Raking Leaves

I’m a member of the St. Andrews Lutheran youth group (SAY). In the fall we rake leaves for members of our church that can’t rake their leaves, have trouble raking their leaves or just need some help. This year we went to three houses on three consecutive Sunday afternoons. I helped with two of them because I had too much homework one week. We try to get as many of us together so the job goes faster and it is usually more fun. It is hard to get a lot of the youth there because our church doesn’t have many and lots of us have busy schedules plus lots of homework. Raking leaves give back to our church family and connects the church just a little bit more.

            Whenever our church does service projects like leaf raking I feel like I’m giving back to our church for everything they do for SAY. The church gives so much to the youth to be able to go on trips like the national youth gathering and going to St. Louis. The money members give also helps us with other fun actives we like to do. With leaf raking we give them something back. Even with this small thing it feel really good because they have trouble with it and we are helping them in ways that we can’t describe. SAY always likes to do activities to help at our church and in the community so that the help from the members doesn’t go to waste.

            Doing social events like leaf raking helps with connecting people together. It helps with connecting the youth to other generations. Many of the youth don’t go to the same school and even the people that go to my school I don’t talk too much. When we do social events, we get to know each other more and get caught up on our lives. We connect ourselves with our parents’ generation because they usually help us out and provide some of our transportation. We also connect ourselves with the older generation when we help with their yard and sometimes we talk to them and get to know them more.

The individuals receiving our charitable event - rake leafing are happy also.  They have provided food for us like hot dogs in the past. Some of them will come out and talk to us while we are working or after and tell us that they truly appreciate what we do. It’s funny how when one person does something nice it is a chain reaction that should never end.

           

            Something as simple as raking leaves is a big part of how my youth group gives back to the community and connects with generations.