This year for Minimester I had the opportunity to serve locally around the Plano area. My group consisted of seven girls where we had two leaders for the whole week. We went to four different places to serve, Minnie’s Food Pantry, Shiloh Place, Meals on Wheels, and Grace Bridge. I was so grateful to be able to serve and give back to my community and help others in need.

At Minnie’s Food Pantry we actually worked in their store by restocking the shelves, sorted through things that were donated, and organized and priced clothing. Their store does not open on the day that we were there, so this was very helpful to them with getting everything done before they open the next day. We also helped clean and change a shelf in their storage room as well as reorganizing the bathroom in the store. At Shiloh Place, this is an organization for single mothers with children from ages 1 to 10. We helped them by cleaning their playground. We raked leaves that fell from the trees, cleaned bikes, and cleaned their porch. It was such a nice feeling to hear the people at these places tell us how grateful they are for us to be helping them because it goes a long way.

At Meals on Wheels, we packed about 2,000 meals for elderly people. My group had an assembly line going, and we all came together to pack boxes filled with foods such as pasta, cookies, crackers, and chocolate milk. We also helped with organizing a shelf filled with food that had been donated to the organization. We organized them based on different categories; there was a vegetable category, a meat category, and many different other categories. My favorite place to serve that week was at Grace Bridge. This was a place where there were many different groups from the school that came to serve at the same time. Half of the group would be writing letters to the children in Uganda which would be sent to them and the other half was working on packing food boxes. I started off writing letters, and I probably wrote 15 letters, then I helped pack boxes. I really enjoyed writing those letters. and I hope that I was able to put a smile on the children’s faces in Uganda.

I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of Minimester where I could serve. I was able to make new friends with people that I may not talk to in school as well as with teachers that I do not have. Just because we took a week to give back, does not mean that I will stop. This inspires me to want to give back more times.