Faith Donnell

After the Halloween Carnival, Mr. Poole had us do a post-check-in about our experience and what we enjoyed while getting to work with the YRCC. I said that I really enjoyed getting to see how much the kids loved the carnival and how much it meant to their families. Parents always want the best for their kids so I think that it is awesome that the YRCC provides such important resources for these families that are struggling financially. I appreciate Mr. Poole and everyone at the YRCC for giving back to the community in such a huge way!

Today was the day of the Halloween Carnival! I went into the YRCC around 2 to help finish setting up everything and to make sure everything was prepared for the event to start at 4. When I got there everybody who had been there this morning was on lunch so I just worked on some finishing touches. I added some streamers hanging from the door so that people could pass through those as they walked in. I also added some spider webs on the walls and put caution tape everywhere to make the place look really spooky! During the event, I worked in the craft room and helped kids color and make little ghosts. It was so fun to get to know all the kids and their families! After the event, everyone worked really well together to clean everything up quickly. Overall, I had a great experience working with the YRCC and I hope I can volunteer there again in the future!

For my service learning hours this week, I went to the YRCC to help set up for the big Halloween carnival tomorrow. When I got there I worked on tapping down numbers on the floor for the cakewalk. After I was done tapping down the numbers I helped decorate some of the different tables that are going to be at the event. We put white paper on top of the tables so that we could draw on the tables. For the rest of the time I worked on drawing cute Halloween designs on the tables! I am excited about the Halloween carnival tomorrow it is going to turn out great!

Today for my service learning hours I went into the community center! When I got there Mr. Poole and I got on a Zoom to meet with everybody about the Halloween Carnival to do some planning and make sure everyone was on the same page. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes and afterwards, Mr. Poole gave me a task to work on for the carnival cake walk. I spent the rest of my time in the craft room cutting out circles that we are going to place on the floor for this activity. Overall, I had a good time and I am so excited to see this event all come together for the kids at the YRCC!

Today I went to the YRCC and Jeff said that we were going to hit a couple of thrift stores to look for some costumes for the Halloween Carnival! I was super excited because I love going thrifting! At our first stop, we found some old scrubs that we thought we could throw some fake blood on to be scary nurses/doctors. We also found a tablecloth for our fortune-telling station and a razorback jersey that we also thought we could throw some fake blood on. We ended up not having time for another thrift store but I thought we got a lot of good stuff for a good price at the thrift store we went to! I am excited to see everyone in their costumes on the night of the Halloween Carnival!

I have been working with the YRCC on this carnival candy donation for the past month, so today when I went into the center I decided to bring 2 bags of candy with me! I am excited to be able to provide a fun event for the kids who attend the YRCC! I think it is awesome what the YRCC does for these kids and I am excited that I get to give back to the community by donating candy and working this Halloween event!

Today I went in to YRCC for my service learning hours. When I got there Mr. Poole told me some exciting news about how we got about 2,000 dollars in donation for the Halloween Carnival! I was super excited about that and thought that was awesome news. While I was there I worked on helping Mr. Poole create an event on Give Pulse for candy donation for the upcoming Halloween event. I typed out a description of the types of candy that we wanted people to bring and included that they could even get up to 2 hours of volunteer time for donating candy! Towards the end of my hour, we just talked about what I was going to do next week for my work-from-home service learning hours. Overall, I am having a great time working with the YRCC!

For my service learning hours today, I went to the YRCC and discussed with Mr. Poole what the haunted house event was going to look like. I did some research on some alternate options compared to a haunted house like a haunted carnival with carnival games and maybe even a bouncy house. I added all of these ideas to a collaborative Google doc so that we have them to reference in the future. We also went outside and decided on a good spot for the haunted house which would be smaller and easier to decorate. I felt like we got a lot done today and I had fun!

Today I worked from home for my service learning hours! I'm thankful that the YRCC is letting me work half in person and half virtually because it really accommodates my busy schedule and is super helpful. Mr. Poole emailed me today and asked me to research some haunted houses in Northwest Arkansas. I created a Google Doc with different haunted houses that will be open this fall. I included information like when they are going to be open, prices of tickets, and any additional information that I thought might be helpful for the haunted house we are planning to create at the YRCC!

I had a great experience going to the Yvonne Richardson Center for the first time! I got to meet some of the people that work there and I got to get started working on the Haunted House, which is the event I will be helping out with this semester. I had fun creating a Google doc and brainstorming some ideas on people who could donate money for this event. I even scrolled a little through Pinterest to get some ideas on how we should create and decorate the haunted house.