By CERENITY JENKINS

Special to the Star-Telegram

Printed Sunday, May 09, 2010

(Cerenity is a 2009-2010 LeaderKid)

Who knew that raking leaves would make a big difference in someone’s life? I honestly didn’t think that was a big deal.

Now thinking about it, I wasn’t too happy about raking leaves. I guess the littlest things in life can make people happy.

For my volunteer service trip, I went to the All Church Home. This is a place for kids to go when they don’t have a home. The All Church Home is for the kids to have a safe place to go. If they didn’t have a place to go, the only place for them would be to live on the streets. No one wants to live on the streets.

For our project, we raked the leaves that were in the yard. At the time, I didn’t feel like raking leaves had anything to do with our service project. I guess I wasn’t reading between the lines.

How did we help out by raking leaves? We helped out by giving the kids a safe place to play. We gave them a safe place to have fun, a place to be free, and a place to not have to worry about things. I hope it really helped them.

By raking the leaves, we prevented some major injuries. Along with the leaves, we picked up the branches and sharp sticks. If someone was running and they fell into a pile of leaves, and there was a sharp stick, they could have hurt themselves. Now, the kids have a cleaner area to play in.

If you would have asked me what “Service Above Self” meant to me before I went to the All Church Home, I would have just told you that it means to put other people’s needs before your own. Now, after the experience of going to the All Church Home, I will tell you differently. “Service Above Self” means not only to put other people’s needs before your own, but also to understand why and how you are helping them. Anybody can just rake some leaves. The point you have to ask yourself is, “Why am I doing this? What difference does this make to people? Is this a positive impact on someone?”

I didn’t notice it right away, but I thought it over, and yes, I did make a difference. It may have been a little difference to me, but now I know that the kids at All Church Home will have a safer place to play. That is a big difference.

The one thing that I wished we could’ve done was see the kids. I wish we could’ve interacted and talked with the kids. It would have been really interesting to see how their life was at the All Church Home. I think that the All Church Home was a really cool place, and I am glad that I got the chance to go there.

Cerenity Jenkins, an eighth-grader at Fort Worth’s Riverside Middle School, was selected as the winner of the Rotary Club of Fort Worth’s annual STARS essay contest.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/05/08/2173335/jenkins-the-littlest-things-in.html#ixzz0nZpyJp4Y