Project LINK-Jessica Ferbrache

1. I volunteered for EIU Best Buddies at the buddy ball on April 14th from 12pm-3pm, at the Charleston VFW. I also volunteered for girls on the run on April 20th from 8am-11am, at Charleston high school.
2. Best Buddies is a non profit organization for individuals with disabilities. It is a chapter at Eastern and my roommate is the director of it. Students from Eastern are able to form one on one friendships with individuals with disabilities in the community. These individuals are always excited to get out of their houses and do fun activities with the college students. Most of them live in CTF houses and are a lot of them do not get to see their families frequently. In class we discussed that individuals with disabilities are an invisible group of people, which is why programs like these are so important. While volunteering for girls on the run, I worked the gratitude garden with Georgia Hillard, who works for Body Electric. The gratitude garden was for anyone to come up and draw a picture of a flower and write what they are thankful for. Girls on the run is a nonprofit organization and is a youth development program for girls. It promotes girls to be healthy and confident. Adolescents are easily influenced and are programs like these to promote positive behavior are extremely important within the community. 
3. While volunteering at Best Buddies, I did not make any connections because it is run by the EIU students. I gained friendships and more knowledge about individuals with disabilities. These individuals are part of the community and it was wonderful to be able to hang out with them and see them enjoying themselves so much. While volunteering at Girls on the Run, I worked with Georgia and I am also going to be interning at Body Electric this summer. I was able to get a feel for the program and get to know Georgia better. I got to talk to a lot of young girls about what they were thankful for and about girls on the run. They were thankful for a lot of amazing things and it really made me appreciate things in my life as well.
4. Both of the places I volunteered at are great for the community. At the Girls on the Run event, there were so many people there to support everyone. Boys are also allowed to run, as well as family members and other members of the community. There were different booths around for everyone to go check out such as our gratitude garden, and face painting, and hair coloring. Everything about this event was so positive and encouraging for everyone. It is a very great program. Best Buddies is also a great program because it gives students at Eastern the opportunity to get to know these amazing individuals with disabilities. It is also very fun and rewarding to make these friendships and see your best buddy so happy. 
5. I really enjoyed doing this assignment because it got me out into the community more and volunteering more. I think this assignment was very rewarding. I was able to make connections with amazing people in best buddies and was able to work closely with children and families at the girls on the run event. I will continue to volunteer with body electric this summer and hope the programs continue to be fun and beneficial to families.