Community Involvement

Summary
Volunteering is an incredibly important thing in my life. I am constantly reminded of the hardships others face through simple observations and the media. As a result I feel responsible to give back to others. I joined my schools Rotary Interact club four years ago with the intention of giving back to others. Little did I know how enlightening the experience was going to be. This past year alone, the Interact club has participated in over 20 events all over the state of Utah. Last year our club participated in over 30 volunteer activities (averaging last year, our members combined have accumulated 1500 volunteering hours). Of those I personally contributed about 150 hours. Activities we participated in included a Christmas Coat Drive, Childcare Services for underprivileged families, St. Jude Running for the Children event, Fall Leadership Conference encompassing all Interact clubs in the state of Utah, Halloween Project with Recreation center, and numerous Polio Awareness campaigns. Currently, our club is getting ready to take an international trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. In Mexico, our club and 20 local Interact and Rotary clubs will be engaging in a very exciting service project. We will have 1 week to completely build three homes for local families. While there, we will engage in the culture while working hard to help families.

I spent a year creating a mural with Bad Dog Art program in their Teen Internship program. As one of the six selected artists, I worked closely with our mentor, Jimmy Lucero and founders of Bad Dog Michael and Vicki Lyons. We worked tirelessly on the current mural residing in the entrance of Whole Foods at Trolley Square. The first 2 months of the internship were spent drafting a detailed design of the mural. Each student artist created a draft based on Whole Foods mission statement, From Water Power to Wind Tower. The following five months were spent on location. Each student artist was given an area to paint with occasional supervision from our mentor, Jimmy. After the long, tiresome days in both the summer and winter, we were finished with the first half of the mural. The remaining half was for the next group of new teen interns the following year. However, I was invited back to serve as a mentor for the completion of the second part of the mural. The project was continued and I spent my weekends painting, as I did before. Another few months of hard work went by before the mural was 100% complete. The experience was completely worthwhile for me. I learned how to take criticism in a field I, honestly, did not have much experience in. I learned various art techniques and had the opportunity to work with one of the best local artists in the state of Utah. My experience with clients was broadened as I met with the manager of the Trolley Square Whole Foods to discuss her thoughts as the mural progressed. And of course, I spent my weekends doing some hard work that ended up making the community look beautiful. I smile when I remember the number of people who stopped by to praise our efforts or offer us water.