading books. This one, however, was nothing like that. It looked from the outside like it was vacant; there were bricks falling out from the base, and the siding was chipped. I was ready to do some hard work cleaning up. When we went inside, however, our job was not to clean up; it was simply to spend some time with the residents, most of whom had no one to visit them otherwise. This was easy work, but significant as the residents' day had been improved.
That Saturday was a special day, because we set up an all day festival called KidZJam for the community children. This was fun and free, for the kids whose families couldn't afford to go out and do things together. There were games and prizes, as well as two meals.
The final work was helping out in the Center store. Here, the job was to organize all donated clothes and prepare them for sale to those receiving assistance. When I was finished there, I went to the barbershop to put together shower packs. In my opinion, this is the most important work done at the Dream Center. These packs were for the people who had nowhere to go for a shower, a haircut, or clean clothes. Without the help of the Center, there would be no way for these people to have a job interview or go to school; they would have no way to get out of their situation.
