Rewarding? Oh yes.

Day 3 at the ACFBYLS could be described in many words. Exciting, tiring, exhilarating, and eye opening are just a few. To me however, a single word that encompasses the entirety of feelings, experiences, and memories of Day 3 is "rewarding". I started the day at the Food Bank brightly and early. Waking up at 6 AM was beginning to be almost like a habit so even the thought, "It's so early!" and things like sleepiness never even crossed my mind. Arriving at about 8:00, half an hour early, I found myself wandering the long sheet of white paper, rolled out and ready to be drawn and written all over. This was the graffiti page for day 3 and as I was aimlessly doodling on it, I couldn't help but asking myself, "What will I write on this at the end of the day to sum up everything I learned, experienced and witnessed?" I knew that what I wrote wasn't as significant as how my experiences of the day influenced what I wrote. And I know I wanted this day to be a day I'd remember.
At exactly 8:45, when all the members of the Summit had arrived, we promptly started the day by volunteering at our designated sites: Midtown Assistance Center (MAC), Genesis Shelter, and The ACBF Community Garden. My site was the Genesis Shelter. The Gensis Shelter is a shelter that houses families with infants. It aims to provide temporary shelter, childcare, and to assist families in financial matters and in obtaining employment. The Food Bank plays a major role in supplying this shelter with essential amounts of food and other goods. Knowing very little about the mechanisms of shelters in the Atlanta area, I had absolutely no inclination as to what I could expect as volunteer. This thoughts lingered in my mind even until arriving there along with Allie, Sydney, and Marissa and our chaprone Jon. We were promplty and eagerly greeted by one of the directors of shelter and she began to conduct a tour of the shelter. She led us to the cafeteria where they served meals to all 18 families housed at the shelter, infant nurseries, daycares and the clinic. I was surprised by the number of resources they shelter had and put to good use. We were then led to the daycare and a playground where about 15 kids of ages 3 to 5 excitedly came to us as soon as we stepped out. They invited us to play with them and even though we were all far older than the kids we were playing with, I know we all enjoyed it. Was this volunteer work? It certainly didn't feel like it! It was fun, unstressed, and completely natural. After an enjoyable experience with these kids, we went inside to start helping in the kitchen. We were instructed to help prepare the meals for the infants. It surely was a memorable experience as we were all dressed up in plastic aprons, green rubber gloves, and hairnets! After helping with the infants' meals, we revisited the same children and helped them with making their own personal pizzas. They were super excited and as far as I could tell, I was certainly happy and excited about helping.
This marked the ending time, 11:30 and we had to leave. We said our goodbyes and gave plenty of high fives to the kids and hopped onto the bus. On our way back, I could not forget how rewarding I felt that experience was. I learned, I witnessed, and I helped. The feeling and sensations resulting from this visit lingered on for the rest of the day and I have no doubt in mind I will ever forget them.