The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Carri C. during the 2007-2008 League.
Volunteering for a Political/Social-Action Organization - American Cancer Society
For my 10 hours of community service, I volunteered to help at a Walk for Life. I helped a group from Foote Hospital called the Oncology Caregivers. My job was basically to help set up, tear down, and anything else they wanted me to do. The setup was the biggest thing. Each group had a theme and had an area at Cascades Park in Jackson to set up in. Our theme was the Garden of Hope. We had more than 30 baskets of flowers and many garden decorations. The garden was enclosed and at the beginning there was a gate, where you could walk in on a wooden walkway up to a fountain. The fountain was a wishing well, so people could make a wish for a cure and throw in a coin. We also had three large signs, each one had a word on it: Celebrate, Remember, and Fight Back. For each one, there were pictures of people who had either survived, died, or still had cancer. It took us 2 ½ hours to set up.
During the time that I was there, I was privileged to walk 2 laps. The first was a team walk, where all the teams got on the track and went around the circle. The second was one that I signed up to walk by myself.
There was all kinds of special walks to do. There was a lap where only survivers walked, and one of them had been a surviver for 34 years! There were also walks where men had to walk one lap in a woman's shoes. But mostly people were just doing the normal walks.
During the evening, there was a luminary ceremony. This was where bags were decorated for someone who had died or who had cancer, then the team would put candles in and light them. The Oncology Caregivers had 150 bags. The entire park had a moment of silence and then bagpipes played for a few minutes. Each team could have their own little ceremony, too. We had everyone hold a lit candle and someone read off the names of the people on the bags, then someone read a poem that they had written.
When morning came, we began tearing down. We made sure everyone got their flowers and decorations back, and cleaned up our food and chairs.
This was an amazing experience, I had never been to a Walk For Life before, and the Oncology Caregivers were so nice to me. I was amazed to see so many survivers, and surprised at how many people who had cancer were there, three of our team had cancer but were still there to help out and raise money.
It also meant a lot to me (helping out and walking), because I know someone who just found out that they had cancer. This person is someone I look up to, and now even more so, because they aren't giving up, and are still fully trusting in God throughout their treatments.
