Leo Club is a great way to start volunteering to help the community. Applications are in Ms. Anne Marie Thornton’s room (D02) and Ms. Jackie Bass’s room (D06). Leo Club helps people to find the best places to volunteer. However, Leo Club isn’t the only way to find volunteer opportunities.
Some students finds volunteer opportunities through their church. Teachers are also a source, and the Student Bulletin sometimes posts opportunities. Many of the most popular places to volunteer include the Open Door Mission, the Nebraska Humane Society, Tutoring, and even Equine Therapy – which uses horses to help with physical and mental health.
One of the main reasons to volunteer is to help the less fortunate, whether feeding the homeless, or helping others in your community, all while doing something good for your own mental health.
National Honor Society sponsor Ms. Paige Beaty explained, “Volunteering forces us to see other people and their unique situations, giving us a new perspective on our lives and sometimes even igniting a spark or a passion for a line of work that we wouldn’t have otherwise known existed.”
Opportunities like the Food Bank of the Heartland give out food to the less fortunate. This doesn’t just help them, but it also helps the volunteers by giving them a sense of fulfillment and gratitude.
Senior Kamryn Exner, who cooked food for low-income families at First United Methodist Church, said, “It feels really rewarding and it makes me feel really grateful for what I have. A lot of the people who come in to get food, that ends up being their only real meal of the day, and it feels good to know that I’m helping someone in need.”
Another volunteer, senior Rome Bridger, volunteered at Equine Therapy. She explained how she was positively affected by volunteering: “Not only do you have the opportunity to work with horses as well as participants, you are adopted into a family. You learn how to be responsible, humble, and learn a surprising amount about yourself as well as the people you get to work with.”
