Kinship Celebration

The National Adoption Awareness Month Event, held at the Costa Mesa Community Center was a big success! It was quite busy, and all the help in the world was needed to help make the event the way it was yesterday. I was needed to help set up a drum circle for the kids to learn how to play drums. I also helped create a scrapbook for a long time worker for Kinship Center, who unfortunately was unable to make it to this event, because she was injured for having fallen a flight of stairs. Help was also needed at the hand print station, as many of the kids wanted to get their hand prints. It was very exhausting, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience and I hope I will be able to participate in more of these events s the year goes on.

Preparing for Kinship Celebration on Sunday

For service learning, I drove over to the Kinship Center to help set up for the 13th Annual National Adoption Awareness Celebration on Sunday, November 14th. I helped move things around, cut out yellow tickets, which will be given to families and their newly adopted children to redeem one free family photo, and cut out a variety of colored paper, which will be used to make a scrap book with. All of this work was just a walk in the park (metaphorically speaking), compared to what will come this Sunday afternoon.

Questions for Service Learning (as of October 2010)

1.        Summarize your progress thus far on your Service Learning Project.  After looking at your original goals, have they changed?  If so, please elaborate.

At first I was going to set up gigs to play guitar at local coffee shops to help raise money for Canyon Acres, and visit there to see my progress. But then I realized that my godmother worked at KInship Center, which is closer and I thought I would have an advantage working at the same place as someone I have known for years. so I changed my location to where I should work. Then I decided not to try and set up gigs, because I thought that would be beyond my capabilities and would be considerably time consuming, knowing how much work I have in class. I decided instead to volunteer at the Kinship Center and interact with the foster children, because I thought I would get more out of working with the kids themselves, than just raising money to help them. I come there whenever they may need me, and on service learning days.

 2.        Describe some of the achievements/obstacles your group has encountered today/over the past month.

Some of the obstacles that I had to face over the past month were, when the kids were available, trying to get them not to do things that they shouldn't be doing, such as not sharing toys with others, and when the kids were not available, knowing what I can do to help support the Kinship Center, even on the not-so-busy days. One achievement that I accomplished so far includes becoming a volunteer at the Kinship Center and becoming a part of the "family' as my godmtoher and employer said on the first day. Another achievement that I had was trying to find something to do on the calmer working days, by working on long, but simple tasks.

3.        How valuable has the feedback been from your Service Learning Panel?  Have the commendations/critiques been helpful?

I have not gotten any feedback from my panel so far.

4.        What are your plans for the next Service Learning Day?  How do you plan to execute those plans?

Making sure that the kids are available that day and see if any of my help is needed. I plan to call my godmother, who works there as well, and ask if any of the foster children are there and if I can help out with them.

5.        Post something that has been particularly meaningful to your group over the past month.  It could be a collage of pictures/short personal anecdote/short video/etc.

Last week I saw a documentary at Kinship Center called "From Place to Place", which is about two young adults who have just reached the age of eighteen, and are sent out into the streets, because the foster care system has rules about kids who have reached age eighteen, saying that they are adults and need to go find a home of their own. This video shows the sad  aftermath of foster kids who have reached the age of eighteen and have nowhere else to go. 

A rather uneventful service learning day

Today is my first service learning day, but unfortuantely this day has been rather uneventful. It was not busy at Kinship Center, and the foster children were unavailable at the time. There was a shortage of things to get done except for a few favors, such as moving a television over into another room and placing labels on about three hundred envelopes. The good news is that I was able to help around wih a few favors and tasks, but the foster children were not around for me to interact with.

From Place to Place Documentary

Tonight, I watched a documentary about two young adults named Raif and Mandy, who have just reached age 18, and by law were sent out of foster care, to live on their own. The stories of their life on the street reached local interviewers, and soon got the attention of Capitol Hill. Mandy and Raif visited Washington to tell of their life stories. Having been moved by what Mandy and Raif said, the senators immediately discussed reinventing the foster care system, pointing out the many flaws that the foster care system has and    wanting to make a change. After the documentary, there was time for Q&A with three boys who were not in the video, but they themselves have had similar experiences with foster care after reaching age 18. The documentary was very moving and I hope the foster care system is able to recognize its many flaws and start making some changes.

Now volunteering at Kinship Center

Last night, I signed up with the Kinship Center and will be volunteering with them for whenever I am needed. Tomorrow I will be watching a documentary about kids who are not adopted by the time they reach age 18 and are no longer cared for by their local adoption center. I will update on my blog about the documentary tomorrow, as soon as I am finished watching the video.

might have different idea for service learning project

On October 27th, the day that the Sage Hill students start working on their service learning projects, I have  a different idea for I want to work on. I know my godmother works with an organization called the Kinship Center, and I will spend my time volunteering there. While I may perform to kids for entertainment purposes, I decided to drop my idea for playing at coffee shops and street corners to raise money for the kids. I figured it would be easier to actually donate my time with the kids in person.

first of two gigs

First of a series of two gigs at my father's house for a party. I am playing to connect to my father's friends, who know of some people who own locations where I can play to raise money. I am raising money to benefit the kids at Kinship Center, which helps in getting kids adopted. I might not make much money now, but this is certainly a start.

Intro

Hello, my name is Colby Stearns and I am a junior from Sage Hill School. I am starting an independent project for service learning which basically involves me playing at different venues to help raise money for children without families or homes and supporting organizations, such as Canyon Acres, who foster children who have no families or homes. I plan to meet with the kids and lift their spirits with the music that will help me raise money to support them. My goal is to raise at least $3,000 to donate to Canyon Acres by the end of March. I am planning to continue this project into my senior year if it goes as planned, even when the going gets tough. I will update on my progress each month. Thank you for your support.