DECEMBER SERVICE

This break I spent my vacation in Costa Rica the whole time, this gave me the opportunity to volunteer in two events; the C.E.P.I.A Christmas Party and the food drive.

We first started with the Christmas Party, this required all day work everyday from the beginning of the break till Christmas. We were able to provide over 1,000 presents this year for children in need and were even able to individually aid many familes who we believed really needed our help. When dealing with so much work it is almost impossible that mistakes won’t happen. Although we did have enough gifts and they were already organized and ready to be delivered in the end that didn’t make a difference because we realized that we did not have a clear system to match people to their gifts, therefore we were giving out the wrong presents and had some trouble for a minute.

Even thought we had our issues we were able to overcome them and adapt, we ended up communicating with everyone who didn’t get a gift or didn’t get a gift that they were happy with and made sure that they did end up getting one.

Similar to the Christmas Party the food drive was just as difficult, it required fast thinking and problem solving, but also taught us hard work at the same time. The problem this year was that we did not get much food donated to us, this meant that we had to buy the rest of what we were missing and fast. We also had to keep in mind how to package these boxes and what went in them. We realized that what worked most effectively in the past was giving the basics, this means; rice and beans, bread, sugar, coffee, tuna, canned vegetables, arroz con leche, milk, toiletries, and other items were what made up the majority of these boxes. The families receiving these packages were divided into two groups; poverty and extreme poverty, therefore we decided that the extreme poverty families would receive more. This made it more effective for us and we were successfully able to complete all of our boxes.

These events were extremely moving and inspiring, seeing how much work a small group of people can do and how much of an impact that work can make for many is what makes these events so worth it.