<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While researching information about Woodstock, I hit upon a video of the Jefferson Airplane performing their song <\/span>Volunteers<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Like any good earworm chorus, the \u2018<\/span>Volunteers of America<\/span><\/i>\u2019 got stuck in my head.\u00a0 One thing led to another and the constant recycling of the lyric started touching off random memories connected with the word \u2018volunteer\u2019.\u00a0 The Airplane were specifically singing about the political and social turmoil of the 1960s (\u2018<\/span>Look what\u2019s happening in the streets, counter-revolution, up the revolution<\/span><\/i>\u2019), thus the song was a call to arms for the younger generation.\u00a0 To be a volunteer, one can make a difference without necessarily becoming (my apologies to Jefferson Airplane) a counter-revolutionary.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When I was first approached to teach the Senior Service Project class before the 2013-14 school year, I didn\u2019t have a clue what that would involve.\u00a0 Up to that point, my teaching career had been confined to grades 6 through 9.\u00a0 When Study Hall was still on the schedule, there were a few years when I was in the same room with students from the upper grades, but supervising a study hall isn\u2019t the same as teaching a class.\u00a0 Working with high school student volunteers in the WOAS-FM radio lab involved some training for new DJs, but it was never a graded class requiring the more traditional \u2018lesson, test, evaluate, grade\u2019 teaching format.\u00a0 At the time I was introduced to the idea of teaching a class to inspire students to become the future \u2018volunteers of America\u2019, the first step was to examine my own history as a volunteer.\u00a0 If one is going to impart the \u2018joys\u2019 of being a volunteer, one better be able to give some concrete examples.\u00a0 Pointing the way like a general on a hill directing the battle lines where the actual fighting is taking place was never my style anyway (and yes, that statement should put a particular Pink Floyd lyric from <\/span>Us and Them <\/span><\/i>off of the <\/span>Dark Side of the Moon <\/span><\/i>album in your mind).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In my course introduction, I wrote the following quote on the board:\u00a0 \u201cSome of the best jobs you will ever have in life will not be the ones you are paid for.\u201d\u00a0 When asked who they thought uttered these lines, guesses ranged from Albert (Einstein) to Zappa (Frank), but it was almost always attributed to someone famous.\u00a0 I would then tell them this sage advice came from my father.\u00a0 When I was very young, I remember dad telling me about the time he stood guard at the Michigan state capitol when a former governor was honored as he lay in state.\u00a0 When I asked why he had to do this, he simply said, \u201cI volunteered.\u00a0 It was a great honor.\u201d\u00a0 That was the first time I remember learning about the concept of being \u2018a volunteer\u2019 and that is probably why my view of volunteering is connected with it being \u2018an honor to serve\u2019.\u00a0 In all honesty, I would also tell them that the class was started because we were having a difficult time finding enough classes to fill our senior\u2019s schedules.\u00a0 By then, requiring students to do volunteer work for credit had also become a national trend in both public schools and universities.\u00a0 It is an important method employed to teach students about social responsibility.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The way volunteer programs are handled varies widely from one institution to another.\u00a0 Many opt for a \u2018student directed approach\u2019 where they identify a volunteer opportunity, conduct the project, and finally document their work.\u00a0 The scope and length of the project is open ended, so once a student has done the three steps and their final report has passed muster, they are done.\u00a0 Our system was a little less open ended.\u00a0 We scheduled SSP like a class and gave students a full school year (as in 180 days) to fill.\u00a0 There was also a stipulation that they should do projects involving volunteer work in both the school and the community.\u00a0 These guidelines opened a can of worms for me:\u00a0 with a vast number of project areas available, how would I be able to keep tabs on who was doing what for whom?\u00a0 I consulted my daughter, Elizabeth (who was working on her PhD in English at UCLA at the time) hoping her work as a TA would provide me with a solution. I hit paydirt when she suggested students document their daily project work in journal form.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The format for journaling was standardized.\u00a0 Each week, they would document their daily work.\u00a0 If there was something else they had to do that wasn\u2019t \u2018project work\u2019, I just asked them to be honest and write down how they spent their time.