Introduction

As a FLA mentee and civic engagement committee member, I participated in five civic engagement events throughout this entire year. Through serving our community in various ways, I developed a new perspective on my surrounding community and an appreciation of the tiniest acts of kindness we can do. After attending many volunteering events in FLA, I have compiled a brief reflection on how they have influenced me.

GNV Bridge

The first event that I attended as a mentee was with GNV Bridge. GNV Bridge is a local organization that distributes food resources to the people in the community who do not have daily access to quality or nutritious food. With their main mission in providing quality food to those in need, Gainesville Bridge has been working on various events to bring the community together including monthly grocery giveaways, a community garden, and a local food pantry. Both times I participated in this event, we cleaned and reorganized the food pantry and prepared and handed out groceries as people drove through.

The first time I went into the neighborhood where GNV Bridge was located, I was taken aback by the closeness of a community that was home to a large number of underprivileged individuals. For myself and other students I have talked to, it is difficult to make the distinction between Gainesville and the University of Florida. Gainesville is much more than just the University – families and communities are living just a few miles away. Starting the event by throwing away expired goods from the pantry shelves and placing frozen meat into bags did not seem like any big, heroic action. It only seemed like a tiny action. But as we began to reorganize things back onto the shelves and hand out groceries to the local people, I saw all the happiness and appreciative responses that we got as we made small greetings to everyone. Just seeing the joy and gratefulness of the organizers and other volunteers of GNV Bridge and the people who got the groceries to feed their families made me realize how lucky I am to even have healthy, high-quality food. That was one of the first moments in FLA where I saw how small actions such as this might make an enormous difference to a community. I am so grateful for all the effort from not just a few leaders of the organization, but also the volunteers that were actively participating and creating such a change and influence. Small acts of kindness can go a long way, and as UF students, we all have the power and capabilities to influence and improve the community right here in Gainesville.

GROW-HUB

During my first semester as a mentee, I also participated in a volunteering event at GROW-HUB. GROW-HUB, just as the name suggests, aims to empower adults with disabilities by providing them an opportunity to work in a garden and sell the things they grow to help sustain themselves. The whole atmosphere of the garden was very welcoming – especially the
cutely decorated and painted house in the middle of the garden. During this volunteering event, we were split into various groups to work on different projects across the garden. Some went to pot newly grown plants, others cleaned out the greenhouse, and some went on to help pull out weeds. While being outdoors might seem uncomfortable for someone who likes to be indoors, being able to do such outdoor activities with your friends and peers creates a new experience one may not have expected.

When I first heard from the organizers that our group had done a month’s worth of work in three hours, I was touched and left speechless again because our efforts had left such an immense impact. Regardless of what work we did as a group, there was always more that we could do to help, such as reorganizing their warehouses or just helping move a few items here and there. To the organizers of GROW-HUB, the tiny actions each individual did made an immense difference in what they would have normally done. I loved the organization’s mission of serving the community of those who had disabilities, and being able to work on projects as a group in the outdoors that the organization would not have been able to do themselves made me want to go back more often as a volunteer.

Project Makeover

Project Makeover was the last civic engagement event that I had done for my mentee year, and it was truly a different event from the rest. Project Makeover takes place at an elementary school, and students are divided into the construction, artwork, or gardening committees. Each committee has a different project to work on for various parts of the school. However, the project’s main objective is to improve and make the environment of the schools a lot more welcoming and fun to be in. For the three hours I was there, I was part of the landscaping team and spent most of our time digging up mulch and pulling out weeds.

I went to a private school in Taiwan growing up, and many of the things that I thought were universal at all schools were not true. Walking into the building of this elementary school for the first time made me realize how privileged my own school experience was – with all the walls covered in cute and fun paintings and a tidy gardening landscape. I never realized the importance of the physical aspect of a creative and fun environment until I noticed that this elementary school was lacking in some aspects of that. After three hours of progress, we took a tour around the school to see the progress that we had made that day. Although there was still much work in progress in the plotting of flowers and unfinished paintings, the overall vibe of the school had already begun to change into a more fun and welcoming experience. Potting fresh flowers and pulling out all the weeds made the whole place look fresher and cleaner. The cute smiley faces and words of encouragement painted on these walls made me smile. Leaving that elementary school, I was confident in knowing that when these kids came in for the first time to their classrooms on Monday, they would be so excited and joyful about this amazing new change. While I did not participate in the entire three days of Project Makeover, I am grateful
that we, as UF students, can participate in activities that can make such meaningful impacts to even the kids in our local Gainesville community.

Conclusion

Civic engagement is a core pillar of FLA – as talented individuals at UF and in FLA, we do have the opportunity and privilege to be able to give back to the community just as they have given back to us. Through participating in these volunteering activities in FLA, I was truly able to find a lot of satisfaction and happiness in knowing that my actions were able to help influence the people who may be unprivileged in certain areas. One small action can mean something big to someone else, and you never know what kindness of helping others might have to the community. Just as your community has given you many opportunities, we should all find ways to exchange that favor, help others, and make the world a better place.