VBS

The past five days of my life have been spent volunteering at "Beach Be Attitude" for the St. Isidore's Catholic Church Vacation Bible School. Children ages 3-12 come 10 am to 1 pm and hear stories from the bible, sing songs, make crafts, have a snack, and play games. Every year is tons of fun and we learn a lot. However, this year we had kind of an off week. The Thursday before the actual Vacation Bible School, we all had a meeting to make sure that everything was in place for the week and that weekend was used to make decorations. Everything was perfect as far as we could tell. We had a lot of children signed up to come, the shirts were on their way, and everybody was ready to be there at 8 am on Monday. Well during the meeting my little sister (who was looking forward to helping out for her first time this year) found out that she was supposed to be registered as a student this year. She was disappointed, but she got over it and had a lot of fun listening to both views of the day (leader and student). Monday came and the shirts weren't ready yet. The staff was a little upset, but we quickly got over it with the children running around the gym. The groups weren't ready for the leaders (jobs of the advisers) so everybody in the same age group traveled together and the leaders had to watch all 28 preschool kids. It wasn't so bad, but two of the kids were crying and one refused to participate all week. Worst day of the week (we ended up having one of the meetings we only have when somebody breaks a rule). Tuesday came and I was assigned to the fifth grade group (with my sister and the group refused to say more than three words at a time). Not my first choice since a parent requested me for their child (that I know and love) in the preschool (which I signed up for). There was a crazy girl spreading rumors about everything and to everybody (drama queen freshman) but she was eventually caught in her lies. Wednesday came and we finally got our shirts. Things were fine that day, but it was still more like an actual job than the fun it had been in the previous years. Thursday somebody lost a child and a friend of mine got blamed for it. The child was not in his rotation and, technically, not his responsibility. He refuses to return to help us out next year, with understandable reasoning in my opinion. I promised him things would be better next year and explained how previous years had been better. Friday came and things were fine for the most part. Some of the group leaders were a little irresponsible and some of the students were snots to me, but that is expected. While cleaning up there was a small mishap with the bleachers. The bleachers had broken earlier in the week and were again acting up while being put away. I was sent to fix the bleachers (by going underneath and lifting the switch) when some people began to push them back into the wall (most horrific experience of my life). We finished cleaning up and put everything in the car to take back to the "storage facility" that we keep the stuff in (the supervisor's garage). This week was not our best year and we hope to do better next year. Personally, I would like to move up in rank ( preferably to advisor, but not likely) so I can voice my opinions and ideas (I can now, but with the rank comes responsibility and a sort of weight in your opinion). Everybody seems to have had a lot of fun and is looking forward to the staff party. It has been an experience that I will never forget and one that I have learned a lot from. It may sound like a list of complaints, but those are the highlights of my week. If you have any comments or questions let me know. I would be happy to respond to every single one. <3 Saved Individual