Austin Resing

Mrs.Jankowski
English 12H
2/24/16
Self-Reflection Essay
My senior project is associated with volunteer work for the Honor Flight of Southern
Indiana. The Honor Flight is a fairly new program that has a sole priority of helping WWII
veterans get a flight down to the Washington D.C Veterans Memorial. My job for volunteering,
so far, has been to be the extra hand in events such as the veteran & guardian reunion. I helped
assist veterans who may have trouble seating themselves, or getting around. Another part for
every volunteer of this community, is to help raise the spirits of vets. Conversating, or even just
thanking them for their services. I may not have the required amount of hours due for this
project, but it does not take very long for this organization to grow on a person.
My total estimated hours up current point, is around 9 hours. From what ive done, the
steps for volunteering were very simple. Around January is when my volunteer application was
accepted and I received an email for scheduled events. The first thing I had to do to start my
volunteer work was to go to these committee meetings. After one meeting, then came the
breakfast reunion at Golden Corral on Jan. 30th. After the breakfast, two more meeting followed
up to this point, Feb. 22. The meeting on Feb. 22 was a volunteer orientation that helped new
members understand what they are exactly volunteering for. In which after going to this meeting,
I can say I definitely have never done volunteer work like this before.

How I came about this project is actually from my Grandfather, Jerry Clewlow. My
grandpa is the President of the Southern Indiana Branch of the Honor Flight organization. My
grandpa was of course not my mentor, due to family not being an exceptional person for

mentorship. My mentor who helped me through the volunteer work, was Monica Centers.
Centers is the Volunteer Admin for the organization. Centers is also a veteran herself, along with
the other board members, serving 14 years in the Army Reserve. Centers has told me what to
expect and what to do when trying to help WWII veterans. Her patients and admiration has
helped me get fully involved with this program, while handling my schedule around other things
like band and school.
From my experience so far, I have learned several things while completing this project. I
have learned to appreciate just how much WWII veterans mean to America. Also, I have learned
that the veterans enjoy any sort of help that is given, even if its random. With the number of
WWII veterans dropping by a rate of 800 a day, it is crucial to give appreciation to the ones still
alive and kicking! In doing so with appreciation, I experienced most of my random giving of
kindness at the Golden Corral breakfast reunion. Walking around a greeting each vet, asking if
they are enjoying their time, it lightened my heart on just how happy they were. Especially when
I asked one particularly tall WWII vet to take a photo with me, his face gave a genuine smile and
was quick to accept my invitation. I was surprised to hear him ask for me to sit on his lap for the
photo, but as i saw his jolly smile, I couldnt resist the goofy photo.
The only problems I faced with this project were scheduling hours and thinking of how to
even talk to a war vet. With being involved in marching band and having a weekend job, my
schedule wasnt exactly very flexible. Luckily, having the organizations president as your
grandpa helped out with knowing what to do when i had the time to volunteer. When the time
came to meet the vets, I was honestly scared that I would be too young minded to start a
conversation with one. I ended up fixing my fear with just doing my best to talk, and ended
noticing most vets were either occupied with a guardian, or talked to me after I gave a kind
gesture to veteran.
If I were given the opportunity to redo this project, I would honestly pick a different
organization. The Honor Flight program is a very well ran organization, but the only problem is

my scheduled just couldnt fit with theirs. The other issue that costed me hours, was the fact that
the programs main mission, the actual flight, is in april, well after senior project is due. If I chose
a different organization like Vet Humane Society, I would have way more opportunities to get
hours.
I would recommend this project to future senior who have a lot of free time, who can
work with majority of elders, and have strong commitment. This Organization is ran by mostly
retired or day job volunteers. Time needs to flexible so you can be at important evening
meetings and make it to events on weekends. Communication with older folks is also crucial
because you will working with a lot of them, they are really sweet people, they just dont catch
up on how young people talk about things. With being a strong hearted organization that is set
on one big main goal, commitment is a key factor in getting things done. They do not need
volunteers who are expecting to do nothing but sit at meetings, they need volunteers who are
willing to engage themselves in a productive manner that will benefit the mission process.
My grade for this project, would most likely be a low B or C. My hours are not very fruitful
and I only went to one big event. If I couldve skipped some marching band shows to commit to
some hours earlier in the year, than my grade would definitely be a B+. Why a B+? I am not the
best at giving presentation and will mostl likely not be the most prepared when it comes time to
give mine to the judges. So, a C will be my prediction for my future grade on this project.
Even though I have not fully completed this project, I still got a lot out of it in such a short
time. Meeting and talking to actual WWII veterans was a very neat experience that I hope to
encounter again soon!