Volunteering Research Paper

The summer after the ninth grade I decided to volunteer at my church's summer camp. It was my first time volunteering as an animator, camp counselor, and I was very nervous. The camp had a certain schedule like a school. First we would start off with breakfast. Next would be house time which was a time where the kids would get together by age and they would play games and learn chants. After that was all camp, which is where all the kids would mix together and play a game. Then we had activity sessions. Finally the kids would all get together to say a prayer, and then we would go to lunch. But where I had trouble was activity sessions. I was in the arts and crafts room, and the girl in charge of that activity was the total opposite of me. Her …show more content…
She refused to let anyone use the supplies in the arts and crafts room, unless they got permission from her first. If she was out one day and the arts and crafts room was a mess we would spend the beginning of the camp cleaning it up. I felt like I was the camper instead of the animator. Maybe it was the things she experienced at the camp or other camps and programs but I could not relate to her. I found it so hard to work with her. Every time I would try to help out I would somehow not do it right or I did it the opposite way of how she wanted it. And that’s how it was most days during activity sessions. I didn’t like the way she ran things and I didn’t like her. She was straight forward with the animators, kind of mean, and sort of a neat freak. I didn’t know what experiences she had gone through, but I knew I didn’t like her. But as the days passed, it got easier and easier to understand her. I soon got promoted to co-head of the arts and crafts room. And as soon as that happened, I began to see why she was so straightforward with all of the animators, and I began to understand that she wasn’t being mean to the