Verbatim Paper for Sma

Kathryn Ferrel

Ms. Lee

Community Service Seminar

March 21, 2013

Community Service Verbatim

Background:

I spend my volunteer hours at an organization named Project C.U.R.E. There are numerous locations across the country, but I serve at the warehouse in Centennial off Geddes Avenue. Project C.U.R.E. looks for volunteers to help them sort medical supplies that are sent to foreign countries to treat patients. Local hospitals and offices donate any unused medical materials to Project C.U.R.E. Generally, both my mom and I spend about 2 hours a weekend organizing certain medical supplies into specific boxes, with about fifteen other people working alongside us. I know for me, Project C.U.R.E. is a bit different than what many of us have spoken about, as I do not have direct contact with the people we aid, but I do get a chance to learn about the other volunteers. Of course everyone has a story, and we can attempt to understand what it is like to walk in their shoes. Last time at the warehouse, the head of the volunteers had brought her son to help with the whole process. At first glance, one would probably assume he was your average teenage boy, but his mannerisms and speech revealed he had some form of autism. His name was Dustin. Dustin usually isolated himself, and would sometimes sing or mumble to himself while sifting through medical supplies. He took great interest in numbers. I remember he had to unload a big box of gauze wrap, and there were 243 rolls. Dustin exclaimed of many different ways to achieve that number, such as 27 times 9 equals 243 and so on. He could really only focus on work for about ten minutes or so, then would ask for permission to skate around the warehouse on the rollerblades he brought with him. He had a very innocent and happy presence about him, but would generally shy away from anyone who asked him for something. One lady asked him if he knew what was the right box to put some supply into, but he gave her a look and...