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NWP Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists - Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

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Fairbanks, Alaska, USA
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hannah559



Registered: December 2011
City/Town/Province: Fairbanks
Posts: 1
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Fairbanks Alaska is a place of extremes. We have the largest temperature range of any city on earth with lows reaching -66F and highs reaching 99F. In the midst of nature’s temperature roller coaster this past September I sat down with a cup of coffee in my hand to think about how I could care for my favorite city and help its citizens at the same time. I decided to focus my project on helping the elderly and sick by raking their leaves. I called many local charities to ask them if they needed help raking or if they knew of any people who were physically unable to rake their yard. I gathered a list of people who needed their yards raked, picked two weekends in October to rake their yards then headed into my school to recruit my peers to give back to their community.
On the first weekend, we went to the Fairbanks Resource Agency’s Senior Citizens Center. Three of us spent three hours raking up their leaves and pulling up the flowers. The best part about this day was seeing the looks of gratitude on the faces of the nurses who were taking care of the elderly people. They said that they rarely have youth volunteers. They gave the three of us lunch with the residents and sent a thank you card to us.
The next weekend we spent the morning raking leaves for a man who was out of town having brain surgery. That time we had six volunteers working for three hours.
That afternoon was the highlight of the project. A girl from my school suggested that we visit the home of an elderly couple from her church. I asked her to give me their phone number, but she told me that if we called them, they would tell me that they didn’t need any help. We decided that we should just surprise them, so with a new crew of five workers we showed up on the doorstep of their home, knocked on the door and hoped for the best. A man opened the door a crack and peeked his head out.
“Hello Sir! My friends and I are going around the community today blessing people by raking their yards. Would it be alright with you if we raked your leaves?”
He seemed a little bit surprised, but told us that that would be fine. We began raking the leaves as he went back into the house to get his wife. Within minutes the couple came back outside and stood on the porch as we raked their yard.
I went over and began chatting with the couple. It turns out that they were both very sick. They were so overjoyed and surprised that teenagers would come and help them. The lady was so happy that we had come to help her that she became teared-up. We finished raking their leaves fairly quickly, so they asked us to rake their neighbor’s yard because they were out of town.
It is extremely important to care for our environment. In doing so, we reach out a helping hand to generations to come so that they too will be able to enjoy the beauty of living on a health Earth. Caring for our environment also has immediate benefits such as an increased air quality, healthier environment for animals and more. When helping the environment is partnered with helping each other though, something incredible happens. People are blessed emotionally, relationally and environmentally.
Many of the people that I came across during the course of my project were surprised that I was offering my time to serve them. They did not expect a bunch of teenagers to willingly give up their Saturday to help them out. The hours of service that my friends and I put in totaled about 50 hours. Many elderly and sick people were blessed by our service. The youth that helped me with my project were also encouraged to keep serving the community. One of the girls told me, “The looks of gratitude on the faces of the people that we helped out was worth me giving up my homework time.”
Baba Dioum, an environmentalist from Senegal, stood before the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1968 and spoke words that will forever ring in the hearts of those who love humanity and nature. “In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.” Growing up in the majesty of Alaska, “the last frontier,” has taught me to love the Earth, but I have also seen many broken, hurting people struggle to find community and hope here in Fairbanks. In my project, I wanted to use my passion for caring for the Earth as a conduit for caring for the hurting here in my hometown. Through my Apprentice Ecologist Initiative I tried to care for the Earth and care for the people in my community who needed someone to come along side of them and lend them a helping hand. This partnership between caring for people and for the Earth is something that I will carry with always.
Date: December 30, 2011 Views: 4934 File size: 20.7kb, 149.0kb : 960 x 720
Hours Volunteered: 50
Volunteers: 13
Authors Age & Age Range of Volunteers: 18 & 13 to 18