\u00a0 Some kids had an easier time if they volunteered at a place like the Ontonagon County Animal Protection shelter (OCAP) or WOAS-FM.\u00a0 The animals at the shelter don\u2019t get days off and the radio station is on the air every day, so these volunteers had no problem filling out their journals.\u00a0 If a student was performing shorter term projects, I asked them to document when they finished a project so the time between projects could be monitored.\u00a0 The only ones who had difficulty were the ones who didn\u2019t fill their journals out every couple of days.\u00a0 It was always fun to walk into the library during the last week of the marking period when the procrastinators would be scratching their heads trying to remember what they had been doing several weeks earlier.\u00a0 As expected, some entries were short to the point of telling me very little about what actually accomplished.\u00a0 A few got into <\/span>War and Peace<\/span><\/i> length explanations, but for the most part, most were able to communicate what they were doing in a couple of lines per day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Speaking of \u2018communicating\u2019, the other thing I stressed was \u2018communication with the instructor\u2019.\u00a0 Unlike a class that would meet face to face each day, there were long stretches when I only saw them as they signed in before departing to their project sites.\u00a0 To make sure we were in touch, I would provide them with bi-weekly memos to impart critical information.\u00a0 The memos became part of their journals and those who actually read them had very few problems keeping their \u2018grades\u2019 up.\u00a0 The SSP was a class required for graduation, but it was also a pass\/fall class (meaning there were no letter grades, just a pass\/no pass given that did not affect one\u2019s GPA).\u00a0 The marking periods were structured with between seven and ten ‘checkpoints\u2019.\u00a0 These were reviewed at periodic journal checks and also included special assignments like crafting a resume or personal statement.\u00a0 If a student had 60% of their check points accounted for, they would pass, but they were encouraged to have 100%.\u00a0 It was a bit of a bluff, but I would casually mention in a memo, \u201cOkay, so you have a 4.0 GPA, but someone looks at your transcript and wonders why you \u2018passed\u2019 a required class doing the bare minimum 60 percent of the work.\u201d\u00a0 It was less a threat of failure than an appeal to their sense of wanting to maintain the image conveyed by a high GPA.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Going all the way back to selling candy to help fund a high school band trip to march in a couple of parades at the Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan, I have disliked fund raising.\u00a0 The need to pay for buses used for the field trips we took from 1977 to my retirement left me with two choices.\u00a0 The first was to sell things and the second was to simply charge each student the same amount like they would pay to see a movie.\u00a0 It was a no brainer for me.\u00a0 Early in my career, my second JH principal\/counselor made an ill-advised purchase of school materials.\u00a0 When the bill was due, he dipped into our student council war chest to pay for it.\u00a0 This $2,000 debt dogged us into the early 1990s when we were given an ultimatum:\u00a0 square this negative account – now- or else!\u00a0 We were put in touch with an organization that helped school groups sell magazine subscriptions at a very attractive percentage of return.\u00a0 We were debt free in the first year of this program and continued the annual sale until I retired.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Coordinating the sale confirmed a pattern I had observed organizing the JH Student Council\u2019s annual Halloween Carnival.\u00a0 I repeated this observation to my JH students frequently and it also fit in nicely with the Senior Service volunteers.\u00a0 What I told them, in rather round numbers, was:\u00a0 \u201cNo matter what jobs or volunteer activities one engages in, you will find about 40 percent will take it seriously and do a great job, another 40 percent will do as little as possible, and the remaining 20 percent will do absolutely nothing.\u00a0 In the end, the 60 percent who do not pull their own weight will still be there with outstretched palms waiting for their share (and probably complain the most about the \u2018work\u2019 they were forced to do).\u00a0 Thank you to the 40 percent who go above and beyond to get things done, but get used to it because it will be a recurring theme you will experience again and again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was no big surprise when a similar pattern emerged in how my Senior Service classes attended to their duties, although the percentages would vary year to year.\u00a0 The senior class my first year coordinating the program was a gem of a group with more \u2018doers\u2019 than average.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they did not prepare me for the second class who flipped the numbers to the point they made me spend more time dogging their projects than some of them did.