Beloved Grandmother Community Service example essay topic

Beloved Grandmother Community service is something that you can do in many ways, shapes and forms. You don't have to be someone special to help; you just have to be there on your own free will to be a good helper. No one can force you to do community service. No matter what you do there is nothing like the feeling of giving back to your community. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines community service as services volunteered by individuals or an organization to benefit a community or its institutions or similar work performed by law offenders to serve a sentence in lieu of or in addition to jail time. I started to do community service when I was in seventh grade.

My school was big on helping the community. Some of the school organizations would go out and do community service projects as part of their school activity. We raked leaves for the elderly citizens in our community on a Saturday morning. One of the clubs backed apple pies and delivered them to all of the homebound citizens as a good will offering.

I participate in a thirty-hour famine to raise money to send to a country ravished by famine of the group's choice. We collected nonperishable food items for the local food shelf and raised money to be sent to the country of our choice. I would work on anything that was needed to be done. I work on anything from habitat for humanity houses to church day cares. To me being active in my community is a part of who I am and where I come from. "Ouch!" I cried after I ran into the corner of the coffee table.

I knew that my brothers, cousins and I shouldn't be running in the house but isn't that the only fun way to play tag? When a child is ten years old and lives in a very small community where all or most of his / her friends go away for the summer, a child tries to entertain their self in any way that he / she can to pass the time away. The only way that my two cousins, my two brothers and I could think of to entertain us was to cause chaos in an already chaotic situation. Stop running in the house", my cousin Mandra, the babysitter, had yelled not even ten minutes before I got hurt in the morning on the day that my beloved grandmother died. It was one of those weeks when nothing seems to be going the way that you wanted it to go. Normally, the day would start out at about seven when my parents would get us kids up and ready to go to work with mom.

Half the day we were with mom and the other half we would go to our grandpa's house until mom got off work. We would be out of the house by seven thirty and on our way. Lately that had changed. Instead of my brothers, my sister and me going to work with mom my cousin Mandra started to come to the house in the mornings to baby-sit us. Mom and dad started to only work in the morning and go to St. James, the town that my grandparents lived in, in the afternoon until late in the evening. This day had started out like all the other ones had that week.

My parents would get up at about six to go to work. They both worked in a town about thirty minutes away from our house. My mom owned the Mankato Greyhound Bus Depot branch and my dad worked for the Eagle's. The Eagle's is a bar where he cleaned. One of my mother's employees would then take over from noon to closing so that she could leave.

Then at about noon my parents would come home to eat lunch and pick up my brothers to drive forty-five minutes away to the town where my grandparents lived. My grandparents live in a town called St. James. They had lived there for many years. My mom, all her brothers and sisters would be at my grandmother's house sitting around her bed hoping that she would come out of the coma so that they could tell her in person how much they loved her and wished that she was not suffering any more.

My parents would then call at about five to make sure that everything was going ok. Nine months prior to this my grandparents where enjoying the winter in Michigan. They were planning to stay with family for about four months. It was about a month in to there stay when things started to turn for the worst. One day we got a call from my grandfather that my grandmother was in the hospital, he said that the doctors where doing tests to see what was wrong. He said that they thought that she had pick up some kind of bug that was making her sick.

The doctors were not sure what the cause was so he was going to call us back when he got the information. When it looked like it was not going to be good the family decided that they where going to go out there to be with her. My mother her two brothers and sisters made a hasty trip out to see her. The doctors came back with the news that she had colon cancer.

The doctors said that she probably had it for five years with out anyone finding it. Unfortunately, it had progressed so much that she only had about a year to live. On the day that my grandmother died, I was sitting in the chair pouting that I got hurt and no one would give me sympathy. They all had said that it was known to me that running should not be done in the house and that it was my fault that I got hurt.

This situation made me think about what my grandmother would have said. When ever anyone got hurt and it was something minor she would say", You aren't hurt dear, you just think that you are". That always seems to make me feel better because she would end the saying with a kiss one the spot that hurt. She would then give us a hug and send us on our way to go play some more.

Just months before as my grandmother sat with me on the hand made wooden swing on the front porch of my grandparent's eggshell blue house we talked about all our hopes and dreams. My grandmother was very close to me. We had just each other when it came to the grandchildren being over. All of the grandchildren up until about a year before were boys leaving me the only girl to be the one that was picked on the most.

We would hang out and do girl things while my grandfather would be outside with the boys teaching them how to become men. We were in separate able when we were together. I would spend the summers with her doing nothing in particular. We had a special bound that no one could break. If you saw my grandmother, I was not that far behind. I had such big dreams about what I was going to be when grown up.

I dreamed about my wedding day. What the dress would be like, who was going to be there and most important was that my grandma was going to be there to cheer me on. We also talked about what life was going to be like and how we would welcome some of the changes while the others we would just take in stride. One of my grandmother's dreams was to see all of her grandchildren grow up and graduate from high school and then go on to college and become something great. We talked for hours about what they where and how we where going to achieve them if we had not already. We talked about what my dreams were and how I would like to meet them and make them come true.

