Pizza at VolunTEENS tomorrow!

VolunTEENS will meet at our usual place, usual time! We have a lot to discuss, so hope to see all of you there! BTW, grab a friend or two and bring them along - this means you!

Invite friends to follow this BLOG! Volunteer to contribute to the BLOG! Not busy this summer? How about SummerTEENS? Earn credit toward your honors diploma by volunteering at local organizations! Great thing to add to your resume down the road.....

VolunTEENS meeting, May 5th!

Hey, folks!  We will be having our weekly VolunTEENS meeting from 5:45-7:45 at the Albion District Library in their Naomi Lane Room on May 5th (Wednesday).

One of our mentors is leaving town for the summer, so come by to see her before she heads home from college!  We will be having a little more than cookies for snacks this time- how does pizza sound?  Let's celebrate what Kye has done for us in getting the VolunTEENS program back on its feet!

We will also be continuing to get things ready for our canned food drive- we'll get updates on the most needed donations, we'll work on our publicity, and we'll get things ready to go!  There are also two local volunteer activities to sign up for and updates to be had for AmeriCorps week.

Come on by to join the fun!  If you're not a member of the VolunTEENS yet, grab an application at the meeting!

Local Volunteering Opportunities

There are two local volunteer opportunities coming up in the Albion community over the next few weeks that are very suitable to group involvement.  

Firstly is the May 8th placement of flags on the graves of veterans at Riverside Cemetery.  That begins at 8am and there will be coffee and donuts for volunteers before we begin.  If you have any questions about this event, contact Dick Porter at 629-2774.

The second upcoming opportunity is the Citizens to Beautify Albion flower planting on May 15th starting at 9am.  Volunteers pick up flowers from 933 W. Erie St.  There is a free picnic for volunteers at Victory Park at noon following the planting.  For more information about this opportunity, or to volunteer, contact Cris Solis at 629-5316 or Janice Best at 629-4934.

Members of the VolunTEENS are being encouraged to participate in one or both of these local opportunities.  

Making Progress

Though we had low attendance at our previous VolunTEENS meeting, we did get a few things worked out for our Food Drive.  The youth began working out what needed to be on our publicity fliers and they revisited the list that they had first made of places to try to post their fliers.  We also brainstormed what things we would need on the day-of at our table.  All in all, we got some very important things taken care of.

VolunTEENS meeting, April 28th!

The AVSO VolunTEENS will be meeting at the Albion District Library (Naomi Lane Room) from 5:45pm - 7:45pm on April 28th.

We're going to doing more planning for our food drive and talking about some local volunteer opportunities.  Come on by and join the fun- if you haven't applied to the program yet, come on by and pick up your application!  

Food Drive Progress!

At the April 21st VolunTEENS meeting, we had a lot of fun and we got a lot done.  We started off the meeting after a diversion down to the children's room at the Albion District Library to  make ice cream.  With that taken care of, we got down to business- our icebreaker game!  This week, we played the 5Ws+H game.  In this game, participants right Who What Where When Why and How down the left side of their paper, leaving enough space between each to fold the paper back so they can hide what they write for any given category.  Once this is done, participants in the game write down a "Who" and then fold back that part of the page.  They then pass the paper to the next person around the circle and fill in a "What" on the paper passed to them.  The game continues in this fashion until all categories are filled.  Because no participant knows what was written on the page previously (unless they end up with their own back, which happens in small groups), the sentences that result are usually quite silly.  Some of the ones we came up with are:

• The talking Mercedes wrestled a shark while eating soup under the bleachers because people were singing with pepper and salt.
• The Queen of England ate pickles at the zoo at 6:35 on a Sunday because she saw a flying pig with a lollipop.
• President Obama ran into a vat of peanut butter and pickles next to the gym at the sunset because the clock broke with Santa.

As you can see, these don't always make much sense, but they are really funny when read out-loud and the result is always laughter.  This game was such a hit that we played it at two separate times during our meeting (once at the beginning and once at the end) it has been requested again for this upcoming week.

After we got some of our sillies out, we moved on to planning our food drive.  We decided on a pair of dates and the times for those dates.  We will be putting together our publicity plan and talking about how we are going to go about our actual collection when we meet this week.  