\u00a0 The old detective gene my dad passed on served me well that second year.\u00a0 After noticing the same group of guys signing out to do the same project for days on end, I decided it sounded like a fish-tale.\u00a0 I took a spin around town and found a group of cars parked down by the river where their \u2018work\u2019 consisted of drinking coffee from the local gas station while listening to tunes on someone\u2019s car stereo.\u00a0 I drove around the little circle, stopped to take a couple of pictures, gave them a jaunty wave and headed back to school.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next week\u2019s memo included photographic evidence of their little game and a whole new set of rules about how many bodies could be checked out to work on one project.\u00a0 Verification from the site of the volunteer activity was also included.\u00a0 While this was the only year that this form of purposeful inactivity was a problem, and sharing the tale with later classes (before anything like it happened again) no doubt acted as a sort of preemptive strike.\u00a0 Instead of dwelling on the kids who were skittering by, it was more enjoyable to engage with the ones who enjoyed their projects.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of our most appreciative clients were the \u2018cat people\u2019 at the Ontonagon County Animal Protection (OCAP) shelter.\u00a0 Until the COVID-19 disrupted year of 2020, there were always students willing to help the morning shift assisting the shelter\u2019s cat volunteers.\u00a0 Cats and dogs at the shelter do not get days off, so the volunteers there have daily responsibilities cleaning cages and socializing the critters.\u00a0 The regular OCAP cat volunteers were delighted to have extra hands for the daily morning routine.\u00a0 The first year, we worked with the shelter to arrange a little end of the year \u2018thank you\u2019 cake to share with the student volunteers.\u00a0 This evolved into the student\u2019s organizing a similar event for the OCAP regulars which both students and shelter volunteers enjoyed as the school year wound down.\u00a0 The graduation cards and monetary donations collected at the shelter for these senior volunteers were a good indication how much their help was appreciated there.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Personally, my favorite SSP volunteer activity was getting students involved in Michigan\u2019s Adopt-A-Highway program.\u00a0 When we applied for the 3.5 mile stretch of highway US 45 from Woodspur to the last old railroad crossing before Rockland, I figured we could do the pick up in one afternoon as long as we got at least six volunteers.\u00a0 After the mandatory safety session, each pair of pickers were left off and instructed to work against traffic up the left side of the road.\u00a0 When they reached the next volunteer group\u2019s car, they would cross over and work their way back to their starting point.\u00a0 This left the last half mile section for me to do with extra volunteers or solo.\u00a0 This was the one project seniors were sent out to do where I would have been uncomfortable not overseeing them in person.\u00a0 The bonus was getting to spend one beautiful afternoon each fall and spring outdoors doing my own volunteer stint.\u00a0 The highway pickers got their own bonus:\u00a0 they were told to report to my end of the route when finished.\u00a0 After check in, they were directed to the Rockland General Store for a post clean-up ice cream (which half the time Tina donated to thank them for their efforts).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Minutes from a recent school board meeting reported the Senior Service Project will no longer be a graduation requirement.\u00a0 It will still be available as an elective so I hope there will be enough students taking it to carry on the US 45 A-A-H pick up.\u00a0 The sign on either end of this stretch says \u2018OASD Seniors\u2019 on it so if SSP bodies are lacking, perhaps the senior class can fill the void.\u00a0 Even if this community service doesn\u2019t include a school credit, I will go back to my dad\u2019s sage advice:\u00a0 \u201cSome of the best jobs you will ever have in life will not be the ones you are paid for.\u201d\u00a0 If there is one thing Ontonagon has always been known for, it is stepping up to the plate when things need to get done.\u00a0 Not a bad legacy to pass on to future generations.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Speaking of Jefferson Airplane . . .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While researching information about Woodstock, I hit upon a video of the Jefferson Airplane performing their song Volunteers.\u00a0 Like any good earworm chorus, the \u2018Volunteers of America\u2019 got stuck in my head.\u00a0 One thing led to another and the constant recycling of the lyric started touching off random memories connected with the word \u2018volunteer\u2019.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2269,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions\/2269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}