For the past four days, I have been volunteering at the Richmond Hill Heritage Center. In this blog, I will talk about my experience as a volunteer.
In order to sign up for the job, I went to the volunteer website. At the website, you can apply for volunteer jobs and you can collect your hours. The job I decided to apply for was an assistant at a Dino camp. At the camp, I will be tasked with getting materials and helping with activities.
The first day, was not as bad as I thought. I managed to get my volunteering T-shirt and name tag on the first day. My first task was to hand out coloring paper and to get crayons. Besides handing out sheets and getting materials, I didn’t really do much. The first activity was to have the kids glue sunflower seed on an Ankylosaurus picture. I just helped with handing out the sheets and sunflower seeds. When it was time for the kid’s snack time, I cleaned up the room and help kids wash their hands. After snack, it was time for them to go outside. Fortunately, two of the three staff members were in charge of games. I just had to make sure kids don’t wander around. After collecting my first hours, I went to lunch with my mom and brother.
The second day, was apparently T Rex day. Each day at camp had a dinosaur representing it. The yesterday was an Ankylosaurus, today was a T Rex, tomorrow would be an Apatosaurus, and the final day would be a Triceratops. After, the kids arrive and colored their sheets. A staff explained the differences between herbivores and carnivores. After the explanation, it was time for the activity. That day, they would have to assemble a T Rex skeletons. After the activity, it was time for a snack. Once, snack was over they played a game. The game was called 123 Freeze. One kid went far away with is his back turned. While the other kids would stand 10 m behind him. When the kid with his back turned said 123 the other kids could move. When the kid with his back turned said Freeze, the other kids would stop moving. The goal was to have the other kid touch the kid with the back turned. The Next day would be very similar to the second day and nothing really changed.
The final and fourth day started off very frantically. This is because I miss placed my volunteer paper. Without this paper, I would’ve lost the nine hours I collected over the past three days. After looking around I eventually found it. Unfortunately, I arrived four minutes late. Luckily it didn’t really matter and things continued as normal. The final day was the Triceratops day. First, I handed out the coloring paper, next one of the staff explained what a triceratops was, and finally they did an activity before snack time. The activity was a Triceratops puppet. The kids made it with a paper bag and triceratops cut outs. Outside, they play games like 123 freeze and tag. At the end of the day, I collected my hours and went home.
Overall, my first volunteer experience was easier than I thought. I didn’t have to do that much work and most of it was handing stuff out. Next year, I would probably do the Dino camp job again. Next time I plan to volunteer with some of my other friends. In the end, this was my first hours of volunteering.