Volunteering at Riverfront

For our personal challenge assignment I decided to volunteer at Riverfront. Riverfront is a private, non-profit organization helping approximately 2,000 people with disabilities reach their hopes and dreams. I volunteered there for the first time on Thursday. I volunteered for 3 hours and it was nothing but a life-changing experience for me. Seeing people with disabilities having fun made me feel really good inside. They believe in themselves even though they know they are disabled and that's an amazing thing to see.

When I first walked in a feeling of happiness overtook my whole body. Around me were people of all ages with different disabilities. They all had smiles on their faces and some even came over to greet me with hugs and handshakes. As I walked through the hall, passing by different rooms, I knew that I was in the right place. I really liked it there. I made my way into the production plant, where people with disabilities make and sort out things for different companies. I was introduced to a woman named Mary who was an employee there. She set me down at a table where I worked with a disabled woman named Julie who had down syndrome. Julie had two boxes, one on her left and one on her right. Her job was to grab a bag of nuts and bolts from each box and put them on the table in front of me. From there, it was my job to roll them up into each other, put them into a small clear bag, and stick a yellow piece of paper into the bag. We did about 200 of those within about 2 hours.

After I finished working with Julie I went over to another table. At this table, everyones job was to seal the bags shut. I worked with two men named Ryan and Kent, who were very disabled. They couldn't talk to me like Julie could. I stayed at that table for an hour and we got about 150 bags done.

I am going to volunteer at Riverfront every Thursday. I know that I am making a difference in people's lives and that is an amazing feeling.