This time I ended up volunteering at a mental care home called "Amazing Graze" in Fremont, I heard of this place from Martina. I wasn't too sure where I should volunteer at for my day 2 of the equity final, because I ended up not volunteering at Cabrillo Elementary like I thought I was going to. So Martina told me I could just go with her to the mental care home. We went on Thursday and I met some of the patients that are taken care there and Jeff who is basically in charge of care home.
When we got there, Jeff welcomed us in and we sat in the living room for about five minutes waiting for LeeTee finish doing what she had to do. Martina let me know that Leetee is blind while we were waiting. Leetee came to the living room and I introduced myself to her and she remembered Martina, we went to her room and had an arts and craft session. I helped her change into her slippers so she can be more comfortable(shown in the picture). As soon as that was done Martina and I helped her paint a wooden frame that she ended up putting a picture of herself in it(shown in the picture). While we let the paint dry, we helped her color a mother's day card. I thought she was going to have a really hard time doing these activities but she did pretty well.
Working with Leetee made me really realize that people have it way worse then I do and I should just be happy with the life I have. Leetee seems like a very happen women, even though she is blind she can pretty much do anything we can with some extra help. It made me feel good about myself knowing I can help someone out, she seemed really happy to have people around her and just interact with her. I wouldn't mind volunteering at the care home again because Leetee is fun to be around and shes a really sweet old lady.
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| Leetee smiling with her art work |
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| Martina helping Leetee w/ her frame |
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| Picture frame Leetee painted |
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| Me helping her put her slippers on |
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| Mother's day card |
2 comments:
This is another one of the good issues to volunteer about...
It's good to be more exposed to people with disabilities at a younger age in my opinion, because the more you're around it the more normal it is in your mind. (Because there's nothing not normal about it in reality)
Be careful with saying that others have it much worse than you do. I mean technically people with disabilities do, physically speaking as far abilities go.
Overall, cool post.
This was really sweet. Reading posts about my classmates helping old people gives me this warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The elderly are humans too, you know? Just because they start forgetting things, or start moving slower, doesn't mean they should be locked up somewhere. They deserve freedom as much as, well, everyone! Same goes for people with mental and physical disabilities. They deserve to have as much privileges as everyone. But then there's something else, if a person with mental/physical disabilities expresses interest in harming themselves or others (or accidental: falling down stairs/elevator shafts), and that interest stems directly from the illness, should they be locked away? Should we keep them and others safe by putting them in safe environments, away from everything they had grown used to? Things to ponder...Sorry for rambling. Nice post.
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