I mentioned in my post last Friday about starting the week off with several evening meetings, and that tonight's meeting, Aktion Club, is one of my favorites. Aktion Club, as the link to its general website will show, is a service club for adults with intellectual disabilities that is sponsored by Kiwanis. My Kiwanis club, along with three others in the area, work together to sponsor the Aktion Club in our town. Earlier this year, I volunteered to serve on the Club's Advisory Board, helping to plan and guide events and working the Aktion Club meetings each month, on the second Tuesday.
Aktion Club is one of my favorites because its one of those service activities that gets you directly involved with individuals. I enjoy serving on the Library Board of Trustees, as well as on various committees at our church, but so much of that is more administrative and financial in nature that, while needed and helpful, makes it difficult to remember that serving is about reaching individuals. At our Aktion Club meetings, the interaction, the conversation, the fellowship is front and center, whether it be working together to set up for the meal, listening about their day over their dinner, or helping them brainstorm for service projects they want to do. For example, for the past year and into next the club raises monies to assist the Sleeping Children Around the World program, providing bed kits to children in need. Tonight, their Club Board discusses service ideas for next year, which included, among others, picking up trash and litter at local parks.
I enjoy these meetings for many reasons; but one in particularly always stands out - service is often easier than we think. Often times, I think we avoid getting involved in service opportunities and organizations for two reasons: because we are afraid of the time commitment, and time, as a valuable resource, is something to be fiercely protected and monitored; and we are afraid that what we can do won't really be all that helpful. I'm not saying such is not true, but I know that my involvement in Aktion Club takes less than 4 hours a month - about an hour for the advisory board meeting once a month, 2 hours for the actual Club meeting once a month, and less than another hour for associated work (I'm secretary for the Advisory Board). Just going to the Club meetings and serving dinner (not getting early and setting up like Board members), the time commitment would be about an hour each month. And there is no great skill involved in serving a pre-made meal to others, or picking up litter in a park - but everyone can enjoy not having to cook and being served a meal, and I know park staff appreciate all the help they can get in maintaining the cleanliness and appearance of their parks.
That's it. Sometimes, being involved in a service organization that has meaningful impact in the community and in individual's lives can take as little as an hour a month, and doesn't involve any skills that we don't already use on a daily basis in our lives A little bit of service can go a long way. Committing to take an hour out of our month, our week, whatever, to commit to serving some one else or some other group, with no strings attached, can be such a refreshing and restoring act, that it's definitely worth a try.
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
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