The week after school ended in June 2010, I went on a trip with an organization called Students Today Leaders Forever. About 30 high school kids from schools all around the twin cities hopped on a big greyhound type bus for one week to travel in Wisconsin and Illinois doing service projects. Our leaders were college students from the U of M and a couple other schools. There were about 40 people in total. We slept in church basements and became a little family. We did service projects in Madison, WI, Lacross WI, Rockford IL, and Chicago IL.
In Lacrosse, we stopped at a nursing home to help out. We were broken up into groups to do different activities with the residents. Some did manicures for the residents, some did bowling, and some took the residents outside for "walks". I took a couple residents out for "walks". The first lady i took out had Alzheimer's to the point where she could no longer walk, and could barely talk. I went out with a couple leaders and another resident who was in the same position. We sang "You Are My Sunshine" and they started to sing along! It was wonderful. Then, one leader, Luke, started talking to the ladies, and asking them things, although he knew they couldn't reply. But amazingly enough, one lady did reply! She said she used to play the violin when she was younger! Later, when we told the director, she exclaimed "You got one of her golden moments!" I'm sure I was practically glowing from the joy of helping.
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