GraceHurney

Grace Hurney

Civic Engagment

10 March 2009

Reflections: Day Four

Today, we worked at the Music City Rescue Mission (thus to be referred to as MCRM), a faith based organization operating in the suburbs of Nashville. The fascinating thing about the MCRM is that they mainly serve refugees and immigrants. The countries their participants hail from countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Iran, and Sudan.

I felt that the work I did today was far more rewarding than anything I have done thus far. I started out the day packing food kits to distribute to families in need. Each kit contained 8 cans of food, a few boxes of non-perishable goods, juice cans, chips, chicken patties, and bagels. The work was fun trying to construct the perfectly organized box. However, the true meaning of this whole trip came through at about 10:30 in the morning when we were called upon to take the kits to distribute. Just being able to see the tangible effects of my volunteer service made me be thankful that I decided to attend this trip. The families were so grateful for whatever food we could offer them, and I just wished I could give them more. My other “favorite/random moment” of the day was when I got to witness another one of my tripmates, my roommate and sorority sister, translate for a mother looking for shoes for her two year old daughter. I stood and watched as Anne put her Spanish language skills to use, helping a little girl procure an adorable pair of ladybug rainboots. The little girl was shy, but when she left the back room, she couldn’t take her eyes off her translator. I just thought it was such a wonderful moment because Anne enjoyed talking and helping the family so much that it reminded me why we do community service. It is easy to lose sight of your good motives and intentions to volunteer when the work is stressful, tiring, or not seemingly helpful.

However, the euphoria of helping at the MCRM died rayher quickly. While we were at the Rivergate Mall, one of my roommates reported seeing one of the families that had come to the MCRM walking around with new clothes, shopping bags, and Starbucks coffee. This is obviously upsetting to anyone- they are cheating the system and taking away clothing and food from truly needy individuals and families. I would assume the MCRM would have some way to monitor who takes donations and how often. It is because a few individuals abuse the system that gives social programs a bad reputation. I can only hope that if we alert the MCRM they would hopefully figure out a way to create a new way to log-in visitors to the MCRM.