Philadelphia, PA (1998)

In 1998, I participated in the Alternative Spring Break Program, a national initiative established to promote service-learning. As an ASB volunteer, I joined 12 of my fellow Central students as we ventured to Philadelphia to work in the inner-city. While in Philadelphia, we spent the bulk of our time working at the Greater Philadelphia Book Bank. We sorted through well over 10,000 books during our week-long stay, and that’s no exaggeration!! Our efforts were matched by local City Year workers. City Year is a division of Americorps focused on teaching youth about responsibility, commitment, brotherhood/sisterhood, and civic duty. Every morning we joined the City Year team downtown for our motivating exercises and inspiring words of wisdom. Rain or shine, we gathered in the city plaza at sunrise and performed jumping jacks, leg stretches, and arm circles. Following our exercises, we dispersed to conduct our community service. On the days we weren’t working in the Book Bank, we ventured down to the City Year headquarters and worked with children enrolled in the Young Heroes program. Young Heroes was designed to teach children about leadership, teamwork, and social responsibility. By bringing children together in a constructive, positive atmosphere, City Year hopes to satisfy the children’s desire to be accepted by their peers, a desire that may otherwise motivate them to join inner-city gangs.

See pictures from my experience