We decided that as the years go on my dreams would probably change and make us think of different things than what we thought that would happen. Just by talking to her it helped me understand that everything was not going to go the way that I wanted it to go. We made a promise that I would not give up on my dreams but keep trying until my dream was achieved. In return my grandmother promised to always be there for me no matter what. Even thought we were different in other that we had something ways we found in common.

My grandmother had black hair and the prettiest hazel eyes that I had ever seen. As far back as I could remember she was always frail. She was one of those take-charge people who always keep a level head about everything I was the opposite of her in the ways that I was a very healthy, outgoing child. I was full of energy and liked to keep everyone smiling. We found out that one of our dreams were the same? We both wanted to be involved in our community and to help it in anyway that we could.

At the age of ten I really didn't know what I could do that would be useful to my community. I thought that it was something great that you had to do to be noticed as a volunteer. My grandmother told me that in time, it would be known to me what would be the right think to do to help the people around me. She told me that serving the community was not giving them all of your money but that of giving your time to help someone that is in need. My grandmother was a very petite person. We talked about some of the ways that she had helped the community that she lived in.

She had taken in students from the high school for up to three days when the weather was so bad that they cancelled school and the buses would not go out into the country. When there was a fund-raiser was being set up or in need of volunteers she was one of the firsts to sign up and take over what needed to be done. My grandmother never said no to anything that I can remember. It there was something that needed to be done and no one else wanted to do it she would be the one to do it. If it were washing the walls in a homeless shelter she would do it with pride. She would do anything from car washes to help the school to back sales for the local women's club.

It was five in the afternoon and we where just finishing dinner when my parents called to make sure that we had. It was my favorite meal, spaghetti and garlic bread. They said that they would not be leaving my grandparents until about seven. That usually meant that they would be eating some of the food that seemed to never stop coming from all of the people that knew my grandparents. The people would bring anything from cake to casserole to things that could be frozen to beverages. Everyday someone would bring some kind of food over to the house to be consumed by all of the people that where there by the side of my grandmothers bed.

I was so mad that I could not be there that I ran up to my room and pouted. I refused to come out until my cousin bribed me with ice cream. It was getting to be a long day so my cousin, the babysitter thought that it would be a good thing if my two cousins and me started to settle down for the night. She put in the movie that she thought that we would like to watch "The Little Mermaid". It was ten minutes into the movie when I got sick to my stomach. My cousin gave me some medicine to help but it seemed that no matter what she did, it didn't help.

She said that it was probably from me running around so much and not letting my food settle after eating. So finally after crying so much that they only way that she could get me to stop was to say that she would call my parents. They told me to go lay down in their bed because that had helped all of the other times. After lying down for about twenty minutes my stomach was feeling all-better, so I went back down stairs to finish watching the movie. It was about eight and I was worried where my parents where because they had said that they would be home around seven thirty. Then the phone started to ring and Mandra answered it.

It was for me. It was my parents and they said the thing that I had been dreading to hear. They said that they would be late because my beloved grandmother had died. ran up the stairs and cried myself to sleep. I dreamed about all the things that we had done together and all of the other things that we had planned for us to do. Like her coming to my graduation and for me to stay with her and my grandfather for the summer. We had planned summer trips that we hope to go on with all of the family.

I dreamed of all the times that we had just sat on the blue chair in the living room of her eggshell blue house and talked about nothing in particular. We called this special time our cuddling time, just the two of us. The day of her funeral and the months that followed I learned some more about what my grandmother had told me about communities coming together to help people that are in need. That you don't have to give money to help someone in need, you just have to be there for them, listen to what they have to say and most of all care.

All of the people in the town that my grandparents lived where helpful in bring food, taking care of the younger children, and just being there with a shoulder for us to cry on. Everyone was affected by the death of my grandmother that was a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, a sister, a friend, and an active member of the community well known for all of the volunteering that she did. Some of the people that she had helped had come to say goodbye to a very special person that would always be a part of their lives. She would never be forgotten for what she had done to help them. My grandmother never got the chance to see any of her grandchildren grow up. She will never get to see them graduate from high school or go on to college.

She will never get to see me get married. Even thought she will not get to see those things she still has had an influence in all of our lives. Through her guiding hand when we were younger, all of the grandchildren that had a chance to get to know her, all know what its like to help out in their community any way that they can. On of the things that my grandmother has keep going is that as I have grown older I have learned from experience that contributing to your community is something that is very big to the people on the receiving end of it all. I have also learned that just being there is sometimes enough of contributions that it even makes you feel better about yourself. I have participated in many community service projects that have helped many people.

If I hadn't had the support of all my family I don't think the person that I am today would be possible. I am someone that takes pride in the fact that I can help others by over coming big odds. If my grandmother had not have had such a big influence on me I don't know if I would be the person that is well known in my home town for all of the volunteering that I participate in. As my grandmother would say "there is never too small of a contribution, only great big thanks at the end.".