Christmas time volunteering

Me and my colleagues grew more and more connected with Guardian Angels Charity. Our weekly visits and our art project strengthened our cooperation with the Charity, encouraging them to ask us to perform certain additional tasks apart from just doing homework with children.

As they were impressed with our work connected with decoupage, they asked us to help them in money raising and to prepare some christmas-themed decorations using that technique so they could sell them. They provided us with bunch of resources, glues, paints, pieces of wood and napkins required to create pretty christmas decorations.

It has reminded me of the times of childhood when I used to prepare my own christmas ornaments with my parents: I used to make white paper snowflakes, colourfull chains, I painted angels and created small Nativity scenes out of a box and colourfull pieces of paper. I recall that when the end of December was coming my room used to be covered with them. Hand-made decorations have some kind of spirit in them, as they require my time and commitment but also because they give some sort of sense of fulfillment and pride that I have skills good enough for ornaments to look pretty. Now I had a chance to experience these feelings once again as I was working on my decorations.

Decoupage seems to be a complicated technique, but once someone gets a little experience it becomes really easy to master it. The results look amazing with minimal effort, which is encouraging. As for me, its only disadvantage is that it is very time consuming. Fortunately I did not have to work alone. We created decorations in the group of 3 – thanks to this collaboration we saved ourselves a lot of time and trouble, as one of us has much greater experience with this technique than the rest and without her we would have spoiled some pieces irreversibly. Also we know each other quite well and I think it has contributed to the fact that we worked good as a team. The cooperation is always easier when we have to cooperate with people we like and we are familiar with. But one has to be carefull when working with friends rather than with strangers, as there is the danger that you will focus more on the conversation, having fun and spending time with them than on the actual task that you undertook!

Workers in Guardian Angels Charity loved our decorations and were extremelly greatful for our commitment. It was very nice to hear about their sincere gratitude for our voluntary work. I felt really appreciated; I think that it is one of the most important feelings in life. If we know that our work is appreciated we have the sense that our actions are not pointless and have an aim.

Since they saw our commitment and the fact that we are eager to help we were also asked to engage our class in baking gingerbread cookies. Each year during Christmas GAC organizes several events during which volunteers sell great deal of cookies. This year me and 9 other students from my class decided to help them and provide them with some.

I engaged with this activity with pleasure, since baking gingerbread cookies at Christmas is one of my favourite parts of Christmas preparations. Until now, eah year I only helped my mum with cutting out the shapes, but this time I baked cookies entirelly on my own. 

This winter I have also taken part in the final of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity – annual fund raising for the equipment used to treat and to take care of children and the elderly. I took part in it third time in a row as a volunteer.

In previous years I have not raised much money but this time I was surprised by the generosity of random passers-by. It only gives evidence that people care about those in need and are ready to give up on some small pleasures in order to donate money and actually help others. In my opinion in most cases unfortunately they do it only on that day. But I bet they would be able to do this more times in a year since the sums they give up individually are not high. If we raised awarness of people and encouraged them to give up on those little things that they do to entertain themselves, i.e. every three months and give the money they usually spent on them to those who need help the most it would be beneficial to the society. Personally, I think I would be able to decide not to go to cinema once in a while and to donate the money I planned to spent on this to some charity. It is not a great sacrifice, but if more people would make similar decision, we would be able to raise more. In my opinion events like Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity should be organised more often. Well in fact there is a variety of different charity events, what I mean is that they should be as recognizable and catch as much attention as GOCC, since in my opinion it is so successful mainly because of its popularity.

I am happy that once again I took part in this event and helped to collect money for children and elderly people. It shows me how powerful people can be, how much can they do if they unite to achieve one aim; more than 40 millions raised in this year by the charity prove it entirely.

Learning outcomes:

- Developed new skills

- Worked collaboratively with others

- Shown perseverance and commitment

- Engaged with issues of global importance