As the year progresses, more trips are in store for the members of Youth Leadership Council. The trips we went on last year were a lot of fun. Some of my favorite trips included the trip to Lakeland, Florida, and the Special Olympics at Campbell. When we went to Florida, it was to help out after Hurricane Irma hit them. We helped other volunteers clean up a library in one of the elementary schools that had been flooded. We mainly picked up and moved books and chairs around so the library could be as good as new. Later that afternoon we set up several tables with canned goods, cookies, chips and potatoes as well as cases of water.
A really long line of people from the community started to form. We gave them boxes and bags to carry their food in and some of the volunteers even carried the food and water to some of the people’s houses if they were close enough. On the last day, we helped clean up a football field then we got to watch a series of football games. After that was done, one of the PAL advisors from Florida paid for us to go out and eat as well as go to a trampoline park. I really had a lot of fun meeting some new people and getting to see how close people in communities are to each other.
The other trip I wanted to talk abut was the Harnett County Special Olympics. Here, we are assigned to certain schools and then we get to help the kids that participate in different sporting events, like sprinting and throwing softballs as far as they can. This event is my all-time favorite because I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they accomplish something that can be very challenging for them and they get an award. When they are there, they know they are not being judged and they actually get to have fun.
