Olsen Family Website

My Community Service Report
By Peter Olsen

The Presidents Volunteer Service Award rewards people who volunteer their services to meet national or community needs in the areas of youth achievement, parks and open spaces, healthy communities, and public safety and emergency response. This year I did a total of 112 hours of community service which included projects in all of the above areas.

For public safety and emergency response, I did 8 hours. I watched a fire safety presentation by the Daisy Mountain Fire Department. I took a CPR course and renewed my certification. For the tsunami survivors, I collected donations of $20.11 from friends and family, $27.25 from people at my dad’s work, $40 from my dad’s boss, and 26¢ from the bake sale, making a total of $87.62 that I sent to World Vision.

For healthy communities, I did 10 hours. I participated in a Christmas cheer event at two nursing homes, where we sang Christmas carols and handed out ornaments that we made. I donated some used clothes to Big Brothers/Big Sisters. I sorted out clothes and shoes that were left at the church and dropped five bags off at the Goodwill store. I took some canned and boxed food to Fry’s Food Store for their holiday food drive.

For parks and open spaces, I did 36 hours. I fixed up our road after it got flooded by moving some rocks and digging a ditch. I raked weeds at Pioneer Village with the 4-H club. I sorted out lots of recyclables – paper, plastic, metal, and glass – a little bit every week. I took the plastic grocery bags to Albertson’s. I took the aluminum to Abco Recycling and got $6.50, which I put toward the church playground fund. The other stuff I dumped into my grandma’s blue recycling bin to be taken to the recycling center in Tempe. I packed our old printer and scanner in a box and sent it to Dell for recycling.

For youth achievement, I did 58 hours. I helped my brother with his math, and I read a 497-page book to him. I helped out at the Knowledge House Scholars bake sale we had during P.E. I helped my mom with her poster of “Famous Arizona Homeschoolers” that we took to the State Capitol for Legislative Days. I counted a huge amount of labels and boxtops to get money and points for the Knowledge House resource center. We have 8,690 labels as of 6/27/05 – that’s enough to finally start cashing them in for something useful, maybe a microscope or other science equipment. Also, we just got a check from General Mills Boxtops for $70.50 that I will put toward the church playground fund.

As you can see from the bar graph, my community service activities included projects in each of the four different areas – public safety and emergency response, healthy communities, parks and open spaces, and youth achievement – but most of my work was in youth achievement.

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