South Franklin Community Center Part II

The next time I went to the South Franklin Community Center was a bit different; I estimate that there were about eight tutors to every child, which made the actual service part of the trip difficult. As it turns out, that Thursday was an early-out day for the elementary school, and most of the kids had gone home to play with friends rather than go do homework with some strangers, which I suppose is understandable. After discovering this, an employee began to scour the neighborhood for more kids, and I talked with some of the other volunteers.

            To my surprise, three of the volunteers I spoke with were high school students who chose to serve at the Center for the same reason I did; it was a requirement for one of their classes. (As a sidebar, I’m embarrassed that this was my initial reason. A lot of people say that college students are busy, and need to focus only on school, but I’ve learned from this assignment that that isn’t true. We always need to focus on others, even if—especially if—it’s not convenient.)

One of the boys was there because he needed to be, and the other boy was there because of the girl, but the girl was genuine. When I asked her why she chose this service out of any that she could have done, she said, “I really wanted to help kids.” I know this is a simple statement, and at first I didn’t read too much into it. But if you look, she said ‘wanted’ instead of a more obligatory word. If she had really just wanted to get the service over with, she might have just shrugged when I asked and said that this Center was the closest one, or the one she could get a ride to. We spoke for few minutes until more kids came, and then split up to chase down some kids to tutor.

            That was the other way this visit was so different. I had to chase down a child. This kid knew what he wanted with his short day of school, and it was not to sit and read all day and it was not to practice English. Once I did catch him, he quizzed me on the pictures in a book, asking which object was yellow on one page and then which had the MOST yellow on the next page until we finished the book about Goofy’s vacation. We moved on to drawing and Candy Land, which was approved by senior volunteers, until we finally had to leave.

  

I hadn’t really helped anyone academically; I’m pretty sure that all the kids there knew their colors and numbers, but more and more I realize that these kids have more of an effect on me than I do on them. I had a lot of fun just playing with some kids I had just met. Maybe to their parents it was a favor, but to me it was just being happy.