Dates, Times, and Collection Locations:

May 22nd, Saturday

3:00pm - 8:00pm, Corner of Porter and Superior Street (downtown Albion)

May 23rd, Sunday

1:00pm - 6:00pm, Family Fare (Albion)

Start planning to make a donation, we're going to be sending the food to AIM so all the donations we get stay local and help local people.  Keep a watch on this blog and keep an eye out for our publicity for more details and for suggestions as to what donations are most needed.

Want to get involved?  Contact AVSO at 517-629-5574 or albionvolunteers@gmail.com, or stop by the VolunTEENS meeting Wednesday evening to fill out an application.

Earth Day at Harrington

The VolunTEENS lent a hand on Friday to Harrington Elementary students during their playground cleanup.  The Harrington students we worked with seemed enthusiastic about their cleanup and were a delight to work with.  We are very grateful for the opportunity to be guests at this event.

Loss

Last week, the Albion Community lost a great person- Mr Allen Jackson Sr.  Mr Jackson's memorial is today, Monday, April 26th, at 11am at Goodrich Chapel.

Though I did not know him, I can tell by the lives he touched that he was a great man.  Remember the love he shared and if you need someone to talk to, I'm here to listen.

~A.

Meeting: April 21st!

Just a friendly reminder that our weekly meeting is April 21st, 5:45-7:45 at the Albion District Library in the Naomi Lane room.

We'll be talking about:
Volunteering at Harrington Elementary for Earth Day
AmeriCorps Week
Our Food Drive!  This will take up the majority of our time this meeting.  Our VolunTEENS have been doing fabulous work getting this food drive together and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say this week as we continue working on this event.

Have a fabulous day and I hope to see a good group of folks Wednesday night!  If you can't make it right at the beginning of the meeting, don't fret, come when you can.

~Anna.

"Don't be greedy, help the needy!"

The title of this post is the phrase our VolunTEENS used last night to describe our upcoming food drive- pretty catchy, isn't it?

Last night, we had a very productive VolunTEENS meeting with a fabulous group of four of our youth.  We put together a rough plan for our canned food drive and then started looking at who we would have to contact to make this a success and how we could advertize.  Once we had a basic plan, the teens gave me some homework- to contact the Food Bank of South Central Michigan to see how we needed to go about getting the food to them.

The  youth also made thank you cards and pictures for the library and delivered them to the librarians after our meeting.  This morning, Colleen Virge, library director, thanked us for thinking of them and told us that the librarians really enjoyed the notes made by our VolunTEENS.

We also talked briefly about my AmeriCorps week project- more information on that to come as we get closer!

So keep an eye on this site as we get the ball rolling and start making big impacts on the community in and around Albion.

Look for more information about the food drive as we get planning- we meet again:
Wednesday, April 21st
5:45 - 7:45
at the Albion District Library, Naomi Lane room.

~Anna.

Meeting- This Week!

Hello, hello, hello!

We have a VolunTEENS meeting this week, April 14th, from 5:45 - 7:45pm at the Albion District Library.

Want a sneak peek at what we'll be talking about?  Here it is!

• We've got some local volunteer opportunities coming up, one of them at Harrington Elementary!
• Global Youth Service Day is just around the corner- come to find out how our area teens can be a part of this world-wide event!
• Want to learn more about AmeriCorps (the program that Anna's here through)?  Well AmeriCorps week is in May, just a month away!  We'll talk about the service project she wants to put together to celebrate all the folks in service to America!
• It's National Library Week!  Let's thank our librarians for all the fabulous things they do for us- including letting us have our VolunTEENS meetings in the library!

All that, plus the chance to socialize with your peers and grab a few cookies while we chat!

Want to be a part of the group, but can't make it on Wednesdays?  My AmeriCorps e-mail is wiescho1@msu.edu and you can always call the office and let us know (517-629-5574).  We'd love to keep you up-to-date on our projects and anything you can do to help!

Have a fabulous Monday- hope to see you on Wednesday!

~Anna.

We're Back!

Hey, folks!

The VolunTEENS are back and we're gearing up for our first service project!  We are meeting TONIGHT at the Albion District Library (5:45pm!  We will have snacks!) to discuss the details for a food drive we're hosting- stay tuned for details!

~Anna.